Microsoft now sells a lower-priced version of its Copilot AI assistant for smaller organizations. Microsoft 365 Copilot Business became available December 1, 2025 at $21 per user per month for up to 300 users, according to Microsoft's Partner Center announcements. It requires a Microsoft 365 Business Basic, Business Standard or Business Premium subscription.
Computerworld reported that the price is down from $30 per user per month for the standard Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
What Copilot Business includes
Microsoft says Copilot Business delivers the same features as its existing Copilot license. Customers can use Copilot in the core Microsoft 365 apps, use "work-grounded AI chat," and create agents that automate business processes. Computerworld listed Copilot in Excel, Teams and Outlook, along with Copilot agents and tools such as Notebooks.
Work-grounded means Copilot can draw on your organization's emails, files, calendar, chats and meetings through Microsoft Graph, according to Microsoft's documentation.
Free Copilot Chat is getting more capable
Microsoft's free Copilot Chat is also gaining features. In a December 4, 2025 announcement, Microsoft said Copilot Chat is getting inbox and calendar awareness and access to Word, Excel and PowerPoint agents. Computerworld reported that content-aware Outlook features were slated for preview in March 2026.
Pricing to watch
- Through March 31, 2026, Microsoft partners can offer 15% off standalone Copilot Business, 35% off a Business Standard plus Copilot Business bundle and 25% off a Business Premium plus Copilot Business bundle. The bundles require at least 10 licenses.
- At list price, Business Standard with Copilot Business is $30.50 per user per month and Business Premium with Copilot Business is $43.00.
- Microsoft has announced price increases for its commercial Microsoft 365 suites starting July 1, 2026. Existing customers see the new prices at their first renewal after that date.
Microsoft's AI tool for security teams, Security Copilot, is a separate product. Microsoft began including it with Microsoft 365 E5, an enterprise plan, in November 2025.
Check permissions before you turn it on
Microsoft says Copilot "only surfaces organizational data to which individual users have at least view permissions." That protects you only if your permissions are right. If a payroll folder is shared with the whole company, anyone with Copilot can find its contents faster.
Microsoft also says prompts, responses and data accessed through Microsoft Graph are not used to train its foundation models, and that AI responses "aren't guaranteed to be 100% factual."
What to do
- Start with the free Copilot Chat to see where AI helps your team.
- Review sharing in SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams before buying paid licenses.
- Pilot Copilot Business with a few people who write, summarize or analyze a lot.
- Check your Microsoft 365 renewal date against the July 1, 2026 price change.
- Write a short policy on what staff may put into AI tools and how to check the output.
WITTCO helps small businesses set up Microsoft 365 and roll out AI tools like Copilot with the right permissions and training in place.
Sources
- Microsoft Partner Center, "December 2025 announcements" (December 2025): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/announcements/2025-december
- Computerworld, "Microsoft drops M365 Copilot price for SMBs, upgrades free Copilot Chat" (November 19, 2025): https://www.computerworld.com/article/4093224/microsoft-drops-m365-copilot-price-for-smbs-upgrades-free-copilot-chat.html
- Microsoft 365 Blog, "Advancing Microsoft 365: New capabilities and pricing update" (December 4, 2025): https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2025/12/04/advancing-microsoft-365-new-capabilities-and-pricing-update
- Microsoft Learn, "Data, Privacy, and Security for Microsoft Copilot": https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-privacy
