HubSpot and Microsoft just changed how AI is billed

On 15 October 2026 HubSpot announced spend caps that are on by default, set at up to 50% above your monthly credits, and said it will no longer move you to a bigger plan because your usage grew. A day earlier, on 14 October, Microsoft told its partners that from 1 December 2026 Microsoft 365 Copilot can be bought without a Microsoft 365 subscription, and that pay-as-you-go billing becomes the default on new Copilot Business licences, though not in Australia at first.

Put together, both vendors are moving AI from a flat fee per seat to a metered bill, with a ceiling you are expected to set yourself. For a 50 to 250 person Australian business that means three jobs this week: set the HubSpot credit limit and decide who hears when it is close, count who actually uses Copilot before you renew or add seats, and give AI its own line in the budget for the rest of FY27.

None of it needs a project. It is about an hour in two admin screens, plus a conversation with whoever signs off the software budget. The table below has every change, the date, and what to do about it.

What changed, when, and what to do

At the time of writing, 16 October 2026, this is everything confirmed in the two announcements and the vendors' own help pages.

The pattern is the same on both sides. The seat price stays, and a usage meter sits on top of it for the agents and heavier AI work.

What should you set in HubSpot this week?

All of this sits under your account name, top right, then Account & Billing, then the HubSpot Credits tab. Only a Super Admin or Billing Admin can change it.

• Check your overage setting first. HubSpot's knowledge base says accounts that bought extra credits before 16 September 2026 default to automatic upgrade: go over your monthly limit and you move to a bigger capacity pack for the rest of your commitment term, and you can only step down at the end of that term. Purchases on or after 16 September default to pay-as-you-go, where the extra is billed for that month and the limit resets. HubSpot's Product and Services Catalog still describes the automatic upgrade at the time of writing, so check which one your account shows. For most businesses, pay-as-you-go is the safer default.
• Set the account limit. Once you buy extra credits, HubSpot sets a maximum up to 50% above your total monthly credits. Professional plans include 3,000 credits a month, or 5,000 for Data Hub Professional, so the default ceiling could be 4,500 or 7,500. Pick the number that matches what you budgeted.
• Cap individual tools. Feature credit limits let you put a ceiling on each tool that uses credits. HubSpot names Customer Agent, Prospecting Agent and Data Agent among them. A feature limit only caps spending. It does not hold credits back for that tool.
• Decide who hears about it. Super Admins and Billing Admins get emails at 75%, 85% and 90% of the limit, and again when it is hit. If your only Super Admin is a contractor or someone who left, nobody hears. Give Billing Admin to the person who owns the budget and the person who runs the agents.

The money involved is usually small. HubSpot lists extra credits at US$0.010 each (its catalog quotes US dollars), so going 1,500 credits past your included credits costs about US$15 for the month. What actually hurts is the pause: when the limit is reached, every feature that uses credits stops until the reset date. If your Customer Agent answers website chat and the limit is hit on the 20th, customers are talking to nobody until the reset date.

Which HubSpot agents are worth the credits?

Give the credits to the agents doing a job someone would otherwise be paid to do, and cap the ones you switched on to try. A simple test for each one:

• Does someone check its work every week? If nobody reviews what the Prospecting Agent sent, or what the Data Agent wrote into your properties, it should not have a large allowance.
• Can you name the outcome? Tickets closed without a person, meetings booked, records filled in. HubSpot says Customer Agent and Prospecting Agent already moved to outcome-based pricing earlier this year, which makes this easier to count.
• Is it running on clean data? Credits spent enriching duplicates or fake contacts are wasted. That is a data hygiene job before it is a billing job.

We have covered the numbers elsewhere, so we will not repeat them here. What HubSpot's AI agents cost to run in Australian dollars works through the agent costs, and Breeze credits or your own API key compares paying HubSpot per credit with calling a model directly.

Who in your business actually needs Copilot?

Microsoft's changes do not move your bill on their own. Existing subscriptions keep the same price, renewal terms and product IDs. What they change is how easy it becomes to add seats, and how easy it becomes to add metered usage on top.

On 16 October 2026 Microsoft's Australian site lists Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, for businesses with up to 300 users, at AU$31.40 per user per month paid yearly, discounted to AU$26.91 until 31 December 2026, or AU$37.68 paid monthly. Microsoft 365 Copilot for larger organisations is AU$44.90 paid yearly. All of those exclude GST.

Before you renew or add seats, pull the Copilot usage report in the Microsoft 365 admin center and sort staff into three groups:

• Daily users. People who draft, summarise or analyse in Word, Outlook, Excel and Teams every day. They are worth a licence.
• Occasional users. Most of them get enough from Copilot Chat, which Microsoft offers with metered pricing for agents instead of a full licence.
• Nobody's using it. Licences assigned in a burst of enthusiasm and not opened since. Take them back at renewal.

Then look at Copilot > Cost management in the admin center. Spending policies there have an Auto-apply new services setting that is on by default, so any new Copilot agent Microsoft adds falls under your existing policy without anyone reviewing it. Turn it off on any policy where you want to look at new agents first, and set organisation and user limits now, before pay-as-you-go becomes the default in Australia.

If your team is weighing up Copilot against other tools altogether, our comparison of ChatGPT, Claude and Copilot covers which fits which kind of business.

How should you budget AI spend for the rest of FY27?

FY27 runs from 1 July 2026 to 30 June 2027, so there are eight full months left from November. Give AI its own line in the budget, split into the fixed part and the metered part, because they behave differently.

Here is a worked example for a 100 person business on HubSpot Professional, with 20 daily Copilot users. Prices are list prices on 16 October 2026.

The gap between licensing 20 people and licensing everyone is about AU$30,000 a year before GST. That is the decision worth your time. The HubSpot buffer is small, and its job is to stop agents pausing mid-month, so set it and move on.

20 users, discount price, bought before 31 DecAU$6,458.40

20 users, list priceAU$7,536

All 100 staff, list priceAU$37,680

Our worked example: a 100 person business on Copilot Business, annual plan, per year before GST. Prices from Microsoft Australia on 16 October 2026.

Three habits keep the metered part honest:

• Review it monthly. Put credit usage and Copilot consumption in front of the budget owner once a month, next to what each agent produced.
• Raise limits on evidence. If an agent hits its cap and the work it does is worth more than the credits, raise that one cap. Do not raise the account limit to cover everything.
• Plan for GST. Both vendors quote prices without GST. If you are registered you can usually claim the GST back, but the cash goes out first.

For the seat side of the HubSpot bill, our guide to how much HubSpot costs in Australia in 2026 has every tier in AUD.

What could still change?

HubSpot's announcement does not give effective dates or say which regions get each change first. Its catalog and knowledge base have not fully caught up with the 15 October announcement, so expect those pages to change. Microsoft says it will share more as pay-as-you-go reaches Australia, and has already moved that date once, from 2 November to 1 December. Check the settings again in December and again before your renewal.

1. 16 September 2026New HubSpot credit purchases default to pay-as-you-go. Earlier purchases may still be on automatic upgrade.
2. 14 October 2026Microsoft tells partners about Copilot without a Microsoft 365 subscription and pay-as-you-go by default.
3. 15 October 2026HubSpot announces spend caps, no automatic upgrades, seat swaps and a choice of credit packs or pay-as-you-go.
4. 16 October 2026Current Copilot offers renamed "(add-on)". Same price and terms.
5. 1 December 2026Copilot can be bought without Microsoft 365. Pay-as-you-go becomes the default for new Copilot Business licences, though not in Australia at first.
6. 31 December 2026The Copilot Business discount of AU$26.91 per user per month ends.

Sources: HubSpot, 15 October 2026, the HubSpot Knowledge Base, Microsoft Partner Center October 2026 announcements and Microsoft Australia. Dashed steps have not happened yet.

Frequently asked questions

What is HubSpot's default credit spend limit? Once you buy extra HubSpot Credits, HubSpot sets an account-level limit up to 50% above your total monthly credits. Super Admins or Billing Admins can change it under Account & Billing, HubSpot Credits.

Will HubSpot still upgrade my plan automatically if I use more credits? HubSpot announced on 15 October 2026 that it will not move customers to a bigger plan because usage grows. Its knowledge base says accounts that bought credits before 16 September 2026 default to automatic upgrade, so check your overage setting and switch to pay-as-you-go if you want the limit to reset each month.

What happens when a HubSpot account reaches its credit limit? Features that use HubSpot Credits, including the AI agents, pause until the next reset date unless you raise the limit. Admins get warning emails at 75%, 85% and 90%.

Can you buy Microsoft 365 Copilot without Microsoft 365? From 1 December 2026, yes. Microsoft says new Copilot and Copilot Business offers will not need a qualifying Microsoft 365 subscription, at the same price, though Copilot still works with the Microsoft 365 apps you are licensed for.

Is Copilot usage-based billing the default in Australia? Not at first. Microsoft says pay-as-you-go becomes the default for new Copilot Business licences bought through partners from 1 December 2026, but Australia is one of the markets where it will initially not be available.

Sources

• HubSpot gives customers more control of their AI spend, HubSpot, 15 October 2026, for spend caps, no automatic upgrades, seat swaps, credit packs and pay-as-you-go.
• Understand HubSpot Credits and billing, HubSpot Knowledge Base, for the 50% limit, feature limits, alert thresholds, the pause, the 16 September defaults and where the settings are.
• HubSpot Product and Services Catalog, HubSpot Legal, for included credits, the US$0.010 credit price and the automatic capacity pack upgrade.
• October 2026 announcements, Microsoft Partner Center, for Copilot without a base subscription, the "(add-on)" rename and the usage-based billing default and its markets.
• Usage-based billing and cost management for Copilot Credits, Microsoft Learn, for Cost management and the Auto-apply new services setting.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot Business, Microsoft Australia, for AUD prices, the discount end date, the 300 user limit and GST.
• Microsoft 365 Copilot for enterprise, Microsoft Australia, for the enterprise AUD price.
• Register for goods and services tax (GST), business.gov.au, for the 10% rate and GST credits.
• Microsoft Copilot usage report, Microsoft Learn, for the per-user last activity date in the admin center.

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Want your HubSpot credit settings and agents checked by someone who sets them up every week? See our RevOps and HubSpot work, or talk to us.