Build Apps with Microsoft Copilot Managed Runtime Step By Step Step by step · Step 5

Stop Surprise Copilot Bills With a Spending Policy

Cap Copilot credit spending before a surprise invoice: scope to a group, allow only the services you use, set a per-user monthly cap and an early alert.

8 November 2026 · 4 min read

Spending limit: limit monthly spending per user, 2,000 credits — Watch the lesson: Step 5: Who pays when an app runs: a Copilot spending policy | Build Apps with Microsoft Copilot

Credits are not just for building. When someone chats with Cowork, that is credits. When an app sends an e-mail for them, that is a little more. Picture forty app opens a day per person, across a whole company, and someone in finance will ask who is paying.

A spending policy answers it in one place: who may spend credits, on which services, and how much per person, per month. Remember the difference: a budget warns; a spending policy actually stops.

Step 1: Do not accept the default

Microsoft 365 admin center → Copilot → Cost management → Get started. The default is every user with no limit at all. Choose Customize setup.

All Users Policy: budget scope all users, spending limit no limit — The default: everyone, no limit.

Step 2: Who may spend

Name it OnTime apps. Budget scope: specific groups, OnTime Ops. Four people, and only four.

Edit budget scope: specific groups, OnTime-Ops with 4 members — Scope the policy to a group, not all users.

Step 3: On what

Switch off allow new agents and services as they become available: if Microsoft launches something next month, nobody starts spending on it without a decision. Keep what OnTime uses (Cowork and Code, the Work IQ API, and Copilot Managed Runtime) and untick the rest, one by one.

Edit Copilot agents and services: new services off, unticking unused agents — Every untick is one less way to be surprised.

Step 4: How much

Limit monthly spending per user: 2,000 credits a month, about twenty dollars, the smallest Microsoft allows. When someone hits it, their Copilot services pause until the first of next month.

Limit monthly spending per user set to 2,000 credits, about $20 per month — The part that actually stops spending.

Turn on alerts to the budget owner at 1,000 credits, halfway to the cap, so they hear about it long before anyone is blocked.

Step 5: Read the summary, then activate

Read it top to bottom: one group, only the chosen services, 2,000 credits per person, alerts on. Activating costs nothing; you only pay for credits actually used.

OnTime apps policy summary: 1 group, chosen services, 2,000 credits per user per month, alerts on — Check the summary against what you decided.

How you know it worked

Configuration tab: OnTime apps, Enabled. From now on, only the OnTime Ops team can spend Copilot credits, each person is capped, and the budget owner is warned early.

Cost management configuration: OnTime apps spending policy enabled for OnTime-Ops — Active.

What a tech lead should take away

Set the spending policy before the first app ships, not after the first invoice.
Allow-list services; do not let new services start billing automatically.
Users cost credits too, not just builders: plan for usage, not only for development.

Do it yourself

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