Microsoft Copilot Cowork is an optional, department-funded service available to eligible Ohio State faculty and staff who already have a Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium license.
Important Information
Access and Usage
Getting Access
Copilot Cowork is available to Ohio State faculty and staff who:
- Have an active Ohio State faculty or staff account.
- Have a department-purchased Microsoft 365 Copilot Premium license.
- Have approval and funding from their college, department or business unit for the required Copilot Credits.
- Complete a consultation with the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team at Ohio State.
Colleges, departments and business units may request Cowork access for an individual or an approved group. During the consultation, the support team will confirm licensing, review the intended use cases, estimate credit needs, discuss purchasing options and establish appropriate cost controls.
Request Copilot Cowork: Contact the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team through the designated Ohio State service request process. Be prepared to provide the proposed users or group, business purpose, estimated usage, fiscal account and fiscal approver.
Using Microsoft Copilot Cowork
Cowork is designed for multi-step, time-intensive work that may span several Microsoft 365 applications. It shows the steps it performs and pauses for approval before sensitive actions, such as sending an email, posting a Teams message or scheduling a meeting.
A typical Cowork task follows this process:
- Describe the outcome. Explain what you need and provide approved files or context.
- Review the plan. Cowork breaks the request into steps and begins the work.
- Guide the work. Add instructions, clarify requirements, pause or redirect the task.
- Approve important actions. Review sensitive actions before Cowork completes them.
- Review the results. Verify the accuracy, completeness and appropriateness of all output.
Use Cowork for work that requires planning, coordination or actions across applications. For quick questions, brainstorming, basic summaries and simple drafting, use university-provided Copilot Chat. For work performed within Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook or Teams that does not require a larger multi-step process, use Copilot Premium. Learn more from the Copilot Cowork overview on Microsoft Learn and the Microsoft Copilot Cowork product page.
Use of Microsoft 365 Services Note
Copilot Credits and Cost Management
Cowork is a usage-based service. Each Cowork task consumes Copilot Credits based on factors such as task complexity, duration, models and skills used, context reviewed and number of actions performed.
Copilot Credits are separate from the Copilot Premium license. The requesting college, department or business unit must purchase and fund the credits used by its approved users or groups. A university fiscal account and fiscal approval are required before Cowork can be enabled.
Credit Purchase Options
Ohio State offers the following approaches to funding Cowork usage. Options, pricing, allocation and availability must be discussed with the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team before a purchase is initiated.
Prepaid Copilot Credit Packs
- Each pack provides 25,000 Copilot Credits per month.
- A department may purchase one or more packs based on anticipated usage.
- Credits may be allocated to an individual or an approved group, subject to Microsoft and Ohio State administrative requirements.
- A shared group allocation can be consumed by all approved group members.
- Monthly limits and monitoring controls may be established to help manage the allocation.
- Credits reset monthly and unused credits do not carry over.
A prepaid pack is generally best when a department expects recurring usage and wants a defined monthly allocation.
Pay-As-You-Go
- The department pays for actual Copilot Credit consumption instead of purchasing a fixed monthly pack.
- Charges are associated with an approved university billing arrangement and fiscal account.
- Budgets, alerts, access policies and hard spending limits should be established before access is enabled.
- This option may provide flexibility for pilots, variable demand or occasional high-volume work.
- The effective per-credit cost may be higher than the prepaid pack option, and monthly costs are less predictable.
The Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team will help determine whether prepaid credits or pay-as-you-go is appropriate for the department’s users, use cases and budget.
Estimate Credit Needs
Microsoft provides a Customer Cowork Estimator to model potential credit consumption using the anticipated number and types of users and the expected mix of light, medium and complex tasks.
Visit Usage-based billing and cost management for Copilot Credits and select the Customer Cowork Estimator referenced in the Cowork usage-estimation section.
Estimator results are directional and are not a quote or guarantee. Actual usage depends on the tasks performed, and final pricing depends on Ohio State’s Microsoft agreement and purchasing arrangements.
Check Credit Usage with /cost
Enter the following command in an open Cowork task:
/costThe /cost command displays:
- The approximate Copilot Credits consumed by the open task so far.
- The approximate credits used during the current month.
- The approximate credits remaining within the user’s monthly limit.
Using /cost does not consume credits. It can be entered during an active task or in a previous Cowork task to review the estimated aggregate consumption for that session.
Important: /cost reports credits already consumed. It cannot predict the cost of a task before Cowork begins working. It is an in-product estimate and is not the official billing record for invoices, departmental chargebacks or fiscal reconciliation.
Learn more from Check your credit usage for Cowork tasks with /cost.
Individual and Group Credit Limits
A monthly limit may be assigned to an individual or included within a larger group allocation. When users share a group allocation:
- Usage by one member reduces the credits available to the group.
- A user may appear to have individual credits remaining even when the group has reached its overall limit.
- The department should designate an owner to monitor the shared allocation and coordinate requests for additional credits.
If an individual or group reaches its credit limit, Cowork may pause or become unavailable for new work. The sponsoring unit may request additional credits, subject to fiscal approval, purchasing requirements and current Microsoft terms. Otherwise, access resumes when the monthly allocation resets.
Managing Departmental Costs
The sponsoring college, department or business unit should designate an owner for its Cowork service. That owner should work with the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team to:
- Monitor individual and group consumption.
- Establish budgets, notifications and hard limits where available.
- Identify unexpectedly high usage.
- Review whether the current credit allocation remains appropriate.
- Request additional prepaid packs or an approved pay-as-you-go arrangement when needs change.
- Communicate usage expectations to approved users.
Users can help conserve department-funded credits by using Copilot Chat for simple requests, reserving Cowork for multi-step work, checking /cost during longer sessions and avoiding unnecessary repetition of completed tasks.
Features & Uses
Communication and Email
Microsoft Teams
Documents and Presentations
Calendar and Meetings
Research and Organizational Search
OneDrive and SharePoint Files
Scheduled and Recurring Work
Custom Skills and Plugins
Cowork includes built-in skills and may support approved custom skills and plugins. Availability depends on Ohio State administration, security review and Microsoft capabilities. The use of a skill or plugin may affect task complexity and credit consumption
Help
To request Copilot Cowork or discuss Copilot Credit options, contact the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team at Ohio State through the designated service request process. You will need to have a consultation that will include topics like:
- Requesting college, department or business unit.
- Business purpose and proposed use cases.
- Individual users or proposed group.
- Confirmation that users have Copilot Premium licenses.
- Completed estimator results or estimated monthly credit need.
- Preferred funding option.
- University fiscal account and fiscal approver.
- Requested start date and expected duration.
For general technical assistance after Copilot Cowork is enabled, contact the IT Service Desk.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Cowork included with Copilot Premium?
No. Copilot Premium is required before Cowork can be enabled, but the Cowork service also requires separately purchased Copilot Credits. The requesting college, department or business unit must fund those credits.
Who can request Copilot Cowork?
Ohio State colleges, departments and business units may request Cowork for eligible faculty and staff who have active Copilot Premium licenses.
Can a department purchase Cowork for a group?
Yes. A department may request access for an individual or an approved group. The Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team will review the group, proposed use cases, estimated consumption, funding source and appropriate limits before configuration.
How many credits should a department purchase?
Usage varies by task and user. Complete the Customer Cowork Estimator and review the results with the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team. The team will help compare a 25,000-credit monthly pack, multiple packs and pay-as-you-go.
Can `/cost` tell me how many credits a task will use before I start?
No. /cost shows approximate credits already consumed by the current task and billing cycle. It does not provide a pre-task estimate.
Is `/cost` the official billing record?
No. /cost is an in-product estimate. Official invoices, departmental chargebacks and fiscal reconciliation must use Ohio State’s approved administrative and billing records.
Do unused credits carry over when purchasing the 25,000 message packs?
No. Copilot Credits reset monthly and unused credits do not carry over to the next monthly cycle.
What happens when an individual or group runs out of credits?
Cowork may pause or become unavailable for new tasks. The sponsoring department may contact the Microsoft M365 Copilot Support Team to discuss purchasing or allocating additional credits. Otherwise, access resumes when the monthly limit resets.
Can Cowork access all university information?
No. Cowork respects the signed-in user’s existing Microsoft 365 permissions. It does not grant access to information the user is not already authorized to view or use.
Can users purchase Cowork with personal funds or a purchasing card?
No. Cowork must be requested and funded by an authorized Ohio State college, department or business unit using an approved university fiscal account and purchasing process.
Is pay-as-you-go always less expensive?
No. Pay-as-you-go provides flexibility, but costs vary with consumption and the effective per-credit cost may be higher than prepaid credit packs. The support team will help the requesting unit compare options.
M365 Accessibility Info Alert
Security
- Follow Ohio State policies, standards and requirements for institutional data.
- Use only university-approved accounts and services.
- Avoid providing data that is not approved for the service or intended use case.
- Review content, calculations, citations, recipients and attachments before approving actions.
- Confirm email recipients, meeting attendees and Teams destinations.
- Apply a “trust but verify” approach to all AI-generated content.
- Remember that the user remains accountable for approved actions and distributed content.
- Apply least-privilege practices and limit tasks to the information required for a legitimate university business purpose.
Visit AI Responsible Use at Ohio State for additional guidance.
Ohio State Institutional Data Policy
- Microsoft 365 is for academic and personal use only.
- Students may not place sensitive data in any Microsoft 365 online product.
- Ohio State employees must be aware of what type of data that is being placed into Teams.
- Learn more about Institutional Data
Ohio State Computing Policy
Access to Ohio State computing and internet resources must be used in a responsible manner. To learn more, see the Responsible Use of University Computing and Network Resources.