Microsoft's AI prospecting agent for Dynamics 365 Sales has been free to try in public preview since 8 October 2026. From 16 November 2026 it moves to usage-based billing through Copilot Credits, so every prospect it researches and every email it sends starts to cost money.
- Billing starts on 16 November 2026, paid in Copilot Credits
- Microsoft lists pay-as-you-go credits at $0.01 each, or $200 a month for a 25,000-credit pack
- Admins are told to set spending policies before the switch
Microsoft confirmed the date in Message Center post MC1492151: "Beginning November 16, 2026, Sales Development Agent will be billed on usage-based billing through Copilot Credits." The same date appears in the launch post by Jeff Teper, Microsoft's executive vice president for apps and agents, and in MSDynamicsWorld's coverage of the October release.
This isn't only a story for Microsoft shops. A major CRM vendor is moving an AI SDR agent from a free trial to a meter, and that hints at how the whole category is likely to be sold: not per seat, but per unit of work the agent does.
That pricing model turns "should we use an AI SDR?" into a spreadsheet question. If the meter doesn't fit your volume, or your pipeline lives outside Dynamics, a custom AI agent built around your own pipeline is the other route, and the cost comparison is now easier to make because Microsoft has put a public price on each step.
What is changing on 16 November?
On 16 November the Sales Development Agent switches from a free preview to usage-based billing in Copilot Credits. Until then, tenants need Frontier enablement to switch it on.
The agent entered public preview on 8 October 2026 alongside Dynamics 365 CRM in Teams and around thirty sales and service skills for Copilot.
The Message Center post asks administrators to activate the agent if they want it and to "configure spending policies for applicable AI experiences before November 16, 2026." So if your team tried the agent for free, the same activity shows up on a bill from next Monday. Unless someone sets a cap.
What does the Sales Development Agent do?
In Microsoft's words, the agent can "help scale your team by researching prospects, personalizing outreach, managing follow-up conversations, and advancing qualified opportunities before handing them to sellers at the right moment." It isn't a writing assistant. The agent starts and runs the early stage of a conversation itself, then passes warm leads to a human rep.
Microsoft's launch post quotes Adobe, which tested the agent at limited scale. "In just three weeks from a limited-scale launch, Sales Development Agent has already unlocked new opportunities, driving meetings with 10+ customers we wouldn't have otherwise reached," said Prabhath Yeluri, a senior manager for sales strategy at Adobe.
How much will it cost?
- Credit price. Microsoft's Copilot Studio licensing guide lists pay-as-you-go Copilot Credits at $0.01 each and a prepaid pack of 25,000 credits at $200 a month. Unused pack credits do not roll over.
- Included credits. According to the Dynamics 365 Sales pricing page, the Premium plan at $150 per user per month includes 1,000 Copilot Credits per user each month. Professional is listed at $65 and Enterprise at $105.
- What is not published. The announcement doesn't say how many credits one researched prospect, one email or one follow-up consumes. Until you see your own usage, any forecast is a guess.
A quick sanity check: a ten-seat Premium team gets 10,000 included credits a month, worth $100 at the pay-as-you-go rate. How far that goes is something only a measured pilot will tell you.
What does it mean for small and mid-size teams?
- AI sales tools are moving to meters. Salesforce priced Agentforce Coworker at $50 a user a month, a seat price. Microsoft's agent bills per unit of work. Expect to compare both models, and ask every vendor which one applies.
- Bad lists cost money twice. An agent that researches and emails outdated or duplicate contacts spends credits on leads that never answer. Our guide to AI lead scoring explains how to decide who is worth an agent's attention first.
- The handoff is the hard part. An agent is only useful if qualified leads arrive in the right rep's queue with context. That depends on how your CRM, inbox and calendar are joined up, which our CRM integration guide covers step by step.
- Build versus buy gets a price tag. With a public per-credit rate, you can compare a vendor agent against your own tooling on cost per qualified meeting. Our build vs buy CRM breakdown uses the same logic.
What should you do this week?
- Check whether the agent is on. If anyone enabled it during the preview, find out before 16 November and decide whether it stays.
- Set a spending cap. Configure the spending policy Microsoft recommends, starting low. You can raise a limit later; you can't undo a surprise bill.
- Pick one segment for a pilot. Give the agent a single, clean list, such as inbound leads that went cold, rather than your whole database.
- Measure cost per meeting. After four weeks, divide credits spent by meetings booked and compare that with what a human SDR or your current sequence tool costs for the same result.
