When using Microsoft Copilot Studio to build smart agents, understanding how message consumption works is crucial for effective license and capacity management. Here’s an overview of what messages are, how they’re billed, and how to manage your environment’s capacity.
What Is a Message?
A message represents any interaction between a customer and an agent that triggers a response or action. Examples include asking about store hours, checking an order status, or executing a workflow. Each interaction counts as one unit of consumption.
How Message Allocation Works
When you purchase a Copilot Studio license, it includes a specific number of messages. This capacity is shared across the entire tenant and must be assigned to environments in the Power Platform admin center to enable Copilot Studio features.
How to Assign Capacity:
- Go to Billing > Licenses > Copilot Studio in the admin center.
- Select Manage Capacity to allocate messages to your environment.
When Are Messages Billed?
The following scenarios explain when messages are billed or free:
- Free Scenarios:
Logging vacation days in Teams (using standard connectors with Microsoft 365 subscriptions). - Billed Scenarios:
- A customer interacts with an agent on your website for store hours or order status.
- An agent greets a customer and the conversation escalates to a human agent.
- Customized experiences using Power Automate flows or advanced operations.
Note: Messages used in the test chat environment are not billed.
Handling Overage
If your environment exceeds its allocated message capacity:
- A grace period allows for limited overage to avoid interruptions.
- You can reallocate unused capacity from other environments or purchase additional capacity.
Best Practices
- Regularly monitor message usage in the Power Platform admin center to stay within your allocation.
- Reallocate unused capacity or purchase add-ons to prevent overage limitations.
- Plan for billing scenarios to optimize your tenant’s usage efficiently.