M365 Copilot — Copilot Studio Agents

What's new — June/July 2026

Copilot Cowork is GA
Generally available worldwide as of June 16, 2026
(was Frontier). Needs an M365 Copilot licence;
usage billed separately.

Work IQ APIs reached GA
June 16, 2026 — the context layer your Studio
agents use to ground in M365 data. This is what
triggers usage metering for custom agents.

Copilot Credits usage billing
New unified consumption meter. Custom Studio
agents grounding in M365 data are metered at
$0.01/credit (pay-as-you-go). See Usage billing below.

Agent-node in workflows (Preview)
Embed agent reasoning directly as a workflow step
via the new agent node in Copilot Studio, reducing
manual handoffs (Roadmap 566998).

SharePoint lists as knowledge (Preview)
Ground agents natively in SharePoint list data
(tasks, inventory, customers) without moving the
data (Roadmap 566859).

Two credential-safety previews
Block maker-provided credentials for AI agents
(Roadmap 566997) and detect credential
oversharing at publish/share time (Roadmap 566873).

Roadmap consolidation
From July 2, 2026, Copilot Studio and agent
roadmap updates publish to the Microsoft 365
Roadmap; Release Planner is no longer the source.

Scheduled prompts for agents (GA)
July 2026 release notes: recurring prompts can
now target declarative agents such as Analyst
and Idea Coach, replacing manual initiation for
ongoing tasks or insights.

At a glance

What it is
A named Copilot instance with a fixed role and
optional knowledge sources. Always available via @.

What makes it different
Prompts require someone to remember to run them.
Agents are always there — consistent, team-wide.

Effort to deploy
Paste an instruction block into Copilot Studio.
Name it. Save it. Done. ~15 minutes first time.

Agent type	What it does	Best for
Role-specific assistant	Acts as an expert in a domain (project control, procurement, HSE) with the right vocabulary and boundaries	Teams with a recurring domain question type
Knowledge base agent	Answers questions from pinned documents — procedures, standards, policies	Replacing "where do I find the procedure for X?"
Document producer	Generates structured outputs (reports, checklists, briefs) from a consistent template	Recurring deliverables with a fixed format
Review agent	Reviews documents against criteria — checks for gaps, flags issues, scores against a rubric	Pre-submission review, proposal quality checks

Agent vs prompt — when to use each

One-off · Personal

Prompt in Chat

Used once or occasionally
Context changes every time (different files, different people)
Personal task — only you need the result
Exploring and iterating — output format still evolving
Requires specific M365 data (email, calendar, meetings)

Recurring · Team-wide

Deployed Agent

Used regularly by multiple people
Same role and instructions every time
Team needs consistent output format and boundaries
Output should not depend on who runs it
Grounded on shared documents (procedures, standards)

Deploying an agent in 5 steps — no coding required

Get the instruction block

Go to github.com/kesslernity/awesome-copilot-studio-agents. Find the agent for your use case. Copy the full content of the ## Instructions section.

Open the agent builder

Go to m365.cloud.microsoft/chat/agent/new. This is the Copilot Studio agent builder — no admin portal required for basic deployments.

Paste and name the agent

Paste the instruction block into the Instructions field. Give the agent a name (max 30 characters). Add conversation starters from the repo's ## Conversation Starters section.

Add knowledge sources (optional)

Under Knowledge, add SharePoint URLs or upload files. The agent will answer from those sources in addition to its instructions. Leave blank for instruction-only agents.

Save and share

Click Save. The agent appears in your Copilot Chat. To share with the team: Share → Copy link or publish to a Teams channel. Licensed users can @mention it immediately.

Recommended agents to deploy first

From github.com/kesslernity/awesome-copilot-studio-agents · 73 agents · 13 domains

Project Status Reporter

Project Manager · Delivery Lead · PMO

Project Management

What it does

Generates RAG status reports from project data
Flags schedule, cost, and risk deviations
Formats output for executive review or team distribution
Maintains consistent structure across all projects

How to use it

ProjectStatusReporter Generate the weekly status report for the Coral Bay project."
ProjectStatusReporter Flag every item that moved from Amber to Red this week."
ProjectStatusReporter Draft the ExCom summary paragraph for this project."

Ground this agent on your project SharePoint folder for context-aware outputs. Add the project brief and risk register as knowledge sources.

Pipeline Review Preparer

Sales Manager · Business Development · Commercial Lead

Sales & BD

What it does

Converts CRM export data into structured pipeline review
Applies RAG health status and coverage ratios
Flags deals at risk by stage age and last activity
Produces format ready for a leadership meeting

How to use it

PipelineReviewPreparer [paste CRM export] — generate the pipeline review for this week's call."
PipelineReviewPreparer Which deals have had no activity in 14 days?"
PipelineReviewPreparer What is our pipeline coverage ratio against Q2 target?"

Paste CRM export data directly into the chat — this agent does not need CRM integration. Outputs structured review, not probability predictions.

Meeting Brief Generator

Manager · Executive · EA · Any role with recurring external meetings

Productivity

What it does

Generates a pre-meeting brief in a consistent format
Pulls context from emails, meetings, and pinned documents
Surfaces open commitments and likely discussion topics
Outputs under 200 words — designed for 5-minute reading

How to use it

MeetingBriefGenerator I have a call with [name] at [company] in 30 minutes. Generate my brief."
MeetingBriefGenerator What open items do I have with this contact from our last 3 exchanges?"

Best results when you reference the contact via @name and the meeting via @meeting name in the same prompt.

Procedure Reference Assistant

Any team with shared procedures, standards, or compliance documents

Knowledge Base

What it does

Answers questions from a fixed set of pinned documents
Points to specific sections and page numbers
Replaces "who do I ask about X?" for known procedures
Consistent answers team-wide — no individual interpretation

How to use it

ProcedureRef What is the approval threshold for a change order under our project execution procedure?"
ProcedureRef Which document covers subcontractor qualification requirements?"
ProcedureRef List the HSE notification steps for a first-aid incident."

Add your procedure documents, standards, and policy files as knowledge sources when deploying. No instruction block needed beyond the role definition — the knowledge sources do the work.

Rules to follow

1Instruction blocks must stay under 8,000 characters. Copilot Studio enforces this limit. Blocks from the repo are pre-checked, but if you edit them, keep an eye on length.
2Name the agent clearly — it becomes the @mention. Max 30 characters. Choose a name the team will remember and type correctly. Avoid generic names like "Assistant".
3Ground on documents, not on the agent's memory. Agents do not retain conversation history across sessions. For knowledge that should persist, add it as a knowledge source (SharePoint URL or uploaded file).
4Test before sharing. Run 5–10 prompts covering the intended use cases and at least 2 edge cases before distributing the @mention link to the team.
5Agents should state what they will not do. The instruction block should include explicit boundaries (e.g., "Do not approve documents. Do not provide legal advice."). This prevents the agent from being used outside its intended scope.

Usage billing — what a deployed agent costs (new, June 2026)

As of the June 16, 2026 GA wave, a Copilot Studio agent that grounds in your M365 data via the Work IQ APIs (GA June 16, 2026) is metered in Copilot Credits — Microsoft's unified consumption currency. The Copilot licence is the access gate; agent runtime is billed on top. A task's cost is the sum of model use, context retrieval, tool calls, and runtime. For a full reference on how Copilot Studio agents are billed, see the cost model.

Copilot Credits (pay-as-you-go)

$0.01 per credit. Commit-for-discount pricing is also available ("P3").

What a task costs

Model use + context retrieval + tool calls + runtime — summed per task.

Off by default

Usage billing is off until an admin enables it. Admins set spend limits and usage alerts at tenant, group, or user level.

Reporting

A new Cost Management dashboard in the M365 admin center reports Credits consumption.

Models

Claude Opus 4.8 / Sonnet 4.6 today; a lower-cost "Cowork 1" model is coming.

Agent 365 ($15/user/mo)

Covers governance and identity only — each agent gets an Entra Agent ID. Agent runtime is billed separately via Copilot Credits / Foundry tokens. The $15 seat does not include runtime.

Not separately metered

Pre-built Copilot agents

Microsoft's own pre-built Copilot agents under an existing licence
Covered by the $30/user/month Copilot add-on (unchanged)
No Copilot Credits meter applies to these

Metered in Copilot Credits

Custom & third-party agents

Custom Copilot Studio agents that ground in M365 data via Work IQ
Microsoft Foundry and raw Work IQ API agents
A Copilot licence is still required; the Credits meter applies on top of it

Grace period: tenants that had a Frontier user between March 30 and June 16, 2026 are not billed for Cowork usage until July 1, 2026. Source: Microsoft Learn — Copilot Credits usage-based billing.

Limits and constraints

Declarative agents in Copilot Studio are grounded on instructions and knowledge sources only. They do not run code, call external APIs, or perform actions without additional configuration.

Instruction block limit

8,000 characters. Enforced by Copilot Studio.

Knowledge sources

SharePoint URLs and uploaded files. No external web URLs.

Conversation memory

No cross-session memory. Each conversation starts fresh.

Sharing

Share via link or Teams channel. Recipient needs M365 Copilot licence to use.

Permissions

Agent respects each user's access rights. It cannot surface content a user cannot access directly.

Updating an agent

Edit the instruction block and save. All @mention users get the updated agent immediately — no redeployment or re-sharing required.

Actions (e.g. send email, create task)

Not available in basic declarative agents. Requires Power Automate integration — contact your Microsoft admin or check your organisation's licence portal.