To get the Microsoft 365 Copilot usage report, open the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Reports > Usage > Microsoft Copilot > Copilot, and select Export to download a CSV. For scheduled pulls, call the Microsoft Graph getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail API, and for a de-identified analyst file, use the data export in the Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights.
Each of these shows who has a license and who used Copilot. None of them tells you whether Copilot changed how work gets done. This guide covers both halves: how to pull the data from Teams, Word, Excel and PowerPoint, and how to turn it into a read on adoption, engagement and impact.
getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail with a period of D7, D28, D90, D180 or ALL. It needs the Reports.Read.All permission.There are three official sources, and they are meant for different jobs.
| Source | Best for | Level of detail | How far back | Export format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Microsoft 365 admin center report | A quick manual pull | Per user, per app | 7 / 28 / 90 / 180 days | CSV |
| Microsoft Graph API | Scheduled and automated pulls | Per user, per app | Up to 180 days | CSV (v1.0) or JSON (beta) |
| Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights | Analyst-grade, de-identified export | Per user, weekly or daily, by app and job function | 6 months (weekly) or 28 days (daily) | File download (open in Excel or Power BI) |
Pick the admin center for a one-time check, the Graph API when you want the pull to run on a schedule, and the Viva Insights export when you need clean data for a spreadsheet model. The three sections below walk through each.
This is the quickest route and needs no code. You need a role that can view usage reports, such as Reports Reader, AI Administrator or Global Administrator (Microsoft Learn).
What you get in the file:
Limits to know before you build anything on this file:
When you want the export to run on a schedule, use the getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail function in the Microsoft Graph reports API. The call is:
GET https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/copilot/reports/getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail(period='D28')
Reports.Read.All, as a delegated or application permission. With delegated access, the signed-in user also needs an admin role such as Reports Reader or AI Administrator.Two constraints shape what you can do with it. The API only returns users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license, and Microsoft states that unlicensed Copilot Chat usage is not available through the Graph reports APIs. And the Purview audit log is not a substitute: Microsoft says usage metrics built on audit data might not match the official reports, so use the reports API for adoption reporting and keep audit logs for security and compliance work.
The Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights is the analyst-facing view, and its data export gives the most detailed file of the three.
The requirements are stricter. Your tenant needs at least 50 Copilot or Viva Insights licenses, and you need global access to the dashboard. Managers with team-level views cannot export. Microsoft documents the export as a public preview feature, so the fields can still change.
The file has one row per user and period. Personal identifiers are replaced with anonymized IDs unless your administrator has enabled identifiable export. It includes Copilot actions and active days per app, Copilot Chat activity for people without a Copilot license, returning-user metrics, and two HR attributes: Organization and job function. Week-level data can be up to six days old and day-level data up to three days old. For large files, Microsoft suggests opening the export in Power BI rather than Excel.
Every method above answers the same narrow question: did this person use Copilot, and when. That is a starting line, not a finish line. A person can submit a prompt every day and still produce nothing better than before. Two details from Microsoft's own definitions make the gap concrete.
First, "active" means an intentional action such as submitting a prompt. Opening the Copilot pane in Word without typing anything does not count, so the active-user number measures trying, not results. Second, the apps are counted differently: Edit with Word counts toward Copilot Chat prompts, but Edit with Excel and Edit with PowerPoint do not, so a raw prompt count can understate spreadsheet and slide work.
The native reports also stop at the edge of Microsoft's data. They do not join usage to your full HR org structure (the Viva export carries only Organization and job function), they cannot show whether a team that ignores Copilot uses another assistant instead, and history ends at 180 days unless you store it. For the rollout side of the problem, see the enterprise guide to Microsoft Copilot adoption.
Worklytics connects to Microsoft 365 Copilot through the Microsoft Graph AI interaction history. It counts each user prompt (not the AI's responses) and tags it with the app it happened in: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, BizChat or WebChat. It captures lightweight signals such as prompt length and word count, never the text itself. The sections below map to the questions the raw export leaves open.
Adoption is not the license count. It is the share of licensed people who use Copilot at least once, and then the share who use it in a way that matters for their role. Worklytics reports activation rate, the percentage of licensed employees who have used Copilot, and breaks it down by department, team and manager using your HR data, so you can see exactly where a rollout stalled. Because it reads every connected AI tool, it also shows where a team leans on a different assistant instead. For a step-by-step view, see how to track Microsoft 365 Copilot usage by department.
This is the difference between "we deployed 5,000 licenses" and, for example, "1,900 of those people used Copilot in Excel this month, and the sales org has not touched it." For a fuller list of the signals that separate real adoption from a license report, see which AI adoption metrics actually matter.
A first prompt is easy. The second month is the test. Worklytics tracks active usage frequency, so you can sort people into weekly-active, occasional, and not-yet-active, and it flags adoption laggards, the departments or managers where uptake started and then flattened. It also identifies power users, the small group getting deep value, whose habits are the template you want other teams to copy.
Microsoft's report will tell you last activity dates. It will not tell you that a team's usage is being carried by two people while the other eight tried Copilot once in March. That distinction decides whether you invest in more licenses or in training the teams you already paid for.
A prompt count does not say what the prompt was for. Worklytics classifies AI activity into work categories such as drafting, research, analysis, summarization and email creation, so you can see which kinds of work Copilot supports in each team. Because usage is broken down by app, you can also see whether a team uses Copilot mainly in Teams and Outlook, or also in Excel and PowerPoint.
Worklytics pairs this with collaboration metrics from the rest of Microsoft 365, such as focus time (hours spent in uninterrupted blocks of work) and meeting load, so you can see whether heavy Copilot teams work differently from light ones. For the wider view on moving from activity metrics to output, see how to measure employee AI productivity.
This is the number leadership asks for and the native exports cannot produce. Worklytics classifies Copilot activity into work tasks and estimates the time each task pattern saves per person, so "prompts submitted" becomes "hours returned to the drafting, analysis and meeting-prep work Copilot touched." It pairs that with focus time, the share of the week people spend in uninterrupted deep work, so you can see whether Copilot is freeing up real capacity or just adding another tab.
Reading time saved by task also shows where Copilot earns its cost and where it does not, which is a sharper input to a renewal decision than an active-user rate.
Usage only matters if it changes how work gets done. Worklytics compares output, throughput and collaboration patterns between high-adoption and low-adoption teams over the same period, using Copilot usage alongside calendar, email and project tool signals.
Because Teams is a core Copilot surface, one of the clearest signals is the share of meetings that include an AI notetaker or recap, which frees attendees from writing notes and shortens follow-up.
That answers the question a prompt count never can: are the teams using Copilot the most also the teams meeting less, shipping more, or collaborating better? See how the same approach applies to another assistant in tracking Claude Enterprise usage by team.
An activation rate on its own has no context. Sixty percent could be strong or weak depending on your industry and rollout stage. Worklytics peer benchmarking, available in beta, compares your AI adoption with similar organizations, so a single number becomes a position: ahead, on pace or behind.
Microsoft hides user names in the admin center report by default and removes personal identifiers from the Viva Insights export unless an admin enables identifiable export. Worklytics follows the same principle. Personal identifiers are pseudonymized (hashed with SHA-256) before analysis, results are shown only for groups above a minimum size (typically 5 to 8 people), and Copilot prompts are reduced to length and word counts, never stored as text. You measure Copilot adoption and its effect on how teams work without monitoring individuals.
For the full method, see how to track employee AI usage without invading privacy.
In the Microsoft 365 admin center, go to Reports > Usage, then under Reports select Microsoft Copilot > Copilot. You need a role that can view usage reports, such as Reports Reader, AI Administrator or Global Administrator. The report covers the last 7, 28, 90 or 180 days.
Yes. Select Export on the user activity table to download every licensed user's row as a CSV, or select the ellipses on a chart and choose Export. For a de-identified file with more metrics, use Export data in the Copilot Dashboard in Viva Insights.
Yes. Call getMicrosoft365CopilotUsageUserDetail in Microsoft Graph with a period of D7, D28, D90, D180 or ALL and the Reports.Read.All permission. It returns last activity dates by app, prompt counts and active days for each user, but only for users with a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
The admin center report and the Graph API cover up to 180 days. The Viva Insights export covers six months by week or 28 days by day. To keep a longer history, export and store the data on a schedule, or use an analytics platform that keeps it for you.
No. The Copilot usage report and the Graph API only cover licensed users. Copilot Chat used without a license appears in the separate Microsoft Copilot Chat usage report in the admin center and in the Viva Insights export.
Exporting Copilot data from Microsoft tells you who has a license and who submitted a prompt. That is necessary, and it is not enough to defend the spend or improve the rollout. Worklytics turns that activity into the answers leadership needs: who is really using Copilot, whether they keep using it, which work it supports, and how high-adoption teams differ, all at group level. Next step: see how Worklytics measures AI adoption.
