Publishing AI agents to the Microsoft marketplace

This guide outlines how to publish your AI agent—whether it's platformed on Azure or runs in Copilot—to Microsoft's marketplace. It provides guidance for listing such agents on web storefronts, and within product experiences such as the Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent store.

What is an AI agent?

An AI agent assists individuals or organizations by leveraging artificial intelligence to automate business processes. These agents perceive their environment, reason based on that perception, and take appropriate action. Their complexity ranges from basic retrieval functions to advanced autonomous operations.
Microsoft's marketplace helps customers easily discover, try, and buy your AI agent.

Why choose Microsoft marketplace for your AI agent?

Choosing Microsoft marketplace to publish your AI agent enables you to:

• Drive growth - by using Microsoft’s ecosystem and customer base.
• Reach customers in their flow of work - by integrating your agents into Microsoft 365 apps, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and the Azure portal.
• Simplify sales - through Microsoft’s global billing infrastructure and enterprise agreements.

Learn more about the benefits of distributing and monetizing your agent through Microsoft’s Commercial marketplace.

Choose the right offer type for your agent

Partner Center offers multiple options for publishing agents to the marketplace. Depending on their primary capabilities and intended audience, agentic solutions are categorized as either Azure agents or Microsoft 365 agents.

Azure agents

Overview: These agents operate on Azure infrastructure, which may be hosted by you or your customer. Azure agents are used in general-purpose cloud-based agentic solutions.
Azure agents support various deployment options, with the two most common approaches listed below:

SaaS deployment

Select this option when deploying the agent solution on your own tenant or subscription.

Recommended when your agent:

• Handles large or complex processing tasks.
• Requires significant control of the customer's experience.

Examples: An AI customer service platform, intelligent document analysis service, or predictive analytics dashboard.
Learn more about publishing SaaS-based agents.

Container deployment

Select this agent deployment if it runs on your customer's tenant or subscription.

Recommended when your agent:

• Handles sensitive or regulated data.
• Requires customers to have strong control over their data and deployment.

Examples: Healthcare AI that processes patient data, financial analysis tools for banks, or manufacturing optimization agents. Learn more about publishing Azure Container-based agents.

Microsoft 365 and Copilot agents

Overview: These agents are integrated into Copilot and Microsoft 365 applications such as Teams, Outlook, Word, and Excel. Microsoft 365 and Copilot agents are designed to enhance productivity within the Microsoft 365 environment.

Ideal Use Cases for the Agent:

• Assists users in increasing efficiency in day-to-day work activities.
• Automates manual tasks performed within Office 365 applications.

Examples: An AI that summarizes meeting notes in Teams, automatically categorizes emails in Outlook, or suggests improvements to documents in Word. Learn more about publishing Microsoft 365-based agents.

For a detailed comparison of all options, refer to Publishing guide by offer type.

Publish your agent to the marketplace

Publishing to the marketplace involves the following steps:

Build your agent

After selecting the offer type that aligns with your requirements, the first step is to build your agent that is integrated with the marketplace.

• SaaS based Azure agents: require that you activate your customers subscriptions after they have purchased the offer from marketplace, and stand up an endpoint for Microsoft to send customers usage lifecycle information. For more information on how to configure your SaaS product, refer to Technical configuration for SaaS offers
• Container based Azure agents: require a technical package stored in an Azure blob for customers to access. For more information on how to configure your container product, refer to Preparing your Azure container technical asset.
• Microsoft 365 and Copilot agents: require a technical manifest that defines how customers can activate the agent that is integrated with their Microsoft 365 experience. For more information on creating a Microsoft 365 agent, refer to Creating an Office add-in manifest.

Enroll in marketplace programs

To publish an offer through Partner Center, you must enroll in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner program. Depending on the agent type you intend to publish, you’ll also need to join either the Microsoft 365 and Copilot program, the Commercial marketplace program, or both.

• Microsoft 365 and Copilot program lets you publish agents for Microsoft 365 and Copilot. For details, refer to Enrolling in the Microsoft 365 and Copilot program.
• Commercial marketplace program enables you to publish Azure agents and monetize Microsoft 365 agents through linked SaaS offers. For more, refer to Enrolling in the Commercial marketplace program.

Learn more about Partner Center programs.

Create your marketplace listing

This section covers how to create a listing so customers can easily find your AI agent. Listing Details: include an offer name, description and a summary for your agent. Categories: Choose categories and subcategories that best fit with the value proposition of your agent. Microsoft provides two AI-focused categories – "AI Apps and Agents" and "Machine Learning" - to help customers find your agent. Selecting the right category ensures your offer reaches the right audience.

For details on categories and their impact on your listing, refer to the Marketplace categories guide. To learn more about creating compelling listings, refer to Best practices for marketing and listing your offer. You can also update an existing offer to incorporate these categories. For guidance on updating an existing offer, refer to Update an existing offer.

Monetization

You can choose to monetize your Azure or Microsoft 365 and Copilot agents through a variety of monetization models.

• SaaS based agents can be monetized as entitlement based (per-user or flat rate), usage based, or a combination of both. For guidance on pricing your SaaS agent, refer to Monetize a SaaS product.
• Container based agents can be monetized based on specific dimensions such as cores, clusters, nodes, or custom dimensions defined by you. For guidance on pricing your container agent, refer to Monetize a container offer.
• Microsoft 365 and Copilot agents can be monetized using a linked SaaS offer (and leverage the same SaaS offer monetization capabilities.) For guidance on how to monetize a Microsoft 365 agent, refer to Monetize a Microsoft 365 agent.

Submission

Once your offer is configured, it's ready to be published on the marketplace. For details on publishing states and the certification process your offer refer to, How to review and publish an offer.

Your path to AI agent success

Generative AI agents are becoming indispensable within the evolving technological landscape. Microsoft’s marketplace offers a robust suite of resources to ensure success, including access to qualified customers, proven publishing frameworks, and a comprehensive support infrastructure.

To get started on the publishing journey for your AI agent create your Partner Center account today.