Microsoft offers developers a Copilot sandbox to help them build Copilot plugins

At Microsoft Ignite, Microsoft announced an exciting new offering for ISVs and other developers building Copilot plugins.

The challenge for development teams at the moment is that unless you have access to Copilot, it’s very hard to validate and test Copilot plugins. In addition, even if teams do have access to Copilot because they work at an organisation that is using it, best practice for development means that they are often working in a separate, non-production tenant (which won’t have Copilot).

Now though, there is route through for developers, with the ability for them to purchase a Copilot for Microsoft 365 developer sandbox environment.

This is currently in private preview and available to developers in the Microsoft 365 TAP (Technology Adoption Program), or existing Copilot for Microsoft 365 customers.

This is great news for ISVs that want to build plugins for Copilot because it now makes it much more attainable for them to have an environment to build and test against.

I don’t have any information yet regarding pricing or commitment, but as soon as I do I’ll update this blog post.

If you’re interested in this and you’re not already a Copilot for Microsoft 365 customer, consider joining the Microsoft 365 TAP.