Copilot Studio, Foundry Agent Service or the Agents SDK?
Four Microsoft agent options at different layers. Copilot Studio is the low-code SaaS builder, Foundry Agent Service is the Azure platform that runs agents, the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK carries messages between an agent and channels such as Teams, and Agent Framework is the code SDK for agent logic.1
How they relate
Comparable. They can be alternatives for some goals; which one fits depends on the goal.
These four are often listed side by side, but only two are direct alternatives. Microsoft's Cloud Adoption Framework puts the build choice between Microsoft Copilot Studio, a low-code SaaS platform, and Microsoft Foundry, a PaaS environment where Foundry Agent Service runs configuration-only prompt agents and code-based hosted agents. The other two are developer building blocks: Microsoft Agent Framework is the SDK for writing agents and multi-agent workflows in .NET, Python or Go (Go is in public preview), and the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK is the messaging layer that connects an agent's logic to Teams, Microsoft Copilot, websites and other channels.
Microsoft frames the decision around who builds and how much control you need. It positions Copilot Studio for process transformation by business teams with minimal coding, and Foundry for strategic transformation with deep integration, custom logic and your own choice of models. Agent Framework is described as the direct successor to Semantic Kernel and AutoGen, and Microsoft's architecture guidance pairs it with Foundry Agent Service for hosting code-first agents. The Agents SDK documentation is explicit that the SDK is not an AI model, an orchestration engine or a no-code builder: it is AI-agnostic and leaves the reasoning to whatever service you connect.
The options also combine. Microsoft suggests using the Copilot Studio interface with Foundry models, Foundry agents can be published to Microsoft Copilot and Teams, and Microsoft recommends time-boxed prototypes of one to two weeks per option, staying with low-code when it meets functional and security requirements.
You may need none of them. Microsoft's decision tree first asks whether a ready-made SaaS agent, for example in Microsoft 365 Copilot, GitHub Copilot or Dynamics 365, already covers the task. For fixed, rule-based steps it advises regular code or nongenerative AI, and for answering questions from a fixed set of documents it says a classic retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) solution is enough and an agent is unnecessary.123456
The technologies
Cloud application
Microsoft Copilot Studio
Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code SaaS studio for building agents and AI-driven workflows, connecting them to company data and systems, and publishing them to Teams, Microsoft Copilot, websites and other channels. Usage is billed in Copilot Credits, with some uses covered by a Microsoft 365 Copilot license.
Cloud service
Microsoft Foundry Agent Service
Foundry Agent Service is the managed runtime in Microsoft Foundry for building, hosting and scaling AI agents. Teams configure prompt agents with no code, run voice agents, or deploy their own agent code as hosted containers, with Entra identity, tools, tracing and publishing to Teams and Microsoft Copilot.
Framework / SDK
Microsoft 365 Agents SDK
The Microsoft 365 Agents SDK is a pro-code framework for building conversational agents that receive and answer messages across Microsoft Copilot, Teams, websites, Slack and other channels. It handles channel plumbing, state and authentication, and leaves the choice of AI model and orchestrator to the developer.
Framework / SDK
Microsoft Agent Framework
Microsoft Agent Framework is an open-source SDK for building AI agents and graph-based multi-agent workflows in .NET and Python, with Go in preview. It is the direct successor to Semantic Kernel and AutoGen, works with many model providers, and reached version 1.0 on 3 April 2026.
Which fits which goal
| If your goal is | What fits | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Build an agent for staff in Teams and Microsoft Copilot without writing code | Microsoft Copilot Studio | Copilot Studio is a low-code SaaS studio whose agents publish to Teams, Microsoft Copilot and websites and connect to systems through prebuilt or custom connectors. Microsoft's own example is an HR onboarding assistant over Microsoft 365 content.78 |
| Run an agent built with your own code, framework and model on managed Azure infrastructure | Foundry Agent Service | Hosted agents let you ship code built with Agent Framework, LangGraph, the OpenAI Agents SDK or your own code as a container, and Foundry supplies the endpoint, autoscaling and a dedicated Microsoft Entra identity.2 |
| Write multi-agent workflows in code with explicit control over execution order | Microsoft Agent Framework | Agent Framework adds graph-based workflows with explicit execution paths to its agent abstractions, and Microsoft pairs it with Foundry Agent Service for hosting and orchestration.35 |
| Reach users in Teams, Microsoft Copilot, a website and Slack from one code base | Microsoft 365 Agents SDK | The SDK provides a channel abstraction so agent logic is written once and translated for each surface, and it lets developers plug in any AI service or orchestration library.4 |
| Sell an agent to other organizations through the Microsoft Commercial Store | Microsoft 365 Agents SDK | Microsoft states that only agents built with the Teams SDK, the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK or Foundry can be published to the Microsoft Commercial Store with the Agents Toolkit, which excludes Copilot Studio from this route.8 |
| Keep an agent that touches confidential systems inside a private network | Foundry Agent Service | Foundry Agent Service supports private networking for prompt agents and bring-your-own virtual network for hosted agents, with Microsoft Entra identity and Azure RBAC.2 |
No technology here is ranked. Pricing and performance are left out on purpose: they depend on your models, hardware and contract, so measure them in a pilot.
Sources
- Technology plan for AI agents (Cloud Adoption Framework) (opens in a new tab)
- What is Microsoft Foundry Agent Service? (opens in a new tab)
- Microsoft Agent Framework overview (opens in a new tab)
- What is the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK (opens in a new tab)
- AI and machine learning products (Azure Architecture Center) (opens in a new tab)
- Business plan for AI agents (Cloud Adoption Framework) (opens in a new tab)
- Overview: Microsoft Copilot Studio (opens in a new tab)
- Custom engine agents for Microsoft 365 (opens in a new tab)
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