GitHub Copilot billing goes live

GitHub began charging Copilot users under a new usage-based billing system on June 1, replacing the product’s older “premium requests” framework with AI credits tied to token consumption. The change applies across individual, business and enterprise Copilot plans, according to GitHub’s blog and billing documentation. GitHub said the new system counts input, output and cached tokens, with additional usage billed after each plan’s included monthly allowance is exhausted. The rollout drew complaints on developer forums and social media this week from users who said usage was harder to predict under the new model. ### When did GitHub actually flip Copilot billing over? June 1 was the effective date for the billing change, according to a GitHub changelog entry published that day. GitHub wrote that “all Copilot plans bill based on GitHub AI Credits consumed” as of June 1 and said each plan includes a monthly amount of usage before overages apply. May 12 was GitHub’s earlier warning date for enterprise customers. In a separate changelog post, GitHub said admins could download April usage reports to see how existing Copilot activity would translate into AI credits before the new billing unit went live. ### What replaced the old Copilot pricing system? GitHub said the new billing unit is the GitHub AI credit. (github.blog) Its documentation says one AI credit equals $0.01 and that usage is calculated from per-token rates for the model being used. GitHub’s blog said the company was moving “instead of counting premium requests” to a system that aligns pricing with actual usage. (github.blog) GitHub’s billing documentation says Copilot features that consume AI credits include Copilot Chat, Copilot CLI, Copilot cloud agent, Copilot Spaces, Spark and third-party coding agents. A separate changelog entry said Copilot code review would also begin consuming GitHub Actions minutes on June 1 in addition to AI credits. ### What do the current Copilot plans include? (docs.github.com) GitHub’s plans page lists Copilot Free at no charge, with 2,000 completions per month and access to select models. The individual paid tiers in GitHub’s billing docs are Copilot Pro at $10 per month with 1,500 monthly AI credits, Copilot Pro+ at $39 with 7,000 credits, and Copilot Max at $100 with 20,000 credits. Organizations are billed differently. (docs.github.com) GitHub’s enterprise billing docs list Copilot Business at $19 per user per month with 1,900 AI credits per user and Copilot Enterprise at $39 per user per month with 3,900 credits per user, pooled at the billing-entity level. Existing business and enterprise customers receive higher included credit amounts from June 1 to September 1, 2026, during a promotional period, GitHub said. (github.com) ### Why are developers complaining this week? Ars Technica reported on June 2 that Copilot users on social platforms and forums were posting usage screenshots and saying a few hours of activity could consume a large share of their monthly caps. The report said some users claimed they used up a month’s quota in less than a day. (docs.github.com) GitHub has not, in the materials reviewed, published a response to the social-media complaints beyond its documentation and rollout posts. Those materials emphasize new budget controls at the user, cost-center and enterprise levels that determine whether usage is served, metered or blocked once limits are reached. ### Where can users see what they will be charged? (arstechnica.com) GitHub’s billing reference pages now publish model-pricing tables and per-token rates for additional usage. The company’s usage-based billing pages for individuals and for organizations explain included allowances, what happens after credits run out, and which features consume credits. June 1 also brought upgrades to Copilot Max and new budget controls, according to GitHub’s changelog. (docs.github.com) For users trying to estimate future charges, GitHub’s plans page, billing docs and model-pricing tables are the company’s current source documents for how Copilot usage is counted and billed. (github.blog) (docs.github.com)