Microsoft 365 Copilot · Free readiness gate
Day-0 Readiness Gate
The readiness check you run before you spend a dollar on Copilot licences.
One click, two tabs: the download page opens here, and the AI at Work signup (two issues a month, unsubscribe anytime) opens alongside. The gate is free; joining the list is the fair trade.
Part 1
Eight pass-or-fail checks
Usage-based billing configured and a named billing owner. A linked Azure subscription. Someone who reads the cost dashboard, and the day they read it. A pilot group with edges. Every service account and agent mapped to a human owner. A finance partner who has seen the plan. A privacy and security reviewer who has read it, not just heard about it.
Part 2
The cost-surface map
The layers where a Copilot task actually spends, which of them are fixed and which move with usage, and why headcount times a price no longer forecasts the bill.
The rule
No partial credit
A failed check means stop and fix, not note and proceed. Each one costs nothing to fix now and real money to fix after go-live.
The quiet failures happen at day zero. Nobody owns the budget line. The pilot group is whoever asked first. Finance hears about the metered layer when the first invoice lands. The privacy reviewer gets the plan after the announcement email. Every one of those gaps is free to fix before you start and expensive to fix after.
This gate is step zero of the M365 Copilot Deployment Kit. The Kit’s 90-day roadmap assumes you have already passed these checks. Run the gate first. If it stops you, it just did its job.
Your per-seat Microsoft 365 Copilot price is unchanged. The Copilot Credits metered layer Microsoft added in June 2026 is separate and optional, and it stays off until an admin turns it on. Several of the gate’s checks exist because of it. If you are about to switch it on, run the gate first.
For M365 and IT admins who own the Copilot rollout, FinOps leads and finance partners who own the budget line, and AI governance leads. If you are about to assign the first licences or turn consumption on, start here.
To be plain about it: this gate exists to stop a bad rollout, not to upsell one. If you failed three checks, the right next purchase is nothing. Fix the gaps.
Where to next, for you
Three picks that follow from this page.
Free next step
Copilot Rollout Readiness Scorecard
Eight boxes that tell you whether the organisation is ready, and where to start on the one you failed.
Follows on from this page.
GoPaid option · $97
M365 Copilot Deployment Kit
The full rollout playbook plus paste-ready artifacts. Roll out without the rework, governed from the start.
Follows on from this page.
GoWorth a read
M365 Copilot costs in 2026: included vs metered
What is in the seat, what is metered, and how to charge it back.
Follows on from this page.
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