BUILT BY SEGMENTUM · COWORK COST GUIDE
What Copilot Cowork costs a recruitment agency
For a typical 18-person recruitment agency - ten consultants on the phones, four in support, four managing - Copilot Cowork comes to roughly £2,325 a month all in: licences and usage together, about £129 per person. Below is what the everyday jobs cost, and the calculator set up with agency defaults so you can put your own numbers in.
What the everyday tasks cost
Client-ready shortlist pack - 400-800 credits - £3.16 to £6.32 per run
CV batch summary against a spec - 400-800 credits - £3.16 to £6.32
Client market update with sources - 500-1,200 credits - £3.95 to £9.48
Job advert set for a role - 100-300 credits - £0.79 to £2.37
A consultant producing three shortlist packs a week is spending £41 to £82 a month on the job that eats their selling time. Whether that's cheap depends entirely on what those hours go into instead.
Your team
Starting numbers match the example on this page - change them to fit your business.
Your estimate
Uses Microsoft's default usage mix and list pricing ($0.01 per Copilot Credit, billed in US dollars), ex-VAT. Licences assume Microsoft 365 Business Standard plus a Copilot licence per person. For the full step-by-step version, use the calculator on the home page. Pricing last verified 13 July 2026.
Where the usage actually goes
Recruitment looks like a perfect fit on paper - and the day-to-day genuinely is: outreach messages, role summaries, client updates, mostly light and medium work. The heavier spends are batch jobs - summarising a stack of CVs against a spec, or assembling a shortlist pack with market context.
But the honest question for an agency is where your candidate data actually lives. If the CVs, notes and client records sit in your ATS or CRM - in most agencies they do - Cowork can't see them without connectors. What it can see is your inbox, documents and Teams, which for many consultants carries a surprising amount of the real work: client threads, interview notes, offers. Map that split before you budget, because it decides whether this is a consultant tool or an admin tool in your business.
One more thing said plainly: candidate data is personal data. Screening summaries still need a person accountable for the decision, and your privacy notices should reflect how you're using AI - a compliance conversation, not a settings toggle.
Common questions
Can Cowork screen CVs from our ATS?
Not directly - it reaches what's in Microsoft 365. CVs in your inbox or SharePoint, yes; records inside your ATS or CRM need connectors, where they exist.
What does a consultant actually use it for?
Shortlist packs, role and candidate summaries, interview preparation, and taming long client email threads. Light per task - it's the volume across ten desks that adds up.
Are there compliance issues with AI-screened candidates?
Candidate data is personal data, and automated screening carries obligations. Keep a person accountable for decisions and update privacy notices - take advice before making it standard practice.
Is £129 per person worth it on a consultant's desk?
Measure one number: hours returned to selling time per week. If shortlist packs and admin drop by a couple of hours a week per consultant, it pays for itself quickly. If not, narrow it to the desks where it does.
BEFORE YOU COMMIT
That's the cost. The harder question is whether it's the answer.
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? We help established UK businesses get a clear view of what they're running - and whether the next bit of spend earns its place.
Pricing and defaults last verified
13 July 2026
against Microsoft's published documentation.
Figures use Microsoft list pricing ($0.01 per Copilot Credit, billed in US dollars) converted at roughly £1 = $1.27, ex-VAT. Usage defaults come from Microsoft's Cowork Frontier programme data. This is a budgeting aid, not a quote - confirm current pricing with Microsoft. This is an independent tool built by Segmentum and is not produced or endorsed by Microsoft. "Microsoft 365", "Copilot" and "Cowork" are trademarks of Microsoft, used for identification only.