Cost Control for Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Builder Agents Shared with Non-Copilot Users

(0) Share

Report

Posted on by dhruvp29

I'm looking for clarification on the architecture and cost governance model for Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Builder agents.

Scenario

User A has a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.

User A creates an agent using Agent Builder (not Copilot Studio).

The agent is grounded on SharePoint knowledge sources.

The agent is shared with users who have only Microsoft 365 E3 licenses.

Tenant has Pay-As-You-Go billing configured for Copilot consumption.

Questions

When an Agent Builder agent is shared with E3 users, where is the agent actually hosted/stored in the backend?
If an Agent Builder agent is shared with hundreds or thousands of non-Copilot licensed users, what are the options available for governance controls to prevent unexpected PAYG consumption?

What I've Found So Far

Copilot Studio agent consumption monitoring

Agent-level monthly limits through Power Platform Admin Center

PAYG billing controls

However, I have not found clear documentation confirming whether these controls also apply to agents created directly through Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Builder.

Any insights from Microsoft engineering, MVPs, or customers running Agent Builder at scale would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Categories:

Bot administration

I have the same question (0)

All responses (3)

Answers (0)

Sort by

bscarlavai33 782 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

You're right to be suspicious on question 2. Agent Builder agents aren't Copilot Studio agents and they don't live in a Power Platform environment, so the agent-level capacity limits in Power Platform admin center don't cover them. That's why the documentation isn't there, it doesn't apply.

Your levers are in Microsoft 365 admin center instead. The PAYG setup there governs whether metered agent consumption is permitted at all, and Teams app setup and permission policies control who can install or get assigned the agent in the first place. If you're worried about thousands of E3 users, restricting distribution is the blunt but reliable control.

I'd confirm with your account team before designing around any of this though. This area has been moving fast and it's not something I'd build a governance model on from a forum post.

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

11manish 4,137 Super User 2026 Season 2 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Agent Builder is not simply "Copilot Studio Lite." It is a Microsoft 365 Copilot declarative-agent experience with its own Microsoft 365 administration and billing/governance path.

And for your cost-governance concern:

Do not rely solely on Power Platform Admin Center's Copilot Studio agent-level limits to govern Agent Builder agents. Use the Microsoft 365 admin center's Agent management, sharing/access controls, and the Microsoft 365 Copilot/SharePoint PAYG billing policies to control which non-Copilot users can consume metered agent experiences.

This distinction is particularly important when you have hundreds or thousands of E3 users, because the biggest risk isn't that the agent exists — it's that an unrestricted audience can turn an otherwise small Agent Builder deployment into a significant consumption workload. Microsoft now provides the administrative controls to put a boundary around that audience.

Microsoft's Agent Builder/PAYG documentation is changing quickly in 2026, so for an actual production rollout I'd validate the exact billing policy and agent type shown in your tenant's Microsoft 365 admin center before enabling PAYG for a large E3 population. The current documentation explicitly says Microsoft is continuing to bring more agents/services under the newer usage-based billing experience.

Refer:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/manage-access-agents-in-sharepoint

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/usage-based-billing-manage-copilot-credits

Was this reply helpful? Yes No
Suggested answer

Mohsin Ali 467 on at

Like
a
(0)

Report
Copy link

Link copied!

Hello @dhruvp29 - I wouldn't rely on the Power Platform admin center agent-level limits for this scenario, since the agent was created through Agent Builder rather than Copilot Studio.

For PAYG users, I would suggest controlling access through a dedicated security group rather than making the agent broadly available to all E3 users. You can then use Microsoft 365 admin center > Copilot > Cost Management to configure the applicable spending policy, including monthly limits, per-user limits, and usage alerts.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharepoint/manage-access-agents-in-sharepoint#control-user-access-through-pay-as-you-go-billing

This gives you a much safer rollout approach. You can start with a smaller security group, monitor the actual Copilot Credit consumption, and then gradually expand access if the usage looks reasonable.

For the SharePoint knowledge itself, the agent will still respect the user's existing permissions to the underlying SharePoint content.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/usage-based-billing-manage-copilot-credits#get-started-with-usage-based-billing

Was this reply helpful? Yes No