When building AI-powered chatbots in Microsoft Copilot Studio, one of the most important (and tricky) aspects to get right is authentication. Ensuring only the right people can access your Copilot — especially when it involves sensitive data or services — is critical. In this post, we’ll walk through the out-of-the-box authentication options and how they affect security and deployment.
Why Authentication Matters in Copilot
You might be here because you recognize that validating who interacts with your Copilot is essential. Whether you’re building an internal tool or customer-facing agent, securing your data starts with setting the right authentication method.
Copilot Studio provides three main authentication options:
- No Authentication
- Authenticate with Microsoft (via Entra ID)
- Authenticate Manually
Let’s break down what each one does, along with the pros, cons, and how they impact your deployment.
Option 1: No Authentication
Selecting No Authentication means anyone with access to your Copilot link can interact with it — no sign-in required. This is useful for public bots or when sharing broad, non-sensitive information.
However, it comes with serious risks. According to Microsoft’s documentation, this setting can put your organization at risk and doesn’t offer user control at the entry point. You can still protect sensitive features behind logic and flows, but initial access is unrestricted.
⚠️ Caution: Avoid this option if your bot accesses personal or private data.
Option 2: Authenticate with Microsoft (via Entra ID)
This option uses Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) to automatically identify users — no manual sign-in needed. It works seamlessly with Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365.
But there’s a trade-off: only Teams and M365 channels are supported. That means if you want to publish your Copilot to websites or third-party apps, this option won’t work.
💡 Ideal for internal bots used within the Microsoft ecosystem.
Option 3: Authenticate Manually
The Authenticate Manually option gives you full control over who signs in and how. You can specify that users must sign in before interacting with the bot or only require sign-in once they trigger a topic that accesses sensitive data.
This flexibility is perfect for scenarios where you want to publish to multiple channels — like websites, apps, or third-party portals — while still maintaining user-level security.
When enabled, Copilot Studio automatically adds a special “Require Users to Sign In” topic, which you can customize like any other topic. This ensures a secure, seamless user experience.
Important Notes on Authentication Behavior
- Authentication settings affect deployment channels. Some combinations of authentication and channel simply won’t work together. Always check compatibility before finalizing your setup.
- Changes only take effect after publishing. If you tweak your authentication settings, you’ll need to republish the bot for them to go live.
- Admin controls may limit options. If your Power Platform admin has locked certain settings, you may be restricted from enabling or disabling manual authentication.
Final Thoughts
Authentication might not be the most glamorous part of building a Copilot, but it’s one of the most important for ensuring privacy and security. Microsoft Copilot Studio offers flexible options — but each comes with trade-offs in terms of access, ease of use, and deployment.
Happy Developing!