Copilot in SharePoint Reaches General Availability: What Changes for Tenant Admins on November 1, 2026

Short answer

Microsoft's Learn page for Copilot in SharePoint states that general availability began rolling out on September 30, 2026, and that two things change at GA. First, the PowerShell controls used during public preview to opt tenants and sites in or out (KnowledgeAgentScope, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesListOperation) are being retired; existing settings are honored until November 1, 2026, and after that date availability is managed through Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery. Second, new "advanced work" capabilities use Copilot Credits through usage-based billing, while the everyday capabilities from preview stay included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot license. Every statement below is Microsoft's, linked to the page it appears on, read October 14, 2026.

This guide is for the tenant administrator who set a scope during preview and now has to decide what replaces it before the November 1 cutover, and who owns the Copilot Credits decision.

What general availability changed

Microsoft describes Copilot in SharePoint as agentic capability inside SharePoint: asking questions, running workflows, and creating sites, pages, interactive reports and Office files from SharePoint content in natural language. Through public preview, availability was a tenant-level PowerShell decision and the default was off (NoSites). At GA, Microsoft states the weekly usage limits from preview are removed, that the service runs on a Microsoft-managed reasoning model from OpenAI that administrators do not configure, and that daily service-protection limits can still apply in rare cases.

The two administrative changes are the subject of this guide: the retirement of the preview availability controls on a dated schedule, and the introduction of usage-based billing for advanced work.

The controls being retired, and what they did

Microsoft's page documents the three Set-SPOTenant parameters that are being retired:

• KnowledgeAgentScope set the tenant posture: AllSites, IncludeSelectedSites, ExcludeSelectedSites, or NoSites (the default).
• KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList carried the include or exclude list, which Microsoft states cannot exceed 100 site URLs and overwrites the existing list by default.
• KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesListOperation chose Overwrite, Append or Remove for that list.

Microsoft states that existing PowerShell settings continue to be honored until November 1, 2026, that multi-geo tenants had to run the script in each geo, and that the parameter names kept their preview naming even though the feature is now called Copilot in SharePoint. The practical point: a tenant that is sitting at NoSites, or that curated a 100-site include list, holds a configuration that stops being the control of record on November 1.

What governs availability after November 1, 2026

Microsoft's page names two mechanisms for availability after the cutover.

Site AI settings. A per-site panel (Settings, then Site AI) through which site owners choose which agent opens from the agent icon in the global header (Copilot in SharePoint or a custom agent), hide the Copilot button on site pages for site visitors only, and enable advanced document processing for the site.

Restricted Content Discovery. Microsoft states that RCD is an existing setting that is respected: if it is enabled on a site, Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions do not appear on that site, regardless of other availability settings. RCD is set per site in the SharePoint admin center or with Set-SPOSite -RestrictContentOrgWideSearch $true, and Microsoft's RCD page states it does not change permissions, applies only to SharePoint sites (not OneDrive), and can take more than a week to propagate on sites with more than 500,000 items.

The shape of the change is the part that matters for governance: the tenant-wide opt-out lever moves to site-level controls, one of which (Site AI settings) sits with site owners rather than the tenant administrator, and the other (RCD) hides Copilot entry points as a side effect of restricting discovery. A tenant that relied on NoSites needs an explicit per-site decision before November 1, or Copilot in SharePoint will be governed by whatever those site-level settings say on that date.

Everyday work stays in the license; advanced work costs Copilot Credits

Microsoft describes a hybrid model. Everyday individual productivity is included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot license with no opt-in step: asking questions and finding content, creating HTML, Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, creating and editing pages, libraries and lists, simple rules, approvals and deterministic workflows, renaming and sharing individual files, creating and managing skills, and Autofill metadata. Advanced work requires usage-based billing and consumes Copilot Credits: working across large or unbounded content sets including large-scale synthesis and document review, creating entire sites and solutions, creating and editing content at scale, multistep AI workflows such as skills in scheduled AI automations, real-time Autofill metadata, generating and editing images in libraries and pages, and analytics on how sites, pages, news and documents perform.

Microsoft states that credit consumption varies with the type and complexity of the task and the nature and volume of the content, and points to the Copilot Credits licensing guide for scenarios. What a user sees: most users' experience is unchanged from preview; a user with credits is asked to confirm before a prompt moves into advanced work; /cost shows credits used and the monthly remainder; a warning fires at 20% of the monthly limit remaining; a user without credits gets an explanation of what cannot be completed, and a task that crosses the working-at-scale threshold completes what it can and asks for a new chat session.

The administrator action: a spending policy

Microsoft states that for most organizations an admin action is required before anyone can use advanced capabilities: in the Microsoft 365 admin center, Copilot, then Cost management, add a spending policy, scope it to all users or specific security groups, select "Advanced work in SharePoint" under agents and services, set limits and alerts, and choose a billing method. Microsoft's cost-management page adds the guardrails: a monthly budget limit of at least 2,000 credits per user, a policy-level monthly limit, prepaid credits consumed before pay-as-you-go, and a user who hits the limit losing access to the usage-based services until credits reset on the first of the month.

Two settings deserve a deliberate choice. The Auto-apply new services toggle is on by default for spending policies; Microsoft notes that an existing policy may automatically include newly available services, including this one, when the toggle is on, and tells administrators to review existing policies for it. And Microsoft's own guidance on who needs credits is narrow: prioritize content managers and site managers, assign to content creators by need, and expect that all other SharePoint users likely do not need credits because everyday productivity stays in the license.

Not available in these clouds

Microsoft's page states that Microsoft 365 Government (GCC, GCC High, DoD), Office 365 air-gapped cloud environments, and Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet do not currently support Copilot in SharePoint. For a regulated tenant on one of those clouds, the November 1 change does not apply yet.

The cutover checklist

Where EPC Group fits

EPC Group is a Houston Microsoft consulting firm founded in 1997. The November 1 cutover is a governance exercise before it is a feature rollout: which sites may surface Copilot, who holds that decision, and who is allowed to spend credits. EPC Group's Copilot Security Review covers the site-level discovery and permission state that these controls depend on. To discuss a tenant that opted out during preview, use Contact EPC Group.

Frequently asked questions

When does the preview PowerShell control for Copilot in SharePoint stop working?

Microsoft states that existing settings for KnowledgeAgentScope, KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesList and KnowledgeAgentSelectedSitesListOperation continue to be honored until November 1, 2026, and that after that date availability is managed with Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery.

Does a tenant that set KnowledgeAgentScope to NoSites stay opted out after November 1?

Microsoft's page does not describe a tenant-wide replacement for NoSites; it names Site AI settings and Restricted Content Discovery as the availability controls after November 1, 2026. A tenant that wants Copilot in SharePoint kept off a site should enable RCD on that site, which Microsoft states removes Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions regardless of other settings.

Does Copilot in SharePoint cost extra?

Microsoft states that everyday capabilities are included with the Microsoft 365 Copilot license at no extra cost and need no opt-in, while advanced work requires usage-based billing and consumes Copilot Credits.

What counts as advanced work?

Microsoft's table lists working across large or unbounded content sets, creating entire sites and solutions, creating and editing content at scale, multistep AI workflows such as scheduled skills, real-time Autofill metadata, image generation and editing, and performance analytics for sites, pages, news and documents.

What has to be configured before anyone can use advanced work?

Microsoft states that for most organizations an administrator must add a spending policy in the Microsoft 365 admin center (Copilot, Cost management) with "Advanced work in SharePoint" selected, set limits and alerts, and choose a billing method; users then need available Copilot Credits.

Does Restricted Content Discovery still hide Copilot on a site?

Yes. Microsoft states that if RCD is enabled on a site, Copilot in SharePoint and AI actions do not appear on that site regardless of other availability settings.

Is Copilot in SharePoint available in GCC or GCC High?

No. Microsoft states that GCC, GCC High, DoD, Office 365 air-gapped environments and Microsoft 365 operated by 21Vianet do not currently support Copilot in SharePoint.

Primary sources and verification

Read October 14, 2026. Every date, control name and billing statement above is Microsoft's; the decisions are EPC Group's guidance.

• Get started with Copilot in SharePoint — GA rollout from September 30, 2026; the two changes at GA; retirement of the preview PowerShell controls, honored until November 1, 2026; Site AI settings; RCD respected; the everyday-versus-advanced table; the spending-policy steps; who needs credits; what users see; the unsupported clouds.
• Managing AI experiences enabled by usage-based billing — spending policies, the Auto-apply new services toggle, the 2,000-credit per-user minimum, limits and alerts, prepaid credits before pay-as-you-go.
• Restrict discovery of SharePoint sites and content — RCD is site-level, does not change permissions, is not supported for OneDrive, removes AI entry points, can take more than a week to propagate on sites over 500,000 items; Set-SPOSite -RestrictContentOrgWideSearch.