Cowork Cost Calculator
Microsoft Copilot (formerly Microsoft 365 Copilot) now includes Cowork, billed in Copilot Credits. This calculator gives you a directional view of what that could cost your business each month, in pounds. Put in your own numbers - it's a starting point for the conversation, not a quote.
Who's using it
Pick your sector and we suggest a typical team. Change any number to match your business.
How much they use it
Light, medium and heavy prompts per person each month. We start from Microsoft's real usage data.
What it costs
Every prompt spends Copilot Credits - Microsoft's usage currency. We turn your monthly total into a pound figure.
Tell us about your business
How much will each person use it?
These are typical numbers per person, per month, based on Microsoft's real customer usage. Most businesses leave them as they are - open this up only if you want to adjust the mix.
How many credits does each prompt use?1
Copilot Credits are Microsoft's usage currency. Every prompt spends some - a quick one costs a little, heavy work costs a lot more. These are Microsoft's default figures, so you probably don't need to touch them.
Your estimate
(usage, list pricing)
The wider view
The figure above is just the usage. To run Cowork at all, every person also needs two licences: their Microsoft 365 plan, and a Copilot licence - the part that switches on pay-as-you-go Cowork in the first place. Here's the full monthly picture.
Which desks earn a licence?
Licences are per person, so the real decision isn't "should we get Cowork" but "which teams". Here's the same estimate split by group - licences plus usage, and what each person in that group costs all in. A group whose usage barely covers its licence is one to leave out of the first rollout.
| Group | People | Licences | Usage | All in | Per person |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Office & knowledge workers usage £112.58 per person | 12 | £306.00 | £1,350.90 | £1,656.90 | £138.08 |
| Customer-facing & sales usage £115.54 per person | 7 | £178.50 | £808.76 | £987.26 | £141.04 |
| Technical & engineering usage £180.12 per person | 2 | £51.00 | £360.24 | £411.24 | £205.62 |
| Managers & leadership usage £64.98 per person | 4 | £102.00 | £259.91 | £361.91 | £90.48 |
Worked examples with real team shapes and per-task costs - what Cowork actually comes to for businesses like yours.
That's the cost. The harder question is whether it's the answer.
Add it up and Cowork is part of a monthly bill of around £3,417.31 all in - licences and usage together, about £136.69 per person. You might decide that's worth it, and plenty of businesses will. But a new tool sitting on top of an estate that nobody fully understands usually adds cost, not clarity.
So before you commit the budget, it's worth asking a simpler question: is Cowork actually your constraint, or is it something underneath it? That's a conversation worth having. We help established UK businesses get a clear view of what they're running - and whether the next bit of spend earns its place.
Cowork is a newer part of Microsoft Copilot (until August 2026 branded Microsoft 365 Copilot), built around agents that take on longer, multi-step work across your documents and tools - rather than just answering a single prompt. Microsoft bills it by usage, in Copilot Credits, rather than as a flat monthly fee.
Microsoft Copilot is the assistant built into your everyday apps - you ask, it answers, and it comes with your per-person licence. Cowork is the newer agent side: it takes on longer jobs that run with less hand-holding, and it's charged separately, by usage. Same Copilot family, two different ways of paying.
No - Cowork isn't free, and it isn't bundled into the Copilot licence. The licence is what gives you access, but the Cowork work itself is pay-as-you-go, charged in Copilot Credits on top. So you end up paying for both the licence and the usage.
There's no flat per-seat price for Cowork itself - it's pay-as-you-go, charged in Copilot Credits as people use it. The calculator above gives you a directional monthly figure in pounds, then adds the licences you need on top for the full picture.
They're Microsoft's usage currency for Cowork. Every prompt spends some - a quick task costs a little, heavy multi-step work costs a lot more. Your monthly credit total is what gets turned into a pound figure on your bill.
Microsoft's list price is $0.01 per Copilot Credit on pay-as-you-go, billed in US dollars - so the pound cost moves with the exchange rate. This calculator converts at a deliberately cautious £1 to $1.27 (2026 has run between $1.31 and $1.39), so its pound figures carry a small buffer. Microsoft also sells one-year pre-purchase plans at 5% to 20% off depending on volume, but unused credits expire at the end of the term - pay-as-you-go is the safer starting point for most smaller businesses.
Yes. Each person needs a Microsoft Copilot licence, which sits on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. The Copilot licence is what switches on pay-as-you-go Cowork in the first place - so the real cost is licences plus usage, not usage on its own.
Microsoft's UK list price for Copilot Business is £16.10 per person per month (ex-VAT, paid yearly), on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 plan. Microsoft is currently offering it at £13.80 for the first year on annual subscriptions taken out by 31 December 2026. Renewals go back to £16.10, which is why this calculator uses the list price.
Because it's pay-as-you-go, your cost tracks actual use - so the real lever is being deliberate about who uses it and what for, rather than switching it on everywhere at once. Model it with the calculator first, then start narrow and watch what happens. And it's worth asking whether Cowork is solving a real problem before you add it on top of everything else.
No. It's an independent estimate, built by Segmentum using Microsoft's published pricing model and usage data. It's here to help you budget, not to quote you - always confirm current pricing with Microsoft before you commit.
It can be, where it genuinely saves time on real work. The bigger question is whether the rest of your technology is in good enough shape to build on - a new tool on top of an unclear estate tends to add cost, not clarity. That's the conversation worth having before you commit the budget.