How billing policies connect metered Copilot Chat and SharePoint agent use to an Azure subscription, and what budgets do.
From Ultra Transcenders AB-900 by Tony Rough (coming November 2026)
A billing policy links a set of users to an Azure subscription so that their metered Copilot use can be charged and tracked.
Roles: Billing Administrator, AI Administrator or Global Administrator can create and manage policies; Global Reader has read-only access. The admin also needs Owner or Contributor rights on the Azure subscription and resource group.
Prerequisites: an Azure subscription in the same tenant as Microsoft 365, a resource group in that subscription, and at least one SharePoint licence (or a licence that includes SharePoint) in the tenant. Both can be created during setup. Creating a new subscription needs Billing Account Owner or Contributor on a Microsoft Customer Agreement billing account, and the creator becomes Owner of both.
Steps:
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Policies per tenant | Up to 50 |
| Billing structure | Azure subscription plus resource group |
| Scope | All users or a single group |
| Budget | Sends email alerts; never blocks usage or stops spend |
| Creating a policy alone | Doesn’t start billing; the policy must be connected to a service |
| Mixing scopes | Disconnect an “all users” policy before connecting a user-specific one |
| Disconnecting | Linked users lose metered agents; can take up to two hours |
| Deleting a policy | Disconnects every connected service |
| User in several policies | The Copilot Credits report attributes usage to the oldest policy |
Monitoring spend: the policy’s Budget tab shows current-month spending and a six-month chart. Billing > Cost Management (Global or Billing Administrator) gives a service-level view. Microsoft Cost Management in the Azure portal can filter by tags such as m365copilotchat, and costs can take 24 hours to appear. To test a policy, an eligible user can prompt the Learning Coach, Writing Coach or Career Coach agent, which uses about 12 credits, and the admin then checks the Copilot Credits report.
Common trap: Relying on a billing policy budget as a spending cap - the budget only triggers email notifications; usage continues uninterrupted after the budget is exceeded.
This note is one section of Ultra Transcenders AB-900: Microsoft 365 Copilot and Agent Administration Fundamentals, an independent study guide that explains every topic the exam covers by technology, with comparison tables, diagrams and the common traps, plus a glossary linked to Microsoft Learn.
Due on Amazon in November 2026, in Kindle and paperback editions.
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