Microsoft Copilot Autopilot: What It Is, Pricing, Limits
Microsoft Copilot Autopilot is an always-on AI agent that lives inside your company’s Microsoft 365. You give it a name, a role and a goal, and it keeps working in the background: watching Teams channels and email threads, chasing people for updates, running recurring work and picking a project back up days later without a new prompt. Microsoft announced it on September 25, 2026 as one of three tabs in a rebuilt Copilot app. It used to be called Scout, and it is in private preview.
One naming note first: Copilot Autopilot is not Windows Autopilot, the Intune tool IT teams use to set up new PCs. Same company, same word, unrelated products.
If you are already shopping, see our Microsoft Copilot alternatives.
How Copilot Autopilot works
Microsoft’s launch post calls Autopilot “a persistent, proactive and personal agent that keeps working even when you’re not.” The mechanics:
- It has its own account in your tenant. Each Autopilot gets its own Microsoft Entra account, memory, cloud computer and workspace, so what it does is attributable to the agent. GeekWire reports it also gets its own email address.
- You work with it like a colleague. It shows up in Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents, and people @mention it there.
- It runs in the cloud, so it keeps going when your laptop is closed.
- It owns ongoing jobs. Microsoft’s example is a supplier review: the agent builds the schedule, handles prep and meetings, and chases stakeholders on its own.
In the launch demo, a Microsoft employee playing a retail manager gave his Autopilot one goal: make sure stores had stock for Black Friday. It chose which Teams channels, email threads and inventory data to watch, sent a daily summary, and flagged a shipment problem that could hit 18 stores. As VentureBeat noted, a demo “does not establish how reliably Autopilot handles comparable situations.”
Where Autopilot sits in the new Copilot app
| Tab | What it is |
|---|---|
| Home | Chat and Cowork on one screen, with full Word, Excel and PowerPoint built in |
| Code | Describe an app and Copilot builds it, on GitHub Copilot’s technology, hosted inside your tenant |
| Autopilot | Always-on agents you set up and assign |
It is also Microsoft stepping back from consumer AI: PYMNTS, citing Bloomberg, reports consumer Copilot is being folded into the work product, which Copilot VP Annie Pearl told Fortune should become “an all-in-one productivity suite.”
What happened to Copilot Scout
Scout is now Autopilot. Microsoft introduced Scout on June 2, 2026 as an experimental desktop app built on OpenClaw, the open-source agent Satya Nadella had likened to “a virus” in March, GeekWire notes. The relaunch moved it to the cloud, and people now create their own Autopilots.
What Autopilot may do without asking
GeekWire quotes Copilot chief Jacob Andreou on long-running agents: their autonomy “is the same thing that makes them absolutely terrifying to an IT admin.” Microsoft’s answer: you set the objective and boundaries, and Agent 365 supplies permissions, audit logs and admin controls.
Microsoft has not published an action-by-action approval policy for Autopilot. The closest thing is the Scout preview documentation, last updated August 21:
- Actions that send, share, reply, forward or change what others can see need your confirmation.
- In background mode, which checks in every 15 minutes to 2 hours, Scout skips any action that would need approval, and outbound email or Teams messages use only generic content.
- Emails, web pages and Teams messages are treated as data, not instructions, to guard against prompt injection.
Treat that as a guide to Microsoft’s thinking, not a promise about the cloud version.
What Copilot Autopilot costs
Copilot now runs on two meters, per Microsoft’s “Evolution of the Copilot pricing model” post of September 25:
- Everyday AI (chat, plus Copilot in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams) is covered by the per-user license. The commercial Microsoft 365 Copilot license costs $30 per user per month, per CNBC.
- Advanced AI (Cowork, Code, Autopilot, and frontier models like Astra and Fable) runs on usage-based billing with Copilot Credits. Microsoft says the license is still required: credits sit on top of the seat, not instead of it.
A Copilot Credit costs $0.01 on pay-as-you-go, per Microsoft’s Copilot Credits licensing guidance, with 5% to 20% off for one-year prepurchases. A free Copilot app exists, Fortune notes, but Autopilot is not part of it.
Still unpublished: how many credits Autopilot uses. Microsoft’s credit licensing guide does not mention Autopilot, and Microsoft Learn’s list of services under usage-based billing (updated October 2) includes Cowork but not Autopilot. Nobody outside the preview can price an Autopilot that runs for a week.
For admins: usage-based services stay off until someone creates a spending policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center. Watch one default: policies ship with Auto-apply new services switched on, so a policy built for Cowork will cover new Copilot agents as Microsoft adds them. Turn it off to review Autopilot before it can spend.
Who can get Copilot Autopilot today
Very few people. As of October 5:
- It is a private preview, opened at the end of September. Fortune reports a more restricted test than Home and Code, with no general-availability date and broad rollout depending on how testers rate it.
- It needs a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and a spending policy. Microsoft’s message center notice MC1479277 says so and promises “rollout timing and admin control details when available.” Licensed users without a policy see the tab but get a request-access or learn-more message.
- Personal Microsoft accounts are out. The Scout preview did not support them and also required a GitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise license plus Intune. Microsoft has not said whether that carries over.
- No consumer date and no region list. Code gets a preview for Microsoft 365 Premium and Pro later this year; nothing similar has been announced for Autopilot.
Microsoft plans to share more at Ignite, November 17 to 20, per PYMNTS.
What Autopilot can reach
Inside Microsoft 365, the launch materials name Teams, Outlook, chats, channels and documents, and the Black Friday demo pulled inventory records from Dynamics 365. The Scout preview also documented Outlook inbox rules, Teams transcripts, SharePoint Lists, OneDrive and Microsoft To Do.
For other apps, Microsoft launched a plugin registry the same day, but has not said which Copilot plugins Autopilot can use in preview.
The tenant is the boundary: Autopilot acts with one company’s Microsoft 365 permissions. Nothing Microsoft has published describes it reaching a Gmail account, a personal Outlook.com mailbox or a second company’s Microsoft 365, the same wall Copilot with multiple accounts already runs into.
What early users report
Autopilot is too new for many hands-on reviews, so most feedback is about Copilot itself:
- It forgets. On the Hacker News thread about the relaunch, a recurring complaint was that Enterprise Copilot truncates chat history so hard it “forgets the last thing you told it in the chat.” One commenter on a premium license said they did not see it.
- Nobody can keep the products straight. A local-government worker in Australia listed more than a dozen Copilot products their organization already had to explain, then asked: “Is this a rebrand again of those?” Intune admins groaned at the Windows Autopilot collision.
- The bill is unknowable for now. With no published credit rate, VentureBeat called predictable costs and dependable results “the next test” for buyers.
- Microsoft’s own caveat. The Scout documentation warns that complex multi-step tasks “might not always complete as expected.”
The backdrop: Microsoft 365 Copilot passed 30 million paid seats in July (Fortune), yet fewer than 7% of Microsoft’s 450 million commercial seats carry a Copilot license (CNBC).
Autopilot vs ChatGPT dots
Four days later, OpenAI launched ChatGPT dots, always-on agents that also take a goal and keep working between conversations. A dot is included with ChatGPT Pro (from $100 a month) or a Business Premium seat; Autopilot is metered on top of a $30 Copilot seat at an unpublished rate.
An always-on agent across every account you have
Autopilot’s premise is right: an agent that owns an ongoing job beats a chat box you keep prompting. But it stops at one Microsoft 365 tenant. Carly is built for work that does not.
- Every inbox and calendar at once. Gmail and Outlook, several Microsoft 365 organizations, personal accounts too. Carly triages, labels, drafts and sends across all of them, and schedules against every calendar.
- It acts the moment work arrives. A new email, a new lead or a form fill starts a workflow right away, not at the next check-in.
- CC it like a person. Copy Carly on a thread and it books the meeting, or build AI agents for intake and follow-up.
- It reaches the rest of your stack. Carly connects to thousands of apps, your CRM included.
- It meets you where you are. Use it on the web, text Carly from your phone, or add the Carly connector inside Copilot.
- The price is published. Free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
No preview waitlist: get started with Carly today.
FAQ
What is Microsoft Copilot Autopilot? An always-on AI agent inside Microsoft 365, announced September 25, 2026. You give it a role and a goal, and it works in the background across Teams, Outlook and documents without a new prompt. It is in private preview.
Is Copilot Autopilot the same as Windows Autopilot? No. Windows Autopilot is Microsoft’s Intune tool for setting up new PCs. Copilot Autopilot is an AI agent in the Copilot app. They share a name and nothing else.
How much does Copilot Autopilot cost? A Microsoft 365 Copilot license ($30 per user per month) plus Copilot Credits at $0.01 each. Microsoft has not published how many credits Autopilot uses. Carly’s pricing is public: free Zapier-style workflows; AI agents from $35/month.
Is Copilot Autopilot free, and how do I get it? No. The free Copilot app does not include it. Your organization has to be in Microsoft’s private preview, and you need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license plus a spending policy from your admin. There is no general-availability date yet.
Can Copilot Autopilot work with Gmail or a second Microsoft 365 account? Nothing Microsoft has published says so; Autopilot lives inside one company’s tenant. Carly works across Gmail, Outlook and several Microsoft 365 organizations at once, and you can connect all of them in a few minutes.
What are the best Copilot Autopilot alternatives? Carly is an always-on agent you can use today across every account, and it starts work the moment an email, lead or form arrives. Our Microsoft Copilot alternatives ranks the wider field.
More: Copilot Cowork · Best AI assistants for Microsoft 365 · Copilot MCP
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