GitHub Copilot Pricing (October 2026): Free, Pro, Pro+, Max, Business & Enterprise

As of October 17, 2026, GitHub Copilot costs $0 (Free), $10/month (Pro), $39/month (Pro+), $100/month (Max), $19 per seat (Business) and $39 per seat (Enterprise). Copilot Student is free for verified students. The big change in 2026 is how usage is counted: since June 1, 2026, every plan includes a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits worth $0.01 each, and each chat, agent or CLI action uses credits based on the tokens it processes and the model you pick. Code completions don't use credits and remain unlimited on paid plans.

Plan-by-plan breakdown

On the individual paid plans, the base credits match the subscription price ($10 buys 1,000 credits on Pro) and the flex credits are an extra amount GitHub adds on top. GitHub's billing docs say the flex allotment may change over time as model prices and efficiency change, so treat it as a bonus rather than a guarantee. Base credits are used first, then flex.

Free

Copilot Free is for individual developers who don't get Copilot through an organization. It includes 2,000 inline suggestions a month, Copilot CLI, agent mode, MCP server integration and custom instructions. GitHub's plans FAQ says Free users are limited to 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month. You only get Auto model selection, and the cloud agent and code review are not included. When you hit the limit, you wait for the next cycle.

Student

Copilot Student replaced free Copilot Pro for students in March 2026. It's free after GitHub Education verification and includes unlimited completions and a monthly credit allowance. GitHub's docs don't state the size of the allowance; GitHub's community announcement put it at 200 credits from June 1, 2026. Since June 24, 2026, Student uses Auto model selection only, and third-party agents are excluded. See GitHub Copilot free for students for how to apply.

Pro, Pro+ and Max

Pro ($10) is the entry paid plan: unlimited completions, the cloud agent, code review and a choice of models. Pro+ ($39) adds premium models (for example, Claude Opus 4.8 is listed as included on Pro+ and Max but not on Pro) and lets you delegate tasks to third-party coding agents such as Claude and OpenAI Codex, currently in preview. Max ($100), added on June 1, 2026, has the largest individual allowance and priority access to premium models, aimed at heavy agent use.

Business and Enterprise

Business ($19 per seat) adds centralized license and policy management, user-level budgets and 1,900 credits per user. Enterprise ($39 per seat) has 3,900 credits per user and priority access to premium models, and needs a GitHub Enterprise Cloud account, which is billed separately. Copilot is not available for GitHub Enterprise Server. Admins decide whether paid overage is allowed; if not, Copilot pauses for that user until the next cycle.

Billing change for organizations: since October 1, 2026, Business and Enterprise customers who pay by credit card or PayPal are charged upfront for every assigned seat at the start of each billing cycle, and new seats must be paid before the user gets access. Revoking a seat does not trigger a prorated refund. Seat prices did not change (GitHub changelog).

How AI credits are charged

Copilot charges credits per million tokens, at different rates for input, cached input, cache writes and output. Because 1 credit = $0.01, a rate of 200 credits is the same as $2 per million tokens. Selected rates from GitHub's models and pricing page:

Rates are in credits per 1M tokens, for prompts up to 272K tokens where a long-context tier exists. Some models above that threshold cost more. What uses credits: Copilot Chat, Copilot CLI, the cloud agent, Copilot Spaces, Spark and third-party coding agents. What doesn't: code completions and next edit suggestions. Copilot code review also uses credits (the model is picked automatically and not disclosed, so cost per review varies) and, since June 1, 2026, GitHub Actions minutes too.

Worked cost examples

These assume a typical agent-mode session sends 300K input tokens, 200K of them cached, and returns 20K output tokens. Agent sessions resend the same files and instructions, so a high cache share is normal.

1. One session on Claude Sonnet 5.5

Uncached input: 0.1M × 200 = 20 credits. Cached input: 0.2M × 10 = 2 credits. Output: 0.02M × 1,000 = 20 credits. Total: 42 credits ($0.42). Pro's 1,500 credits cover about 1,500 ÷ 42 ≈ 35 sessions like this a month.

2. The same session on GPT-6 Astra or GPT-6 Luna

GPT-6 Astra: 0.1 × 1,000 = 100, plus 0.2 × 100 = 20, plus 0.02 × 5,000 = 100, for 220 credits ($2.20). Pro's allowance covers about 6 of these. GPT-6 Luna: 0.1 × 10 = 1, plus 0.2 × 1 = 0.2, plus 0.02 × 50 = 1, for 2.2 credits ($0.022), so 1,500 credits cover roughly 680 sessions. The model you pick matters more than the plan you are on.

3. When Pro+ beats Pro plus overage

Say you use 3,000 credits a month. On Pro, 1,500 are included and the other 1,500 cost 1,500 × $0.01 = $15, for $10 + $15 = $25. On Pro+ ($39) you'd have 7,000 credits included. Pro+ costs $29 more than Pro, which buys 2,900 extra credits. So Pro+ becomes cheaper once you use more than 1,500 + 2,900 = 4,400 credits a month, as long as the flex allowance stays the same. Max ($100, 20,000 credits) beats Pro+ with overage above 7,000 + 6,100 = 13,100 credits.

4. A 20-developer team

Business: 20 × $19 = $380 a month, with 20 × 1,900 = 38,000 credits included. Enterprise: 20 × $39 = $780 a month for Copilot, with 78,000 credits, plus the separate cost of GitHub Enterprise Cloud. If the team uses 50,000 credits a month on Business, the extra 12,000 credits cost $120, for $500 a month in total, if the admin allows overage.

Budgets, resets and running out

• Allowances reset at 00:00 UTC on the 1st of each calendar month. Unused credits are forfeited, not rolled over.
• When you run out, you can upgrade (you pay the price difference), set a dollar budget for extra usage, or wait for the reset.
• GitHub may cap extra usage on individual plans based on usage patterns, billing history and verification, and may ask you to pay for extra usage before you continue.
• Budget alerts are sent at 75%, 90% and 100% of any budget you set.
• Organizations can set universal or per-group user budgets. For AI credits, these cap total usage, not just extra spend.
• Since July 20, 2026, you can see the AI credits used in each billing cycle in your settings.

Which plan should you choose?

• Mostly autocomplete: Free if 2,000 suggestions a month is enough, otherwise Pro. Completions are unlimited on any paid plan and don't touch credits.
• Regular chat and some agent use with mid-range models: Pro.
• Daily agent work, premium models or third-party agents: Pro+.
• Agents running for hours every day: Max, or Pro+ plus a budget if your usage varies a lot from month to month.
• Teams: Business unless you need Enterprise Cloud features; Enterprise if you already use Enterprise Cloud.
• Students: Copilot Student first, then pay for Pro only if the Auto-only model choice is limiting.

How Copilot compares

At $10, Copilot Pro is one of the cheapest paid AI coding plans. Cursor's lineup starts at $8 but bills third-party models at API prices (Cursor pricing). ChatGPT Plus ($20) includes Codex (OpenAI Codex pricing) and Claude Pro ($20) includes Claude Code (Claude Code pricing). Those plans also include a general chat assistant, while Copilot is built around GitHub and your editor. Because Copilot credits are charged per token, you can compare its rates directly with API prices: Claude Sonnet 5.5 at 200 input / 1,000 output credits works out to $2 / $10 per 1M tokens, and you can check that against Claude API pricing.

Recent changes

• March 2026: Copilot Student plan introduced, replacing free Pro for students.
• April 20, 2026: New sign-ups paused for Student, Pro and Pro+ (Free stayed open).
• June 1, 2026: Usage-based billing with AI credits went live for all plans, replacing premium requests. Copilot Max launched. Code review started using Actions minutes.
• June 17, 2026: Individual plan sign-ups began reopening gradually.
• June 24, 2026: Free and Student moved to Auto model selection only.
• July 30, 2026: GitHub Models (the separate free model playground and API) was retired.
• September 2026: Business and Enterprise sign-ups reopened for card and PayPal customers. From no earlier than September 28, Copilot Chat on github.com, Mobile and the cloud agent were set to merge under one policy, with chat data kept for the life of the account instead of 28 days.
• October 1, 2026: Upfront seat charges began for existing card and PayPal Business and Enterprise customers.

GitHub Models is no longer available as a free API. If you used it for prototyping, see GitHub Models free tier for what replaced it, and our list of free AI API keys for alternatives.

Students should also check the GitHub Student Developer Pack, which bundles Copilot Student with other free developer tools.