Kyle Ikeda explains the Microsoft Agent Pre-Purchase Plan, highlighting unified procurement, ACU credits, and cost optimization for building intelligent agents with Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio.

Microsoft Agent Pre-Purchase Plan: Unified AI Procurement for Foundry and Copilot Studio

Microsoft Ignite 2025 saw the introduction of new intelligence layers for agent development: Work IQ, Fabric IQ, and Foundry IQ. These layers empower agentic systems to deliver robust contextual understanding, connect to enterprise data, and orchestrate knowledge across platforms.

In conjunction, the launch of Microsoft Agent Factory gives organizations a unified framework to build, deploy, and manage agents powered by these intelligence layers.

Yet, deploying agents in real-world organizations faces practical hurdles: procurement fragmentation, budget unpredictability, and complex governance. With the choice of platforms—such as Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Studio—each offering different strengths, enterprises risk siloed investments and reduced flexibility.

The Microsoft Agent Pre-Purchase Plan (P3)

Microsoft Agent P3 provides a streamlined, pay-upfront purchasing option for agentic services:

  • Commit for one year with a lump-sum pool of Agent Commit Units (ACU).
  • Use ACUs anytime in the plan year for Microsoft Foundry and Copilot Credit-enabled services.
  • Usage is tracked automatically; top up or switch to pay-as-you-go as needed.
  • Unused balance expires at year-end.

Pricing and Cost Example

  • As of November 2025 (subject to change), agent usage within Foundry and Copilot Studio is billed by ACU.
  • For example, 1,500,000 Copilot Credits at .01 per credit would cost $15,000 on pay-as-you-go. If also using 5000 Foundry Provisioned Throughput Units (PTU) at $1 each, add $5,000.
  • Purchasing Tier 1 (20,000 ACU) P3 at $19,000 yields ~5% savings over separate pay-as-you-go billing.

What’s Covered

  • 32 core services, including Azure AI Search, Cognitive Services, orchestration tools, and Copilot-powered agentic workloads.
  • P3 spans both Foundry and Copilot Studio, eliminating SKU-level silos.

Purchasing Microsoft Agent P3

  • Access via Azure Portal → Reservations → + Add → Microsoft Agent Pre-Purchase Plan.
  • Select subscription, scope, tier, and complete payment.

Benefits of Agent P3

  1. One Unified Plan: Pool credits across Foundry and Copilot-enabled agentic services.
  2. Broad Service Coverage: Use 32+ services important for AI agents.
  3. Streamlined Governance: Simplify procurement and budget management.
  4. Predictable Savings: Fixed discounts, one budget pool.

Additional Resources

Conclusion

Organizations looking to scale AI agent deployments on Microsoft platforms benefit from simplified, unified procurement, transparent budgeting, and flexible credit use. The Agent Pre-Purchase Plan (P3) directly supports innovation at scale, taking advantage of the newest Microsoft IQ intelligence layers and core agentic platforms.

Author: Kyle Ikeda

Updated Dec 08, 2025. Version 1.0.

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