Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, Power Platform and E3/E5/E7 pricing
Microsoft licensing becomes confusing quickly because Microsoft often displays an annual commitment as a monthly equivalent, while AI and automation capacity can be metered separately. This page shows current UK list prices, the real annual commitment, and how E3, E5, E7, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Agent 365, Power Automate, Power Apps and Copilot Studio fit together.
Last reviewed 2026-09-15
Current UK list prices and real commitment
| Product / licence | Displayed price | Annual commitment / capacity | What matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 E3 | £33.50 user/month | £402 per user/year | Core productivity, identity and security baseline. Copilot and Agent 365 are separate. |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | £51.60 user/month | £619.20 per user/year | Adds advanced security/compliance. Copilot and Agent 365 are still separate. |
| Microsoft 365 E7 | £81.60 user/month | £979.20 per user/year | Includes E5, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Entra Suite and Agent 365. |
| Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on | £23.10 user/month, paid yearly | £277.20 per user/year | Annual subscription. Microsoft also advertises a higher monthly-billing option on some plans; check the exact SKU. |
| Agent 365 add-on | £11.50 user/month | £138 per user/year | Per user, not per agent. Enterprise prerequisites apply. |
| Power Automate Premium | £11.50 user/month, paid yearly | £138 per user/year | Cloud flows, attended desktop flows and premium automation rights. AI capacity is a separate consideration. |
| Power Automate Process | £115.30 bot/month, paid yearly | £1,383.60 per bot/year | For enterprise processes and unattended automation. |
| Power Automate Hosted Process | £165.30 bot/month, paid yearly | £1,983.60 per bot/year | Adds a Microsoft-hosted VM for unattended automation. |
| Power Apps Premium | £15.40 user/month, paid yearly | £184.80 per user/year | Premium app use and Dataverse entitlements; AI usage can consume AI Builder/Copilot Credits. |
| Copilot Studio capacity pack | £153.80 pack/month | 25,000 Copilot Credits each month | Tenant-wide prepaid monthly capacity. Unused monthly credits do not roll over. |
| Copilot Studio pay-as-you-go | Usage based | No upfront licence commitment | Azure-linked environment pays for actual Copilot Credit consumption after use. |
What the combinations cost at public list price
These simple totals help illustrate why the base licence matters. They do not include VAT or any additional prerequisite suites.
E3, E5 and E7 in plain English
E3 is the lower-cost enterprise productivity and security baseline. E5 adds the advanced Defender, Purview, identity and analytics capabilities that many higher-risk Copilot and agent governance scenarios rely on. E7 is effectively the bundled AI-and-agent tier: Microsoft describes it as E5 plus Microsoft 365 Copilot, Microsoft Entra Suite and Agent 365. The right comparison is therefore not just the headline licence price, but the full set of add-ons and prerequisites your organisation would otherwise need.
Agent 365 licensing is per user, not per agent
Microsoft licenses Agent 365 per user. Agents themselves do not each need a licence. Microsoft says users who delegate access to agents, and owners, sponsors or managers of agents operating with their own access, can require Agent 365 licensing when premium capabilities are used. Foundational registry and basic governance capabilities are available more broadly with Microsoft cloud subscriptions, while premium governance, security and observability capabilities require Agent 365 licensing.
Budgeting rule of thumb
Start by identifying the licence you already own, then add the capabilities you actually need. For E3 customers, include the cost of any Defender and Purview prerequisites before comparing with E5 or E7. For E5 customers who need both Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent 365, compare the combined add-on total with E7 rather than treating each add-on in isolation. Use Microsoft or your licensing partner's current quote for the final decision.
Where AI and automation limits can appear
| Surface | Included / seeded capacity | What can stop working |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Copilot | Employee-facing standard-harness agent usage in Copilot Chat, Teams and SharePoint is included for licensed users for eligible scenarios, subject to fair-use limits. | Microsoft can apply fair-use limits; some advanced agent capabilities and non-Microsoft-365 channels are separately metered. |
| Copilot Studio | Standalone and external-channel agents normally consume Copilot Credits. Prepaid packs provide 25,000 Copilot Credits per month; pay-as-you-go is also available. | Purchased monthly capacity is technically enforced. If capacity is exceeded without PAYG/extra capacity, service denial can occur. |
| Power Automate / Power Apps AI Builder | Existing seeded AI Builder credits can still apply during the transition; Power Automate Premium currently seeds 5,000 AI Builder credits per licence, subject to Microsoft's transition rules. | If AI Builder credits are exhausted, the environment falls back to Copilot Credits. If neither is available, AI actions can be blocked. |
| Power Automate general flows | Licensing also carries Power Platform request allocations, separate from AI credits. Power Automate Premium has a published 40,000 Power Platform request allocation per user per 24 hours; Process has 250,000 per licensed flow/bot context. | Heavy automation can hit request/service protection limits even where AI credits are not involved. |
| Copilot Studio / AI Tools consumption | Copilot Credit use varies by operation and model. Microsoft publishes different rates for basic, standard and premium text/generative AI tools. | More complex models, prompts, document processing, computer use or newer harnesses can consume substantially more capacity than a simple answer. |
Sources
- Microsoft 365 Enterprise plans and pricing (UK) — checked 2026-09-15
- Microsoft 365 Copilot pricing (UK) — checked 2026-09-15
- Power Automate pricing (UK) — checked 2026-09-15
- Power Apps pricing (UK) — checked 2026-09-15
- Microsoft Copilot Studio pricing (UK) — checked 2026-09-15
- Microsoft Agent 365 licensing FAQ — checked 2026-09-15
- Copilot Studio standard harness licensing — checked 2026-09-15
- End of AI Builder credits — checked 2026-09-15
- AI Builder credit management — checked 2026-09-15
- Power Platform request limits and allocations — checked 2026-09-15