Agent Costs Setup

In this section: Power Platform Access

The Agent costs page in the web portal shows what Microsoft billed for your Copilot Studio agents (Copilot Credits), plus optional Azure spend. It stays empty until you switch on at least one of two opt-in imports and grant the permissions below.

Stable 1852, published 14 October 2026: Copilot Studio consumption requires a durable delegated billing-administrator connection. Capacity remains app-only. Stable build 1850 has no connection page; its app-only consumption refusals are not resolved merely by repeating a Reader-role assignment.

Both imports are off by default. The installer's Test Configuration does not check them, so confirm the result after the first import cycle (step 5).

Import	Installer checkbox	Where the data comes from	What you must grant
Copilot Studio credits	Copilot Studio credits	Power Platform licensing API	Consumption: delegated permissions/consent and connected administrator. Capacity: Power Platform Reader for the runtime enterprise application
Azure costs	Azure costs	Azure Cost Management	Cost Management Reader on each scope, plus the AzureCostScopes app setting

Both run once a day by default, so allow a full cycle before expecting figures.

"The runtime app registration" is the Entra ID app registration the importer signs in with. See App registrations setup if you need to find or recreate it.

1. Switch the imports on

With the installer: tick Copilot Studio credits and/or Azure costs on the Targets tab, then install or upgrade.

Manually: in the Azure portal, open the App Service for the solution, then Settings → Environment variables → App settings and edit ImportJobSettings. It is a ;-separated list of flags. Add the ones you want, keeping what is already there:

...existing flags...;CopilotStudioCredits=True;AzureCostManagement=True

Save, then restart the App Service so the importer picks it up. See Configuration reference → What to import for the full list of flags.

Until one flag is on, the portal page says neither import is switched on.

2. Copilot Studio credits

Skip this step if you only want Azure costs. Copilot Studio credits need two separate grants, both described on Agent Costs Power Platform Access:

• Consumption (credits used per agent and per person) needs a billing administrator connected through the portal's delegated connection. There is no app-only alternative. See Consumption: connect the billing administrator.
• Capacity (the tenant's entitlement and remaining credits) needs the Power Platform Reader role for the runtime enterprise application, which is app-only. See Capacity: grant the runtime enterprise application Reader.

3. Azure costs

3a. Choose the scope

A scope is the part of Azure whose costs you want: a subscription, a resource group, or a management group. Choose the one that contains your Copilot Credit billing. Pay-as-you-go Copilot Credits are billed to an Azure subscription through a billing policy, so that subscription is the usual choice. A scope looks like this:

/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
/subscriptions/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/resourceGroups/contoso-rg

To see which subscription your Copilot Credits are billed to, check Cost Management → Cost analysis in the Azure portal and look for the Microsoft Copilot Studio service.

3b. Give the runtime app the Cost Management Reader role

Microsoft's documentation: Assign Azure roles using the Azure portal. You need Owner, User Access Administrator or Role Based Access Control Administrator on the scope.

1. In the Azure portal, open the scope (for example Subscriptions → your subscription).
2. Select Access control (IAM) → Add → Add role assignment.
3. On Role, search for and select Cost Management Reader, then Next.
4. On Members, choose User, group, or service principal, click Select members, search for the runtime app registration's name, select it, then Select.
5. Review + assign. Repeat for each scope.

For Enterprise Agreement or Microsoft Customer Agreement billing accounts, the role is assigned in the billing portal instead, and the "AO view charges" (EA) or "Azure charges" (MCA) policy must be on. See Assign access to Cost Management data.

3c. Tell the importer which scope to read

In the Azure portal, open the App Service → Settings → Environment variables → App settings and add AzureCostScopes, set to the scope(s) separated by ;. With no scope the import does not run. There is no default. Restart the App Service afterwards.

Optional application settings:

Setting	Default	Meaning
AzureCostMeterFilterValues	(empty: every meter)	Values to narrow the import to. Pay-as-you-go Copilot Credits (Cowork, Copilot Studio and Work IQ API together) are billed under the Microsoft Copilot Studio service.
AzureCostMeterFilterDimension	ServiceName	What the filter values match against. MeterCategory and Meter also work.
AzureCostGroupBy	ResourceId;Meter	Up to two dimensions; extras are ignored. TagKey:<tag name> groups by a tag, which is the only way to tell Cowork apart from Copilot Studio. It uses one of the two slots.
AzureCostTrailingWindowDays	5	How many days back each run re-reads. Azure keeps amending a billing period for about five days after it ends.
AzureCostIntervalHours	24	Minimum hours between runs. 0 removes the limit.

Azure costs are estimates until Microsoft closes the billing period. They can't be attributed to individual people, because Azure bills by resource.

4. Who can see what

Per-person credit rows need the See PII portal role. Aggregate figures are visible to every signed-in user. See Security & permissions model.

5. Check it worked

After one import cycle, open Insights → Agent costs. If the page is empty it says why:

Message	What to do
Neither agent cost import is switched on	Do step 1.
Consumption says connection required or reconnect needed	Complete or renew the delegated connection in step 2; do not broaden the app-only role
Copilot Studio credit import is failing	Inspect each consumption/capacity log outcome and the matching identity. A verified role or sign-in alone is not import success
Import ran but found no billed agent usage	Normal for a tenant with no Copilot Studio agents, or none that have used credits yet.
Azure cost import is failing, or has not stored anything yet	Check the role in step 3b and AzureCostScopes in step 3c.
Query matched no spend	The meter filter matches nothing. Compare it with a cost export from the same scope.

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