A Copilot license is $360 per user per year. In a 100-user company that's $36,000 a year. Does this investment pay for itself? For the ROI calculation, you need to work out the expected time savings concretely.
01. Expected Time Savings
Microsoft claims the average user gains 4-10 hours of time savings a week. Independent studies (McKinsey, Forrester) suggest a range of 3-7 hours.
02. ROI Calculation
100 users × 4 hours a week × 48 weeks a year = 19,200 hours/year. If the average hourly cost is $30 = $576,000 annual gain. Investment $36,000. ROI ~16x.
03. A Realistic Evaluation
But this calculation is the ideal scenario. In practice:
- Not every user uses Copilot with the same efficiency
- There's training and adjustment time
- Some tasks require the AI output to be revised
A realistic ROI estimate: expect it in the 2-5x range.
04. Pilot Recommendation
Instead of giving Copilot to the whole team at once, it's ideal to start with a 10-20 person pilot. After 2-3 months, a decision is made with concrete metrics; scale up or stop.
05. Alternative Evaluation
There are also alternatives like ChatGPT Enterprise ($60/month), Claude Enterprise and Gemini Business. If you don't only use 365, Copilot's advantage decreases.