GitHub Copilot Pricing Explained (2026): Usage-Based Billing

GitHub Copilot now starts free and tops out at $100/month, but the number that matters changed on June 1, 2026: every plan moved to usage-based billing. Instead of counting "premium requests," each tier ships with a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits, and paid plans can buy more. The upside for most developers is that inline completions stay free and never touch that pool.

GitHub Copilot plans and prices

Here is every current GitHub Copilot plan, its price, and the monthly AI Credit allowance baked in. Prices are per user, per month unless noted.

Plan	Price	Monthly AI Credits / what's included
Free	$0	Limited access, auto model selection only, a small credit allowance for metered features.
Pro	$10/month	Includes $10 of monthly AI Credits; free unlimited code completions.
Pro+	$39/month	Includes $39 of monthly AI Credits, plus priority access to more models.
Max	$100/month	Priority access to the newest models and the highest individual monthly credit allowance.
Business	$19/user/month	Includes $19 of monthly AI Credits, plus org policy and management controls.
Enterprise	$39/user/month	Higher credit allowances plus enterprise controls and knowledge bases.

Notice the pattern: on the individual paid tiers, your monthly credit allowance equals your subscription price. Pay $10, get $10 of credits. That makes the sticker price easy to reason about — you're essentially pre-buying usage.

How AI Credits and usage billing work

AI Credits are the new usage currency that replaced the old premium-request counter. Every plan includes a monthly allotment, and on paid plans you can buy more once you run dry.

Usage is metered on token consumption — input, output, and cached tokens — charged at each model's listed API rate. A short question against a lightweight model barely dents your balance; a long agent session against a top-tier model spends far more. Heavier models and longer conversations draw down credits faster, so the same $10 stretches differently depending on how you work.

This is a real shift from the flat "X requests per month" model. It rewards efficient use and punishes leaving an agent looping unattended. If you want a fuller feature breakdown, our GitHub Copilot review walks through what each tier actually unlocks day to day.

Completions are free — this matters

The single most important detail in the new pricing: inline code completions and next-edit suggestions are free on all paid plans and do not consume credits. Only chat, agent mode, code review, and Copilot CLI draw from the credit pool.

For a developer who mostly relies on tab-to-accept autocomplete, that means the credit meter rarely moves. You can burn through a full day of coding, accept hundreds of suggestions, and spend zero credits. The pool only starts depleting when you open chat, kick off an agent task, or run a code review.

That design quietly protects light users from bill shock. It also means the "right" plan depends far more on how much chat and agent work you do than on how much you code.

Picking an individual plan

Start with how heavily you use chat and agent mode, not with the price. That's what actually consumes credits.

Pro at $10 is the default pick

Pro at $10/month is still the cheapest serious coding assistant on the market, and it's the right starting point for most developers. Because completions are free, the $10 credit allowance only gets spent on chat and agent runs — and lighter users may never exhaust it. If you rarely open chat, Pro can feel almost unlimited.

When to step up to Pro+ or Max

Move to Pro+ ($39) if you lean hard on chat and agent mode and want priority access to more models. Its $39 monthly credit allowance gives roughly four times the metered headroom of Pro. Reach for Max ($100) only if you're a heavy agent user who needs priority access to the newest models and the largest individual credit pool. The smart move before upgrading is to track your token usage for a couple of weeks — if you're constantly buying add-on credits on Pro, Pro+ or Max is cheaper than topping up.

Business vs Enterprise for teams

For teams, Business at $19/user/month mirrors the individual value with admin controls layered on top. You get a $19 monthly credit allowance per seat plus org policy and management — content exclusion, seat assignment, and centralized settings.

Step up to Enterprise at $39/user/month when you need higher per-seat allowances, deeper enterprise controls, and knowledge bases that ground Copilot in your own repositories and docs. For most small and mid-size teams, Business is the sweet spot; Enterprise earns its premium at scale or where compliance and knowledge grounding are non-negotiable.

Is GitHub Copilot worth it?

For most developers, yes — and Pro at $10 is the reason. It remains the cheapest serious coding assistant, and free completions mean light users may genuinely never touch their credit pool. If autocomplete is 90% of what you want from an AI assistant, you're getting that for ten dollars with credits left over.

The real risk is heavy agent-mode or chat use burning credits fast. If you live in agent mode or run long chat sessions against top-tier models, the meter moves quickly — track your token usage and consider stepping up to Pro+ or Max before reflexively buying add-on credits. For teams, Business at $19 mirrors the individual value with the admin controls larger groups need.

Copilot isn't the only option worth weighing. See how it stacks up against rivals in our roundup of the best AI coding assistants, and compare the numbers directly with our Cursor pricing breakdown if you're deciding between the two.