AI Builder credits: plan for your next renewal

Start with one process people rely on

If Power Apps or Power Automate handles repeated work for your team, ask which steps use AI Builder. Then check the credits available to those steps and the end date of the subscription supplying them. Credits are the units Microsoft uses to count AI work.

November 1 marks a scheduled stage in Microsoft's transition from AI Builder credits to Copilot Credits. The change was announced in October 2025. AI Builder features continue to be supported; today's milestone concerns how teams pay for running them.

The milestone affects AI Builder actions in Power Apps and Power Automate. Start with the tools your team actually uses and the person who manages their account.

Read the announcement: Microsoft: Overview of AI Builder licensing.

Your subscription dates matter

Microsoft's current guidance says new or renewed Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licences no longer receive included AI Builder credits from November 1, 2026. Eligible licences purchased or renewed before that date keep their included credits through the applicable contract term.

Existing AI Builder capacity add-ons, extra paid bundles of credits, also reach their retirement milestone. Credits from active subscriptions remain usable until those subscriptions expire. Microsoft tells affected customers to turn off auto-renewal for the retired add-ons; the person responsible for purchasing should follow the official account guidance.

The detailed timetable is useful because November 1 is not a single expiry date for everyone's existing credits. Confirm the dates on your own subscription before deciding what to change.

Match the allowance to the actual task

In Power Apps and Power Automate, AI Builder first uses available AI Builder credits, then available Copilot Credits. If neither is available, the affected AI Builder work can be blocked. There is no automatic conversion of one credit type into the other.

Different AI tasks consume credits at different rates. Ask the person managing the tool to review the current Microsoft rate table and actual usage before choosing a credit allowance. Simply copying the old credit count into a new plan can give the wrong picture.

For a useful first exercise, pick one process and record how often it runs, what AI work it does and who notices if it cannot finish. Use approved examples when checking the result.

1. Identify one process and the AI Builder steps inside it.
2. Check the subscription end date and the credits assigned to the place where that process runs.
3. Review recent usage with the account owner and estimate the next month's work using current rates.
4. Agree who checks the allowance and what the team should do if an AI step cannot finish.

Bring this question into your next build

Our perspective is that a useful AI tool needs a clear running plan alongside its features. Knowing who receives usage notices and approves credit purchases is part of that plan.

If you are learning to build, practise explaining the cost of one repeated task in ordinary words. If you commission a tool, ask for the same explanation in the handover. That gives you a clearer basis for keeping useful work running.