Copilot assisted hours is the estimate finance teams reach for first when they want to know whether Copilot pays for itself. It sits on the impact page of the Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights and turns everyday Copilot use into a number of hours, which makes it handy when you need to optimize license spend within a quarter.
It is also easy to overstate. The questions below cover how Microsoft builds the figure, how it becomes money and when it deserves a second look before it reaches a slide about efficiency.
What are Copilot assisted hours?
Microsoft’s estimate of the total time employees were assisted by Copilot over the past 28 days. The impact page shows it next to Copilot actions taken and a satisfaction rate, with weekly trend lines covering the previous six months.
Viewing the dashboard needs neither a paid Viva Insights license nor a Copilot license, as long as the company has a Microsoft 365 or Office 365 business or enterprise subscription and an active Exchange Online account. The figures cover employees with an assigned Copilot license, and managers see them for their own teams, which makes it easier to discuss results group by group.
How does Microsoft calculate the figure?
Copilot use is grouped into three capability types, each turned into hours in its own way:
- Meeting summaries: the length of each Teams meeting summarized or recapped counts, once per meeting
- Search and summaries: Copilot Chat prompts and summary actions count 6 minutes each
- Creation: drafting emails, documents, presentations or Excel formulas also counts 6 minutes per action
If someone summarizes a one-hour meeting halfway through and opens the recap after it ends, the meeting still counts once, as a full hour. The three results are added together. The 6-minute factors come from Microsoft studies of knowledge workers, and Microsoft calls the outcome a broad approximation that will change as research improves. Creation is the softest part, and Microsoft says so itself.
How do the hours become a money value?
A second card, Copilot assisted value, multiplies assisted hours by an average hourly rate. The default is $72, based on data compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and you can change both the rate and the currency. The Hours and value calculator breaks the total down by app activity.
Set a rate that matches your own payroll before anyone sees the number. A default built on U.S. labor data will not match every payroll, especially outside the United States or in teams with very different salary levels. For now Microsoft notes that a changed rate is not saved, so it has to be entered again each time the dashboard is reopened.
Can you compare teams and other companies?
Yes, within limits. Leaders can compare usage patterns between two groups by group, organization or job function. Tenants with at least 50 Copilot or Viva Insights licenses also get benchmarks, internal ones built from colleagues in similar roles and external ones that each represent at least 20 companies.
Benchmarks show how you compare with others. Whether the money is well spent is a separate question, the one in the title of this article on measurement. Keep both views in the same report.
Why might the number look too low?
Three common reasons:
- Optional diagnostic data is off. Without it, assisted hours only include usage collected from required diagnostic data.
- Timing. Dashboard data covers the previous 28 days with up to a six-day delay.
- A known issue understated email draft and summary metrics, and with them assisted hours, from June 1, 2025, through February 18, 2026.
How should Copilot assisted hours feed a quarterly decision?
As one input among several. Microsoft warns that seasonality, role shifts and organizational changes also move dashboard metrics, so read the trend for each group across the quarter and set it beside the license expense for that group.
Three checks are usually enough: is the trend rising for the group, does it come from many users or a few, and is the satisfaction rate holding up alongside it?
Then check whether the people behind the hours are habitual users or a few enthusiasts. A rising total carried by a handful of power users is a training opportunity for everyone else.