One of the first things you’ll want to estimate is the cost of running your bot. Microsoft has pricing pages for the different components involved and this page is an attempt to summarize them. All the numbers on this page are up-to-date as of March 1, 2024.
$200 USD/month
$30 USD/month
Copilot Studio License (for builders)*
Microsoft Copilot (for users)**
* 25,000 messages (multiply from there for greater volume)
** Not required if you only plan to create separate bots; your users will need this license if you want to amalgamate your individual bots into the main MS Copilot.
A Copilot Studio license is required to build your own virtual assistants – The name of the product is Copilot Studio User License.
Instructions from Microsoft: Send this to your tenant admin
Note: Copilot Studio allows users to start a trial to get started right away.
Messages and how they are measured
Microsoft outlines how messages are counted in their Power Platform Licensing Guide.
Long story short, when your chatbot sends a message, it’s one message.
When it uses the Generative AI capability, it counts as two messages.
Generative AI messages are meant to provide message responses to users by absorbing information from various sources you provide (internal Sharepoint sites, public websites you specify and any documents you upload into Copilot Studio). More details from Microsoft on Generative Answers.
Free Trial
Copilot comes with a 60 day free trial. This is a quick way to get started and is outlined in my next post.