Power Platform and SQL news, 23 October 2026: AI Builder credits end on 1 November
Easy Insight Team ·
From 1 November 2026, new and renewed Power Apps and Power Automate premium licences stop including AI Builder credits, so document-reading and AI flows move onto Copilot Credits at renewal. If you still run SQL Server 2016, it has been out of support since July. And the Copilot price list for the 1 December buying change appears on 1 November.
This covers 17 to 23 October. The Power BI October feature summary will anchor our first-Friday update on 6 November, and last week's Copilot and Fabric news covered the 1 December billing change.
What changes for AI Builder on 1 November?
Two things end on the same day, according to Microsoft Learn's End of AI Builder credits page (updated 2 October 2026), and Microsoft repeated the date to partners on 22 October:
- Seeded credits stop. New or renewed Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licences, such as Power Apps Premium and Power Automate Premium, no longer come with AI Builder credits. Credits on a licence bought or renewed before 1 November last until the end of that contract term.
- Capacity add-ons reach end of life. Existing AI Builder add-ons keep working until they expire, but Microsoft tells customers to turn off auto-renew before the next renewal date.
AI Builder itself is not going away. Its features (invoice and receipt reading, text recognition, prompts) keep working, but they draw on Copilot Credits once the AI Builder credits run out. There is no automatic conversion. If an environment has neither kind of credit, Microsoft says the AI Builder action is blocked.
What will an invoice flow cost on Copilot Credits?
More per page than before. Microsoft's AI Builder licensing rate table (updated September 2026) prices receipt, invoice and identity document analysis at 8 Copilot Credits a page. At Microsoft's own US-dollar reference rates, that is $0.08 a page on Copilot Credits against $0.016 on an AI Builder add-on: five times as much. Plain text recognition is far cheaper, at 0.1 credits a page.
In sterling: a Copilot Studio capacity pack of 25,000 Copilot Credits a month costs £153.80 as of October 2026. At 8 credits a page, one pack covers about 3,125 invoice pages a month, roughly 5p a page. That is our arithmetic on Microsoft's list prices, not a quote. Credits reset monthly and do not roll over. For comparison, calling Microsoft's prebuilt invoice model directly in Azure was £7.5475 per 1,000 pages in UK South when our invoice guide checked in October 2026, well under 1p a page, though someone has to build the integration.
Our view: for a business processing a few hundred supplier invoices a month that is still modest, but it is a new line on the bill. Before your Power Platform renewal, look up how many AI Builder credits your flows used last month in the Power Platform admin centre, and decide who owns the Copilot Credits budget. Our Power Automate vs Zapier vs Make comparison covers the base licence costs, and our AI invoice processing guide covers whether the workflow is worth automating at all.
Are you still running SQL Server 2016?
If so, it is unsupported. Microsoft's lifecycle page shows extended support ended on 14 July 2026, so there are no more free security updates. Paid Extended Security Updates run in yearly steps to July 2029.
Many smaller firms have a 2016 instance behind an accounting, stock or line-of-business system that nobody has looked at in years. Microsoft held a SQL Modernization Day on 20 October (sessions go to YouTube afterwards) and listed two migration tools in public preview, including a SQL modernisation agent delivered as skills for GitHub Copilot CLI and Visual Studio Code. Treat those as previews. The decision that matters first is where the database should live: a newer SQL Server, Azure SQL, or, if it mainly feeds reporting, Microsoft Fabric. Our Fabric vs Synapse guide explains that last option, and Microsoft's Fabric promotion of up to 20% off pay-as-you-go capacity for some newcomers starts through partners on 2 November.
What else changed?
- Copilot price list: Microsoft says the product and SKU IDs for Copilot offers that need no Microsoft 365 base licence will appear in the partner price list preview on 1 November, at the same prices as today. The offers go on sale on 1 December (Partner Center, October 2026).
- Microsoft 365 E7 offer: a new Copilot Studio "Buy 5 Get 5" offer runs to 31 December, but it needs at least 300 new E7 seats, so it is not aimed at small businesses.
What we would do this week
Check when your Power Apps or Power Automate premium licences renew, find out which flows use AI Builder, and budget Copilot Credits for them. If a SQL Server 2016 box is still running, put its replacement on this quarter's list.
If you want help, our automation service builds and reviews Power Automate flows, our data engineering service handles database migrations, and the AI practice page explains how we work.
Frequently asked questions
What happens to AI Builder credits on 1 November 2026?
From 1 November 2026, new and renewed Power Platform and Dynamics 365 licences stop including seeded AI Builder credits, and AI Builder capacity add-ons reach end of life. Credits you already have last until your current contract term ends. After that, AI Builder features run on Copilot Credits.
Will my Power Automate flows that use AI Builder stop working?
Not on 1 November. Flows keep using your existing AI Builder credits until your contract term ends. After that they fall back to Copilot Credits, and Microsoft says that if neither kind of credit is available the AI Builder action is blocked, so the flow fails at that step.
How much does invoice processing cost on Copilot Credits?
Microsoft's rate table, updated September 2026, charges 8 Copilot Credits per page for receipt, invoice and identity document analysis. A UK Copilot Studio pack of 25,000 credits a month costs £153.80 as of October 2026, which works out at about 3,125 invoice pages, or roughly 5p a page.
Is SQL Server 2016 still supported?
No. Extended support for SQL Server 2016 ended on 14 July 2026, so it no longer gets free security updates. Microsoft sells Extended Security Updates for up to three more years, to July 2029, while you migrate or upgrade.
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