The new Microsoft Copilot: what Home, Code and Autopilot mean for your business

On 25 September 2026 Microsoft announced the new Copilot, with three new parts: Home, Code and Autopilot. At the same time Microsoft sets out billing in two layers. The fixed licence per user stays, and work that Copilot carries out on its own is billed by usage. That has been the case for Cowork since June; Code, Autopilot and the most advanced models now join it. Almost all of it is still in preview, a test phase. Below you can read what was announced, what it costs and which five things to set up now.

What Microsoft announced

Microsoft is releasing the new parts through Frontier first, its programme for trying new AI features early. Private preview means a closed test with a limited number of organisations.

Home becomes the place where you start. Chat is for quick questions, Cowork for work you hand off and that Copilot carries out from start to finish. Ask for a document or a presentation and Copilot creates a real file your team can edit straight away.

Code lets staff without programming skills build an app or dashboard by describing in plain language what they need. It runs on the same technology as GitHub Copilot, in a sandboxed environment, and can be hosted inside your own Microsoft 365 environment (tenant), governed by IT. Microsoft also mentions a preview "for Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro subscribers later this year". Those are subscriptions for individuals, not Microsoft 365 Business Premium.

Autopilot used to be called Scout. You give it a name, a role and a goal, and it keeps working when you are not. It gets its own identity and workspace in your tenant, and you address it in Teams and Outlook with an @, just like a colleague.

Frontier requires a Copilot licence, and an admin has to switch it on. It remains preview: features can change or disappear, with no guarantee of availability (SLA) or standard support. Also note the name: Microsoft 365 Copilot is now called Microsoft Copilot. Pricing pages and invoices will show the old name for a while, such as Microsoft 365 Copilot Business.

What changes in the cost

For your budget, the new licensing model is the most important part of the announcement. Copilot now has two layers.

• A fixed licence per user per month for Copilot in Chat, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams. A fair use limit applies: if you hit it, you get a warning first and then choose between switching to the automatically selected model at no extra cost or paying with credits.
• Usage-based billing in Copilot Credits for Cowork, Code, Autopilot and the most advanced models. This comes on top of the licence; without a licence you have no access to it.

On Microsoft's Dutch pricing page, Microsoft 365 Copilot Business is listed at €18.20 per user per month excluding VAT with an annual subscription (checked on 28 September 2026). The licence is only available to existing customers with an eligible Microsoft 365 Business plan. Prices through a partner can differ.

For usage, Microsoft quotes a pay-as-you-go rate of $0.01 per Copilot Credit. Microsoft's Azure price list shows this as €0.0086 per credit, excluding VAT (checked on 28 September 2026; through a partner this can differ). The number of credits a task uses is not fixed: it depends on the model, the context, the run time and the tools used. What Code and Autopilot will cost per month is not yet known.

Why this matters for an SME

For most businesses Copilot has so far been a fixed amount per user. With Code and Autopilot, a larger part of Copilot moves to usage billing, and then your bill depends on how your people work. Three things to know before you switch anything on:

1. A spending policy is also an access rule. Anyone in the scope of a spending policy that selects Cowork gets access to Cowork, even with a budget of one credit.
2. New services are added automatically. The "Auto-apply new services" setting is on by default, so an existing policy can later cover Code as well.
3. Through a partner, usage billing is on by default from 2 November. New Copilot licences for businesses bought through a partner get pay-as-you-go by default from 2 November 2026, with a preset monthly limit. Microsoft does not say how high that limit is.

Microsoft does provide cost management, included with your subscription. You set budgets for the whole organisation, per group or per user, with alerts at a threshold, and users can see their own consumption. Keep in mind that the admin centre shows credits, not euros, and that the invoice lists the usage not under Copilot but as Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Security and permissions: agents work with your access

Copilot uses the permissions of the signed-in user. Whatever an employee can open, Copilot can find and use. With agents that carry out work themselves, that matters even more. If a folder with HR data is open to everyone, or "anyone with the link" sharing links are circulating, that information surfaces more easily. Microsoft therefore advises cleaning up whatever is shared too widely first, and part of the tooling for that is included with Copilot licences.

The new parts also bring a few new risks. Autopilot gets its own identity, but Microsoft has not yet described which permissions that identity gets by default. Apps people build are shared with a link, and the documentation warns that anyone with that link can use the app, including its data. Another Microsoft page says sharing does not grant access to the underlying data. Until Microsoft resolves this, assume the worst case: anyone with the link can also see the data. And users can upload plugins themselves and share them with colleagues; there is no setting yet that turns this off for the whole tenant.

Where your data is processed matters too. For EU customers Copilot falls under the EU Data Boundary, Microsoft's commitment to store and process data within the EU. Models from external AI providers fall outside it. They are off by default in EU tenants, except in Word, Excel and PowerPoint for tenants created after 25 March 2026. In those same newer tenants flex routing is also on by default: at peak demand, the language model may then run in the US, Canada or Australia. Your stored data stays in the EU; this concerns where a request is processed at that moment. For tenants created before 25 March, Microsoft refers to the Message Center in the admin centre; the default may be on there as well.

Microsoft has not yet said whether Code and Autopilot run inside the EU boundary. For the predecessor Scout, Microsoft warned that data could be processed outside Microsoft 365, for example through GitHub. Whether that still applies to Autopilot is not known.

What to do now

Five steps for you or your IT administrator that make sense today, even if you are not using the new parts yet:

1. Clean up permissions. Look for "anyone" sharing links, sites without an owner and folders with unique or broken permissions. Keep sensitive sites out of Copilot with Restricted Content Discovery, a setting that removes a site from Copilot's search results. How to set up DLP and labels is explained in switching on Copilot safely.
2. Review the AI settings. Check external AI models and flex routing in the admin centre. This applies to every EU tenant: Microsoft encourages all admins to check, and in tenants created after 25 March 2026 they are partly on by default. Make a deliberate choice instead of leaving the default.
3. Create spending policies before you switch anything on. Per group, with a monthly limit per user and alerts. Turn off "Auto-apply new services" if you want to assess new services yourself first. Buying new licences through a partner from 2 November? Ask which usage limit has been set.
4. Start small if you want to try it. Enable Frontier for a group of a few people, not for everyone, and keep sensitive data such as patient or HR files out of it. Code and Cowork also need a spending policy on top of Frontier, and some Frontier features require models from external AI providers that fall outside the EU boundary. Check that beforehand.
5. Set strict sharing rules for apps and plugins. No sharing with guests, organisation-wide sharing only after approval, and approve plugins through the central catalogue.

What to wait for

Autopilot, Today and @Copilot in Teams are only entering a closed test (private preview) in the coming weeks; do not plan around them yet. Microsoft says Code will be more widely available "in the coming weeks", but has not said what an average app or dashboard costs in credits and has made no EU commitment yet. Hold off on a wide rollout until it has. Microsoft gives no separate date for the Netherlands, and does not say whether the new parts will support Dutch from the start. For more news, Microsoft points to Ignite, its annual conference, from 17 to 20 November.

How we help

We manage Microsoft 365 for SMEs and set up Copilot. For the new Copilot that means, in practice: reviewing permissions and sharing links, setting the AI options in your tenant deliberately, putting spending policies with limits in place and, if you want, guiding a pilot with a small group. If you buy your Copilot licences through us, we agree that usage limit with you up front instead of leaving Microsoft's default in place. What Microsoft 365 Business has included since July, Copilot Chat among it, is covered in what you got with Microsoft 365 Business.

Our approach is described on Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft 365 for SMEs. Want to know first where your permissions stand? Request a Microsoft 365 security check or book a consultation. You can also call us on 085 013 4500.