Blog · Published · Updated
Copilot for business: the price and the full budget
Short answer
On Microsoft's US site, Copilot Business costs $21 per user a month with an annual commitment, and until 31 December 2026 $18 in the first year on the current offer. The licence pays back when a person saves 0.5 hours a month. Add to the budget the base Microsoft 365 subscription, preparing the data and training from €1,150 net a day.
- net per day of closed training for the team
- from €1,150
- people in one training group
- up to 15
- after this time, we measure the effect on the same tasks
- 30 days
We belong to the OpenAI and Anthropic partner programmes and learn through their official courses. What this means ↓
Author: Syntalith · 2 min read
Statistics
Copilot and AI in companies: statistics 2026
0.5 h
a month per person is all you need to save for a $21 Copilot Business licence to pay back, at €34.90 an hour. Scenario.
20.0%
According to Eurostat (2025), 20.0% of EU enterprises with at least 10 employees used AI.
15.1%
According to Eurostat (2025), 15.1% of people aged 16 to 74 in the EU used generative AI tools for work.
49%
According to the European Commission (2026), 49% of EU SMEs and mid-caps name legal uncertainty as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 578 (2026) ↗
48%
According to the European Commission (2026), 48% of EU SMEs and mid-caps name a lack of expertise as a barrier to AI.
Source: European Commission, Flash Eurobarometer 578 (2026) ↗
Figures checked: 22 October 2026
What Microsoft's price pages show
On the Polish Microsoft 365 Copilot page, read on 9 October 2026, the business add-on had a regular and an offer price with annual payment, before VAT. On the US Microsoft 365 plan pages, checked on 15 October 2026, the Copilot Business offer runs from 1 July to 31 December 2026, needs an annual commitment and lowers the price only in the first year.
Annual commitment, US Microsoft site, 15 October 2026. Confirm the price for your account in the admin centre.
The Copilot Chat page gave a different end date for the offer, so confirm the price in the admin centre before you order.
How to count Copilot for a team without mixing up periods
- Licences
- 20 × $21 = $420 (€375) a month
- A year, with a 12-month commitment
- €4,498
- Break-even per person
- $21 ÷ 1.1205 ÷ €34.90 = 0.5 h a month
The licences pay back when each person saves over 0.5 h a month
€34.90 an hour is the EU average hourly labour cost for 2025 according to Eurostat. Converted at the ECB rate of 1.1205 USD per euro on 22 October 2026. Price without the base Microsoft 365 subscription and without VAT.
The threshold looks low, but it applies to every person with a licence. If half the team does not use Copilot, the other half has to save twice as much for the licences to pay back. That is why we start with a group whose tasks fit the tool: email, meetings, spreadsheets and documents in Microsoft 365. A monthly display of the price does not mean you can cancel every month. In the count, mark whether the rate includes VAT and when the discount ends. If the company already has a qualifying subscription, the cost of the add-on is what counts. When buying from scratch, count the whole package.
What to add to the licence
| Item | What to settle |
|---|---|
| Licences | The product, the number of accounts, the period and the renewal |
| Preparation | Access to materials and the environment settings |
| Learning to work | The tasks the team practises on |
| Support | The owner of the accounts, the materials and users' questions |
Assigning licences alone will not make users find the current document or judge the answer. Copilot uses the files the user has access to, so permissions in SharePoint that are too wide come to light in the first week. According to the European Commission (2026), 49% of EU SMEs and mid-caps name legal uncertainty as a barrier to AI.
When the cost of Copilot can grow
- Extra usage and agents billed separately
- Integrations with systems outside Microsoft 365
- The administrator's work on permissions and labels
- Training and timing of tasks
- The end of the offer after the first year
Before you buy licences for the whole company, pick a group with known tasks and measure the time to a correct result. After 30 days you can see who really uses it. The Microsoft 365 Copilot rollout covers permissions, data settings and training. Team training alone costs from €1,150 net a day, and you buy licences from Microsoft. The FinOps unit economics practice helps you count the unit cost.
