Internal Copilot Cost per Employee

Question

How do I estimate internal copilot cost per employee?

Quick answer

Formula: cost_per_employee_month = active_share * cost_per_active_user_month

Formula: required_price_per_employee = cost_per_employee_month / (1 - target_margin_pct / 100)

• Assumption: active share means monthly active employees divided by total covered employees.
• Assumption: cost per active user month already includes the full workflow stack.
• Assumption: seat price should be checked against employee-level economics, not active-user cost alone.

Example: 38% active share and $9.50 cost per active user month gives $3.61 per employee-month. At a 75% target margin, required price is $14.44.

Named Seats vs Active Employees

• If 25% of employees are active, a $10 active-user cost is only $2.50 per employee-month.
• If 50% are active, that same workflow is $5.00 per employee-month.
• If 75% are active, it becomes $7.50 per employee-month before margin targets are applied.

The Pilot Trap

Early pilots often overstate engagement because they attract the most motivated users. If rollout reaches a much broader employee base, active share can drop sharply even while licensed seats rise. Rework the math on the post-pilot adoption rate before locking a seat price.

The reverse can also happen. If the copilot gets embedded into daily workflows, active share climbs and the employee-level cost moves closer to full active-user cost. That is why seat economics need a low and high adoption case.

Related reads

• RAG Break-even Price per Seat
• How To Estimate Requests Per User/Month
• Model Selection: Quality vs Unit Cost