Control effort level and cost in Microsoft Copilot's Cowork
Users can select effort levels (Light, Medium, Heavy) to balance quality, speed, and credit usage.
Effort level selection (Light, Medium, Heavy)
Cowork feature within Microsoft Copilot
Allows users to manage the trade-offs between output quality, processing speed, and AI credit consumption based on task complexity.
Users of Microsoft Copilot's Cowork feature can now choose an effort level. Options include Light for simpler tasks, Medium (default) for everyday work, and potentially others to balance output quality, speed, and AI credit usage.
- What’s New in Microsoft Copilot | August 2026 ↗Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog · Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog · Sep 2, 2026 · paraphrased
First seen on Subvolts Sep 2, 2026. Updated Sep 11, 2026. Spotted a problem? Tell us.
- What’s New in Microsoft Copilot | August 2026Microsoft · Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog · Sep 2, 2026
The Playbook: reusable how-tos, prompts, configs and tips pulled out of the news.
- Anti-patternRe-explaining context when switching applicationsAvoid re-explaining context when moving work between applications; use tools that carry context automatically. · 2 min
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- Anti-patternApplying AI to existing, inefficient workflowsDon't speed up broken processes; redesign workflows end-to-end before adding AI agents. · 60 min
- Anti-patternApplying AI to existing steps without workflow redesignDo not apply AI to broken processes; redesign workflows end-to-end first for true transformation. · 60 min
Questions people ask
- Which AI tools does this work with?
- The sources used it with Copilot.
- Where did this come from?
- Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog (Microsoft 365 Copilot Blog). Subvolts collected, normalized and credited it; the link above opens the original.

