Microsoft 365 Copilot — Licensing Matrix
Microsoft 365 Copilot is available as an add-on licence that requires a qualifying base subscription. Not all Microsoft 365 plans support the Copilot add-on. The following matrix shows exactly which plans qualify and which do not.
Qualifying Base Licences (Copilot Add-on Supported)
| Licence Plan | Max Users | Copilot Eligible | Recommended For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 Business Basic | 300 | No | Web-only apps — does not include desktop Office apps required by Copilot |
| Microsoft 365 Business Standard | 300 | Yes | SMEs that need basic Copilot without advanced security features |
| Microsoft 365 Business Premium | 300 | Yes | SMEs that need Copilot with advanced security (Intune, Entra ID P1) |
| Microsoft 365 E3 | Unlimited | Yes | Enterprises requiring compliance tools and advanced identity management |
| Microsoft 365 E5 | Unlimited | Yes | Regulated industries needing full security, compliance and analytics suite |
| Office 365 E3 | Unlimited | Yes | Legacy plan — eligible but recommend upgrading to Microsoft 365 E3 |
| Office 365 E5 | Unlimited | Yes | Legacy plan — eligible but recommend upgrading to Microsoft 365 E5 |
Microsoft 365 F1/F3 (frontline worker) plans do not currently support the Copilot add-on. Microsoft 365 Apps for Business/Enterprise plans require additional verification.
For Malta SMEs, the most common upgrade path is from Business Basic to Business Standard or Business Premium. Business Basic is the only commonly held plan that does not qualify for Copilot, because it lacks the desktop Office applications that Copilot integrates with. Veracloud helps Malta organisations assess their current licensing and identify the most cost-effective upgrade path. For full pricing details, see our Copilot pricing guide.
Technical Prerequisites Checklist
Beyond the base licence, several technical prerequisites must be in place before Microsoft 365 Copilot will function correctly. Veracloud audits all of these as part of our readiness assessment for Malta organisations.
Infrastructure Prerequisites
- Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). All users must have Microsoft Entra ID accounts. On-premises Active Directory synced via Entra Connect is supported, but cloud-only identities are recommended for optimal Copilot performance.
- OneDrive for Business. OneDrive must be provisioned for all Copilot users. Copilot uses OneDrive to access the user's personal files and recent documents for grounding responses.
- SharePoint Online. Required for organisational data grounding. Copilot searches SharePoint sites that the user has access to when generating contextual responses. On-premises SharePoint is not supported.
- Microsoft Teams. Required for Copilot in Teams (meeting summaries, chat, channel summaries). Teams must be deployed with meeting recording and transcription policies enabled.
- Exchange Online. Required for Copilot in Outlook. On-premises Exchange mailboxes are not supported — migration to Exchange Online is required.
- Microsoft 365 Apps (Desktop). Users must have desktop Office applications (not just web versions) updated to the Current Channel or Monthly Enterprise Channel. Copilot features are delivered through desktop app updates.
- Network connectivity. Endpoints must have access to Microsoft Graph API URLs and Azure OpenAI Service endpoints. Veracloud provides the complete URL list for firewall configuration.
Recommended (Not Required) Prerequisites
- Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels. Strongly recommended for regulated Malta industries to ensure Copilot respects data classification. See our data security guide.
- Data loss prevention policies. Recommended to prevent Copilot from surfacing sensitive information types in responses.
- SharePoint permissions audit. Strongly recommended to prevent Copilot from accessing overshared content. Our enterprise deployment guide covers this in detail.
- Conditional access policies. Recommended to ensure Copilot is only accessible from compliant devices and trusted locations.
GitHub Copilot Licensing
GitHub Copilot operates on a completely separate licensing model from Microsoft 365 Copilot. There is no shared prerequisite between the two products — an organisation can deploy one without the other.
| Plan | Prerequisites | Key Licensing Details |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot Individual | GitHub account (free or paid). Supported IDE (VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, Visual Studio). | Personal licence. No organisation management features. €10/month or €100/year. |
| GitHub Copilot Business | GitHub organisation account (Team or Enterprise plan). Supported IDE. | Organisation-managed licence. Includes policy controls, audit logs, SSO. €19/user/month. |
| GitHub Copilot Enterprise | GitHub Enterprise Cloud account. Supported IDE. | All Business features plus codebase-aware chat, PR summaries, doc search. €39/user/month. |
For Malta iGaming companies and technology firms, Veracloud recommends the Business tier as the minimum for organisational use. Individual licences lack the policy management, audit logging and IP indemnity that business environments require. Enterprise tier is recommended for organisations with large proprietary codebases where codebase-aware features provide significant additional value.
Copilot for Security Licensing
Microsoft Copilot for Security has unique licensing requirements separate from both M365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot.
Prerequisites for Copilot for Security
- Azure subscription. Required for provisioning Security Compute Units (SCUs). A pay-as-you-go or Enterprise Agreement Azure subscription is needed.
- Microsoft Entra ID. Required for identity and access management.
- Microsoft Defender XDR or Microsoft Sentinel (recommended). While not strictly required, Copilot for Security delivers the most value when integrated with Defender XDR for incident investigation and Sentinel for threat hunting.
- Minimum 1 SCU provisioned. Security Compute Units are billed at €4/SCU/hour. The minimum is 1 SCU. Scale up based on usage requirements.
Copilot Studio Licensing
Copilot Studio licensing depends on whether your organisation already holds Microsoft 365 Copilot licences.
- Included with M365 Copilot. If your users already have M365 Copilot licences, they can use Copilot Studio to build custom agents and extensions at no additional licence cost.
- Standalone licence. For organisations without M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio is available at €200 per tenant per month, which includes 25,000 messages. This requires a Power Platform environment and Microsoft Entra ID.
How to Check Your Current Licence Status
Malta organisations can verify their current licensing through several methods:
Microsoft 365 Admin Centre
Navigate to admin.microsoft.com, then Billing, then Licences. This shows all active subscriptions, available licence counts and assigned users. Check that your base plan appears in the qualifying licence list above.
Microsoft Entra Admin Centre
Navigate to entra.microsoft.com to verify that Entra ID is properly configured and that user accounts meet the prerequisites for Copilot deployment.
Microsoft 365 Copilot Readiness Report
Microsoft provides a Copilot Readiness assessment tool within the Admin Centre that evaluates your tenant against all technical prerequisites and generates a detailed report with remediation steps.
Veracloud Licensing Assessment
Veracloud provides complimentary licensing assessments for Malta organisations. We audit your current subscriptions, identify gaps, recommend the most cost-effective upgrade path and handle the procurement process.
Common Licensing Mistakes Malta Organisations Make
- 1. Attempting to add Copilot to Business Basic. Business Basic does not include desktop Office apps and therefore cannot support Copilot. Organisations on Business Basic must upgrade to Business Standard (minimum) or Business Premium (recommended) before adding Copilot.
- 2. Not provisioning OneDrive for all users. Some organisations have not provisioned OneDrive for every user, especially in environments where file shares are still common. Copilot requires OneDrive to function correctly.
- 3. Running outdated Office app versions. Copilot features are delivered through desktop app updates. Organisations on Semi-Annual Enterprise Channel receive Copilot features months later than Current Channel users. Veracloud configures the update channel as part of deployment preparation.
- 4. Confusing Microsoft 365 Copilot with free Copilot. Microsoft offers a free Copilot (formerly Bing Chat) that does not integrate with organisational data. The paid Microsoft 365 Copilot add-on is the enterprise product that connects to your M365 tenant.
- 5. Over-licensing initially. For SMEs, licensing every employee from day one is usually unnecessary. Veracloud recommends starting with targeted roles and expanding based on measured results. See our SME guide for the recommended approach.
Minimum Seat Requirements
Microsoft has evolved its minimum seat requirements for Copilot over time. As of 2026, there is no minimum seat count for Microsoft 365 Copilot — organisations can purchase as few as one Copilot add-on licence. However, Microsoft's volume licensing agreements may include minimum commitment terms for enterprise customers. Veracloud advises Malta organisations on the optimal licensing structure based on their specific situation.
Next Steps
Once your licensing prerequisites are confirmed, the next steps are data governance configuration and deployment planning. Our enterprise deployment guide covers the full deployment process, while our data security guide explains how to configure the security controls that regulated Malta industries require. For organisations ready to move forward, our training and adoption guide ensures your team achieves maximum productivity from day one.