As of August 2026, calling Microsoft 365 Copilot programmatically means choosing between two distinct implementations — the Work IQ Chat API (general availability, one permission, Copilot Credits billing) and the Graph beta Chat API (preview, seven required delegated scopes, flat M365 Copilot license) — and that choice shapes your authentication architecture, your enterprise admin consent conversation, and your billing model before you write a line of code. This post covers the complete request and response shape for both paths, the permission and billing models that cannot be swapped at go-live, and the five things neither implementation can do regardless of which path you choose.
Graph API
The Microsoft 365 Copilot Retrieval API: What Every Developer Must Know Before Building a RAG Integration
The Microsoft 365 Copilot Retrieval API gives developers a direct path to retrieval-augmented generation on organizational content — no chunking pipeline, no vector store, no sync job — by exposing the semantic index Microsoft 365 already maintains for Copilot across SharePoint, OneDrive, and connector content. This post covers the complete request and response shape, the delegated-only auth constraint that rules out daemon integrations, the 200-request-per-user-per-hour rate limit strategy, and a clear decision boundary between the Retrieval API and the beta Search API.
Build a Python Azure Function to Connect with SharePoint Online via Microsoft Graph API
This guide walks you through creating, deploying, and securely managing a Python Azure Function that connects to SharePoint Online using the Microsoft Graph API. Learn how to register an app, configure permissions, install Azure Function Core Tools, manage Python versions, package dependencies, and deploy using ZIP to keep your source code hidden from the Azure Portal. Ideal for production-grade SharePoint integrations in a secure and scalable way.