Welcome to 2025, the Year of AI Agents! Intelligent agents are one of the biggest buzzwords this year for good reason: they promise to make our work lives simpler in numerous ways. One starting benefit (ie: easy to create) is how well they handle information retrieval. We will see more active and actionable agents later on, but this post is about how to enable Copilot Agents in SharePoint to everyone.
Modern companies store large to enormous amounts of data in SharePoint sites and libraries. By creating focused Copilot Agents, you can tap into exactly the documents and knowledge needed, making the agent to give more accurate, more relevant answers. Agents in SharePoint are really easy to create! Read about that from my previous blog post How to create and use no-code SharePoint Copilot Agents .
Imagine setting up an agent specifically for your team’s product launch, or even for a single project meeting. Because the agent only has access to the knowledge (for example document libraries, folders, and files) you select, it becomes more reliable and precise. In short, these specialized Agents can become valuable assistants for your day-to-day tasks.
Promotion & Free Quota for Copilot AgentsWhy Set Up Pay-As-You-Go Billing?Prerequisites for Setting Up PAYGHow to Configure Pay-As-You-Go for Copilot Agents in SharePointI have the PAYG on, what’s next? Conclusion
If your organization has at least 50 Microsoft 365 Copilot licenses, your all users (with or without Microsoft 365 Copilot license) can create and use Copilot Agents in SharePoint since January 6. This promotion gives the allowance of 10,000 free queries per month through June 30, 2025.
Those 10,000 queries translate to roughly 312 full “questions” asked to the Copilot Agents, since each question uses 32 messages (2 for the generative AI answer and 30 for searching your tenant data (in this case data in SharePoint)). When the month ends, your query count resets, and any unused portion doesn’t carry over.
You want to set up Pay-As-You-Go (PAYG) for two scenarios when you have users without the Microsoft 365 Copilot license:
Your organization doesn’t meet the 50 Copilot-license requirement and you want all users to have access to Agents in SharePoint
You need more than the 10,000 monthly queries included in the promotion for those users who don’t have Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
This is only relevant if you have employees who don’t have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license but who need to create and interact with Copilot Agents in SharePoint. With PAYG enabled, each question they ask the agent costs about $0.32 (32 messages × $0.01/message), which is then billed to the Azure subscription selected during PAYG setup.
Note: Users who already have a Microsoft 365 Copilot license do not incur any additional costs—Copilot license holders can interact with Agents in SharePoint all they want.
Before you jump in, make sure you have:
An Azure subscription in the same tenant.
An Azure resource group in that subscription
You’ll link this resource group in the subscription to SharePoint Pay-As-You-Go billing suing the Microsoft 365 admin center. This enables Agents in SharePoint for all users without a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Below is an overview of the main steps
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, open Setup.
Scroll down to to Billing and licenses, then select Activate pay-as-you-go services.
On the Activate pay-as-you-go services page, click Get started.
Locate “Agents in SharePoint” on the list of services.
On the Set up billing panel, choose the Azure subscription, resource group, and region where you want usage data to be recorded. (Your tenant ID and usage info—such as site names—will be stored in that region, so pick carefully based on your data residency needs.)
Note that this is the dialogue, where you can see Pricing details: under Accept the terms of service chapter
Save, and you are done.
Once you complete these steps, non-Copilot licensed users can unleash the full power of Copilot Agents in SharePoint—just like licensed users do.
And yes, you can share it to Teams as well
Click Copy link for Teams, and change link permissions if needed
Paste onto Teams and send the message
After sending the message, you can click Add to this chat to enable it in the chat.
It is now just like any other member in the chat.
Activate the agent, by atmentioning it.
Then I got a demo effect for this user, who doesn’t have a Copilot-license. Apparently not all bits in the PAYG are not yet in the place.
The agent works on SharePoint site without any issues, so I am confident users without a license will be able to use it later on. If I try the agent in Teams chat using an user with a Copilot license it works normally.
Keep an eye on resource group costs in the Azure portal and consider setting up cost alerts or limits to avoid surprises. You may have some users with Copilot licenses who are fully covered ( no need to worry about them). Monitor usage that relies on this PAYG billing model. Make sure you’re aware of how much costs come from the PAYG usage.
If you meet the minimum 50 licenses, remember that you use the monthly 10,000-query allowance (about 312 questions and answers) before usage creates additional charges. If you don’t setup PAYG, then your non-licensed Copilot Agent users can use that roughly 312 questions & answers. In this case, after the quota is used, users just can’t use agents until the first of the next month. They do get an error message, if they try to use it.
For the latest pricing details and future plan options, check out the official page: https://aka.ms/agentspricing
Thanks to Agents in SharePoint, you have now a quick-access to the information. Specialized, project-specific Agents help you zero in on the exact data you need—whether it’s a file, a detail about a project milestone, or a solution architecture document. For example, your HR assistant can be used directly on the site or in Teams chats as well. With Pay-As-You-Go billing, everyone in your organization can enjoy the benefits, not just those who has a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Setting up PAYG billing is straightforward, and you can monitor your costs through Azure’s built-in tools. Here’s to a smoother 2025—truly the Year of Agents!
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I work, blog and speak about Future Work : AI, Microsoft 365, Copilot, Microsoft Mesh, Metaverse, and other services & platforms in the cloud connecting digital and physical and people together.
I have about 30 years of experience in IT business on multiple industries, domains, and roles.
View all posts by Vesa Nopanen
