Azure AI Foundry vs Microsoft Copilot Studio

Why reinvent the wheel - especially when someone else out there can do it better than you?

I had every intention of writing a piece comparing Azure AI Foundry to Microsoft Copilot Studio. It’s a question I’ve faced a few times in my line of work as a Tech Strategist, and it felt like a natural progression in my Azure AI Foundry series - where I’ve already explored what it is, what it isn’t, and why use it.

However, while scrolling LinkedIn earlier this week, I came across a post by none other than Peter De Tender - a well-respected Microsoft Technical Trainer - who had already tackled the exact comparison I had in mind.

So rather than start from scratch, I’m doing something better: amplifying his excellent article and encouraging you to give it a read.

👉 Here’s the link to his article:

TL;DR – My Quick Take

Peter nails the distinction:

• Copilot Studio is perfect for rapid, low-code solutions - chatbots, automation, and lightweight business workflows. It’s ideal for organisations already deeply embedded in the Microsoft 365 ecosystem.

• Azure AI Foundry, on the other hand, is designed for developers and technical teams looking to build, customise, and scale GenAI apps with precision and flexibility. It’s about orchestration, experimentation, and end-to-end control.

They serve different purposes - but both are valuable depending on the problem you're solving.

So, like all things in tech, the answer to the question on which one to use is: it depends!

From my side, one key consideration that stems beyond usage is the cost model, and the surrounding ecosystem you deploy and build into.

For example, Azure AI Foundry is deployed into Azure as a resource - just like a storage account or virtual machine. Whilst the costs for Azure AI Foundry aren't immediately clear (I'll write more about this in detail in another post) - the costs themselves will be billed via the Azure subscription into which they are deployed.

Copilot Studio, in contrast, operates within the Power Platform environment. Solutions are developed in Power Apps environments and published into environments tied to your Microsoft 365 tenant. Pricing is typically consumption-based, with licensing linked to Power Platform plans or pay-as-you-go usage via Power Platform capacity. This means you’re operating inside the governance, compliance, and licensing model of Microsoft 365, not Azure.