AI Builder credits are ending: what Power Automate users need to clarify by November 2026

If your Power Automate flow reads an incoming invoice or classifies free text, you are paying for that today with AI Builder credits. Microsoft is discontinuing this currency. On November 1, 2026, the AI Builder credits included in licenses such as Power Automate Premium will disappear from the license scope with no replacement.

This deadline is not a rumor from a forum. Microsoft announced the end in October 2025 and has since maintained a dated timeline in its official documentation, which you can read under End of AI Builder credits. If you do not clarify this by then, there will be no bang, just a silent block: as soon as neither AI Builder credits nor Copilot Credits remain in the environment, the affected actions fail with messages such as NoCapacity or EntitlementNotAvailable. The rest of the flow keeps running, just not the AI steps.

What exactly changes on November 1, 2026?

On November 1, 2026, Microsoft removes the AI Builder credits included in Premium licenses and simultaneously ends the renewability of the AI Builder capacity add-ons. The features themselves remain, only the billing currency switches to Copilot Credits.

The official timeline has two key dates, and the first one is already behind us:

• Since November 1, 2025: New customers can no longer purchase AI Builder capacity add-ons, and AI Builder trials have been discontinued. Since then, a two-currency model applies: in Power Apps and Power Automate, AI Builder credits are consumed first, then Copilot Credits as a substitute.
• On November 1, 2026, seeded credits: The AI Builder credits included in Premium licenses are removed. According to Microsoft, this expressly affects all new and existing customers, including those with an Enterprise Agreement.
• On November 1, 2026, add-ons: Existing add-on customers can neither renew their capacity packs nor purchase new ones.
• After November 1, 2026: Anyone still holding active AI Builder add-ons may continue consuming their credits until the end of the contract term. That is the only remaining runway there is.
• Contracts before November 1, 2025: Microsoft states that it will honor existing commitments for the full contract term. If your contract began before this date, verify this in writing against your license agreement, not against the general documentation page.

How many AI Builder credits are included in your license?

A Power Automate Premium license currently includes 5,000 AI Builder credits per month, capped at a maximum of 1 million credits per tenant. These exact allowances are what disappear in November 2026. Microsoft provides the full breakdown in the credit management documentation:

• Power Automate Premium and Power Automate Process: 5,000 credits per month each.
• Power Automate Hosted RPA and Unattended RPA add-on: 5,000 credits per month each.
• Power Apps Premium: 500 credits per month, Power Apps per app 250 credits.
• Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations: 20,000 credits per month, capped here at 20,000 per tenant.
• AI Builder add-on (Tier 1 to 3): 1 million credits per month. This is the only source that survives the deadline, and only until the end of the contract.

These numbers look bigger than they are. Receipt and invoice analysis costs 32 credits per page, and custom document processing costs 100 credits per page. Five Power Automate Premium licenses add up to 25,000 credits per month, which is roughly 780 analyzed receipt pages or 250 pages via a custom document model. Unused credits expire on the first of the month and are not carried over. In practice, this means many organizations that have automated invoice processing are today unknowingly fully dependent on these bundled credits, without ever having purchased an add-on.

Will the switch to Copilot Credits be more expensive?

That depends on the model used, and the blanket answer that “everything will get more expensive” is wrong. A comparison of the rates from the AI Builder Capability Rate Table, calculated using the list price of 0.01 US dollars per Copilot Credit against the Tier 1 add-on price of 500 US dollars per million AI Builder credits:

• Invoice and receipt recognition: 32 AI Builder credits per page correspond to roughly 0.016 US dollars. Via Copilot Credits it is 8 credits, so 0.08 US dollars. That is five times the price.
• Custom document processing: 100 AI Builder credits per page, roughly 0.05 US dollars, versus 8 Copilot Credits, so 0.08 US dollars. About 60 percent more expensive.
• Text recognition via OCR: 3 AI Builder credits per page, roughly 0.0015 US dollars, versus 0.1 Copilot Credits, so 0.001 US dollars. Here it becomes cheaper.

There is no automatic conversion from AI Builder credits to Copilot Credits. Microsoft states unambiguously that there is neither a conversion of the balance nor a fixed exchange rate. Anyone who wants to keep working has to purchase Copilot Credits anew.

What should you clarify by November 2026?

The most important step is taking stock, and it costs nothing: you need to know whether your flows contain any AI Builder actions at all before talking about budget. In our Power Platform projects, we proceed in this order:

• Measure consumption, do not estimate it: In the Power Platform Admin Center, under Resources and capacity, pull the AI Builder consumption report as an Excel file. It shows actual consumption over the last 30 days by environment and day.
• Identify affected flows: Only flows and apps with genuine AI Builder actions are affected. A pure approval or notification flow without an AI step remains untouched.
• Check the contract date: If your license contract began before November 1, 2025, the committed allowances apply, according to Microsoft, until the end of the contract. This can buy you months. Clarify this with your licensing partner in writing.
• Calculate alternatives honestly: For high receipt volumes, Azure AI Document Intelligence can be cheaper than Copilot Credits. This is a calculation per use case, not a fundamental decision.
• Bring governance along: Copilot Credits can be assigned per environment in the Admin Center. Without assignment rules, the first test environment consumes production's budget.

If you are sorting out your Microsoft license costs anyway: we have written up the related pitfalls with premium connectors in Power Automate, with Dataverse storage in Power Apps projects and in the Copilot licensing jungle 2026 separately. These four topics often hit the same organization at the same time, but belong to different invoices.

Frequently asked questions about AI Builder credits

Will AI Builder features stop working in November 2026?

No. Microsoft emphasizes that the removal of the credits does not affect the AI Builder features themselves; they continue to be supported and then run on Copilot Credits. An action is only blocked once neither AI Builder credits nor Copilot Credits are available in the environment.

Will my remaining AI Builder credits be converted into Copilot Credits?

No. There is neither an automatic conversion nor an official exchange rate. After November 1, 2026, the credits bundled with licenses are simply gone. To keep working, Copilot Credits must be purchased.

I purchased an AI Builder add-on. Am I affected too?

Partly. From November 1, 2026, you can neither renew nor top up the add-on. However, you may continue to use the credits of a still-active add-on until the end of the contract term. After that, this route is closed too.

Does training your own models cost credits?

No. According to Microsoft, creating and testing models and prompts consumes neither AI Builder credits nor Copilot Credits. Only running them in production in a flow, an app, or an agent costs capacity.

How do I find out how many credits we are currently consuming?

Via the AI Builder consumption report in the Power Platform Admin Center, under Resources and capacity. It provides an Excel file with consumption over the last 30 days by environment, day, and user. The calculation can lag by up to five days.