customnetworks.com/copilot-cowork-calculator
Copilot Cowork
Budget Worksheet
Model your organization's monthly Copilot Credit spend before you commit. Same math as Microsoft's official estimator, none of the spreadsheet.
Cowork Budget Worksheet
Rev 07.2026
01
Your team
Count the people who will actually use Cowork. Skip any group that doesn't apply.
02
Usage assumptions
How often each group runs light, medium, and heavy tasks, and what each task costs in credits.
Using Microsoft Frontier averages. Most organizations should leave these as-is until they have real usage data.
Prompts per user, per month
| Worker type | Light | Medium | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Corporate | |||
| Customer-facing | |||
| Technical | |||
| Managers |
Credits per prompt
cr
cr
cr
A
Method & definitions
How it's calculated
The model multiplies each group's headcount by its monthly task mix, prices every task in Copilot Credits, and converts credits to dollars at Microsoft list pricing.
credits = users × (tasks × rate)
monthly $ = credits ÷ 100
Task tiers
Light
125 cr
Quick answers, single drafts, summaries. Minimal runtime.
Medium
500 cr
Multi-source work: first-draft decks, comparisons, analysis.
Heavy
1,200 cr
Sustained agentic runs: deep research, full report generation.
Accuracy
Defaults reflect aggregated usage from Microsoft's Frontier program customers as of May 2026. Your real consumption will differ, which is why every assumption above is editable.
Treat the output as a planning number for budget conversations, not a commitment.
B
Common questions
Cowork is Microsoft's agentic AI capability inside Copilot. Instead of answering one prompt at a time, Cowork works through multi-step tasks on your behalf, using frontier models such as Anthropic Opus 4.8. Usage is metered in Copilot Credits rather than a flat per-seat license.
Copilot Credits are the consumption currency for Cowork. Each task consumes credits based on its complexity: roughly 125 for a light task, 500 for a medium task, and 1,200 for a heavy task. At list pricing, 100 credits cost $1.00.
The default usage assumptions come from aggregated Microsoft Frontier program customer data published in Microsoft's official CustomerCoworkEstimator workbook (May 2026). Treat the output as a directional budgeting estimate, not a quote. Actual consumption varies by organization, which is why every assumption on this page is editable.
1 Default prompt counts and credit costs are derived from aggregated, anonymized data collected from customers in Microsoft's Cowork Frontier program, as published in Microsoft's CustomerCoworkEstimator.xlsx (5/27/2026). This data is intended for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the experience of all customers. Estimates assume Anthropic Opus 4.8.
2 This calculator is designed to help inform budgeting considerations for potential Cowork purchases. Figures are generalized estimates and may vary based on individual scenarios. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information. Custom Networks, Inc. provides this tool as a free community resource and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft.
Budget is step one. Adoption is everything else.
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