Attach an Azure Subscription for PAYG / Copilot Credits

When to use this

Use Pay-as-you-Go (PAYG) when your Copilot Agent or class, research lab, or department Power App/Flow needs flexibility: launch fast, pay for actual usage, and attribute costs to the right budget in Azure. A billing plan links your environment to an Azure subscription/resource group. See PAYG overview.

Prerequisites

  • An Azure subscription you can bill to (Owner/Contributor is typical).
  • An Azure resource group in that subscription (can be empty).
  • Permissions in Power Platform: Environment admin (the creator of an environment is granted this), Power Platform admin, or Dynamics 365 admin can create/link billing plans.

Steps

  1. Open the Power Platform admin center.
  2. Go to Licensing → Pay-as-you-go plans and select New billing plan.
    In the Power Platform admin center, the Licensing section with Pay-as-you-go plans and a button labeled New billing plan.
    Start a new billing plan in Licensing → Pay-as-you-go plans.
  3. Choose Azure subscription, then:
    • Name the billing plan (e.g., ENGR-PowerApps-FY25-PAYG).
    • Select the Azure subscription and resource group to bill.
    • Pick the Power Platform products this plan should meter.
    • Select Next.
    Billing plan setup: the Azure subscription option selected, with fields for subscription, resource group, and products to meter.
    Select Azure subscription, then fill in subscription, resource group, and products to meter.
    Next step button highlighted in the billing plan setup wizard.
    Click Next to proceed.
  4. Pick your Region in the Select environments pane (this filters environments by Power Platform service geo, such as “United States” — it is not an Azure datacenter region).
    Select environments pane showing the Region filter set to United States.
    Use the Region filter to find environments by Power Platform service geo (e.g., United States).
  5. Select the environment you created for the solution and choose Save.
    Environment selection list with one environment highlighted and a Save button.
    Choose the target environment and Save to finish linking to Azure billing.

Notes & Gotchas

  • Region matching: Azure subscriptions don’t have a region; resources do. In the PAYG wizard, the Region list filters by Power Platform service geos (e.g., “United States”). You don’t need to match East/West US.
  • Scope of billing: Once linked, all apps in that environment bill to the Azure subscription via the billing plan — use separate environments per solution when you need clean chargeback per app/group.
  • Where charges appear: In Azure, costs accrue on a Power Platform account resource in the selected resource group/subscription (visible in Cost Management). 

References

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