Copilot is adding pay-per-use AI models to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and the meter stays off until an admin turns it on
By Brett Gavaghan, Founder of Adaptd ·
Microsoft is adding usage-based billing models, including GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1, to Copilot Chat and the Office apps from early November. Admins decide who gets them and how many credits.
The short version
- Microsoft is adding usage-based billing models to the Copilot Chat model picker and to Copilot in the Office apps.
- It rolls out worldwide from early November to mid-November 2026 for Microsoft 365 Copilot licence holders, and is off by default.
- Decide who gets access and how many credits before an admin switches it on.
Every office has a bar fridge with a stocked top shelf and a sign nobody reads. Microsoft is about to put one inside Copilot, though this one at least starts locked.
What's changing in Microsoft 365 Copilot?
Microsoft 365 Copilot is getting usage-based billing models, which show up in the Chat model picker in the Microsoft Copilot app and in Copilot in Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Microsoft announced it in message centre notice MC1519122, and GPT-6 Astra and Claude Fable 5.1 become generally available as pay-per-use models with this rollout.
These models charge against credits as people use them, instead of sitting inside the flat monthly licence.
Who gets it, and when?
Usage-based billing models reach people with a Microsoft 365 Copilot user licence, once an admin turns them on. The worldwide rollout starts in early November 2026 and should finish by mid-November.
It's off by default. Admins switch it on per person, allocate credits, and manage costs in the Agent 365 section of the Microsoft 365 admin centre. Microsoft says people will later be able to ask their admin for more credits, but hasn't given a date for that.
What should your business do about it?
Your business should decide who needs the premium models before anyone flips the switch. Everyday jobs like emails and summaries probably don't need a premium model.
My advice: start with the two or three people whose work clearly benefits, like whoever builds the big proposals or the tricky spreadsheets, give them a modest credit allowance, and check the spend after a month. Then decide how people ask for more, before they start asking.
Off by default is the right call. Just make sure the person with the switch knows what the meter costs.
Wondering what this means for your business?
That's exactly what the discovery call is for.