GitHub starts usage‑based Copilot

GitHub said on April 27 that Copilot will switch to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026, replacing premium request counts with GitHub AI Credits. (github.blog) The new system charges by token use: input tokens sent to a model, output tokens returned by it, and cached tokens reused from prior context. GitHub says every credit equals $0.01. (docs.github.com) That replaces Copilot’s current request-based system, where a quick chat prompt and a long agent session could be treated more similarly even if they used very different amounts of compute. (github.blog) GitHub says the shift follows Copilot’s move from an in-editor assistant to what it calls an “agentic” coding platform that can run longer, multi-step sessions across repositories. Those sessions can trigger multiple model calls inside one task. (github.blog) (docs.github.com) For individual users, Copilot Pro will include 1,000 AI credits per month and Copilot Pro+ will include 3,900. If users run through that allowance, they can set a dollar budget for extra usage or wait for the next monthly reset. (docs.github.com) For organizations, Copilot Business will include 1,900 AI credits per user per month and Copilot Enterprise will include 3,900, but those credits are pooled at the billing entity level. Existing customers get a three-month promotional boost to 3,000 and 7,000 credits per user, respectively, through September 1, 2026. (docs.github.com) GitHub said base subscription prices are not changing: Copilot Pro stays at $10 a month, Pro+ at $39, Business at $19 per user, and Enterprise at $39 per user. (github.blog) Some Copilot features will keep working outside the new meter. GitHub says code completions and Next Edit Suggestions remain included in all paid plans and do not consume AI credits. (github.blog) (docs.github.com) Other features do count against the new credit pool, including Copilot Chat, Copilot Command Line Interface, Copilot cloud agent, Copilot Spaces, Spark, and third-party coding agents. (docs.github.com) GitHub also said fallback experiences will end under the new model. Today, users who exhaust premium request units can fall back to a lower-cost model; after June 1, usage will instead be governed by remaining credits and admin budget controls. (github.blog) To help users estimate the change, GitHub says it will launch a bill preview in early May on the Billing Overview page, with April 2026 usage translated into AI credits and estimated dollar costs. A separate browser-based preview tool will let users upload a CSV usage report for a more detailed estimate. (github.blog) (docs.github.com) The pricing tables already show why model choice will matter more. GitHub lists GPT-5 mini at $0.25 per million input tokens and $2.00 per million output tokens, while GPT-5.5 is listed at $5.00 and $30.00. (docs.github.com) GitHub’s new Copilot bill will now depend less on how many times a developer clicks and more on how much model work each session actually uses. (github.blog)