specification: API Commons Rate Limits
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/RateLimits
provider: Microsoft Copilot
providerId: microsoft-copilot
created: '2026-05-04'
# Provenance stamped 2026-08-11: this artifact was written by the API Evangelist
# bulk sweep dated 2026-05-04, not harvested from the provider. See roadmap#35.
method: generated
modified: '2026-05-05'
reconciled: true
tags:
  - Agents
  - AI Assistant
  - Artificial Intelligence
  - Chatbot
  - Copilot
  - Extensibility
  - Generative AI
  - Rate Limiting
description: Microsoft Copilot rate limits depend on the surface. Microsoft 365 Copilot has
  per-user fair-use throttling (not publicly published as per-second numbers; soft limits in
  the high tens of requests per minute per user). Copilot APIs accessed through Microsoft
  Graph apply Microsoft Graph throttling (per-app, per-tenant, and per-user). Copilot Studio
  applies per-message metering (counts toward the purchased message pack). GitHub Copilot has
  per-user request quotas and Copilot Chat conversation pacing. All surfaces use HTTP 429
  with Retry-After.
sources:
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/graph/throttling
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/requirements-messages-management
  - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365-copilot/microsoft-365-copilot-licensing
headers:
  retryAfter: Retry-After
  rateLimitLimit: RateLimit-Limit
  rateLimitRemaining: RateLimit-Remaining
  rateLimitReset: RateLimit-Reset
  requestId: request-id
  clientRequestId: client-request-id
responseCodes:
  throttled: 429
  serviceUnavailable: 503
limits:
  - name: Microsoft Graph — per-app per-tenant
    scope: app/tenant
    metric: requests_per_10s
    limit: 130000
    timeFrame: second
    notes: 130,000 requests per 10 seconds per app per tenant for general Graph endpoints.
      Many service-specific limits override (Outlook, OneDrive, etc.).
  - name: Microsoft Graph — per-user
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_10s
    limit: 10000
    timeFrame: second
    notes: 10,000 requests per 10 seconds per user across all apps. Soft limit subject to
      change.
  - name: Microsoft 365 Copilot — fair-use per user
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: see vendor docs (soft fair-use)
    notes: Per-user fair-use throttling on Copilot prompts; not publicly documented as per-second
      numbers. Excessive prompting yields 429 with Retry-After.
  - name: Copilot Studio — message metering
    scope: tenant
    metric: messages_per_month
    limit: 25000
    timeFrame: month
    notes: Standard message pack is 25,000 messages/month. Excess billed PAYG at $0.01/message.
      Generative messages count as 2; classifier as 1.
  - name: GitHub Copilot — chat requests
    scope: user
    metric: requests_per_minute
    limit: see vendor docs
    notes: Per-user throttling on Copilot Chat; specific numbers not published. Code completion
      uses streaming and is tuned per-IDE.
policies:
  - name: Honor Retry-After
    description: All Copilot surfaces return 429 with Retry-After. Implement exponential backoff
      with jitter; SDKs auto-retry.
  - name: Microsoft Graph backoff
    description: Microsoft Graph documents service-specific throttling and recommends batching
      via /v1.0/$batch (max 20 per batch) plus delta queries for large reads.
  - name: Per-message accounting
    description: Copilot Studio monthly message packs are not pooled across tenants. Unused
      messages don't roll over. Excess goes to PAYG.
  - name: Tenant fair-use
    description: Sustained extreme load on Microsoft 365 Copilot can trigger tenant-level
      throttling and slowdown across users. Rare but documented.
  - name: Customer-managed key impact
    description: Tenants using Customer Lockbox / CMK may see slightly lower throughput due to
      additional cryptographic operations.
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com
    url: https://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-365-copilot