As published on GitHub's plans page on 18 October 2026, Copilot has a monthly plan fee plus a pool of AI credits that chat, agents, code review and the command line draw down. Code completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits on paid plans. We report only published figures and make no claim about GitHub's own costs.
Prices and limits change often. Treat this as a dated snapshot and check the live pages before you buy.
What does each plan cost?
From the plans page, fetched 18 October 2026:
- Free: $0 a month, with limited chat and agent usage.
- Pro: $10 a month, with $15 of credits in total ($10 base plus $5 flex).
- Pro+: $39 a month, with $70 of credits in total ($39 base plus $31 flex).
- Max: $100 a month, with $200 of credits in total ($100 base plus $100 flex).
The page says flex allotments are variable additional usage on top of the base and may change over time, so plan around the base figure. Pooled org-wide credits are marked as not included for these individual plans. Separate Business and Enterprise seat pricing is not covered here because we did not capture it.
What is a credit worth?
GitHub's FAQ says one AI credit equals $0.01 USD. Credits are used when you chat with Copilot, work with agents, or use Copilot CLI, Spaces and Spark. How many a request uses depends on the model you pick and how complex the task is. A quick question to a lightweight model costs a fraction of a credit, while a long agent session on a frontier model across many files costs more.
So $15 of monthly credits is 1,500 credits, and a $10 extra budget buys 1,000.
What do you not pay credits for?
The FAQ says code completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits and remain unlimited with every paid plan. The plans page lists chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent, the CLI and Copilot apps as the features that consume credits.
That split is the useful part of the model. The always-on suggestions in your editor are covered by the fee, while open-ended agent work is metered.
What happens when you run out?
The FAQ lists three options: wait for the monthly reset, set a dollar budget for additional usage so Copilot continues, or switch to a less expensive model to stretch what is left. You can track usage and the reset date in settings, with alerts at 75, 90 and 100 percent of any configured budget.
On Business and Enterprise, admins set limits and decide whether extra paid usage is allowed. If it is not, Copilot pauses until the next cycle.
Code review has its own wrinkle. Per the page, usage by people without a Copilot license is billed to the organization as AI credits, off by default, and it takes two separate admin policies to switch on. From 1 June 2026, code review workflows also consume GitHub Actions minutes.
What about older plans?
GitHub's docs say the request-based system applies only to Pro and Pro+ subscribers on an existing annual plan who stayed on legacy billing after 1 June 2026. In that system, Pro had 300 premium requests a month and Pro+ had 1,500, extra requests cost $0.04 each, and code review consumed 13 premium requests per review. If you are on an annual plan, check which regime you are in.
What does the page leave unclear?
Two things. The FAQ still says Copilot Free is limited to 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests, while the plan table describes limited chat and agent usage without those numbers, so confirm the current Free limits on the live page. And model credit rates per request are not shown on the plans page, so you cannot compute a monthly task count from it.
What to do
- Pick a plan by how much agent work you do, since completions are not metered.
- Use the base credit figure for planning and treat flex as a bonus.
- Set a dollar budget and alerts before you start heavy agent use.
- Test a lightweight model first for routine questions.
- If you manage a team, decide on paid overage and code review for unlicensed contributors deliberately.
- Check your billing page after one week to see your real burn rate.
- Re-check the plans page before renewal.
Quick check
Do code completions use my credits?
No, per GitHub's FAQ on 18 October 2026. Completions and next edit suggestions are unlimited on paid plans. Chat, agents, code review and the CLI use credits.
Can I say what Copilot costs GitHub to run?
No. Providers do not publish that figure on these pages, and we do not estimate it. We report only what you pay and what the published limits are.
Sources
- GitHub, Copilot plans and pricing, fetched 18 October 2026
- GitHub Docs, Requests in GitHub Copilot (legacy), fetched 18 October 2026
Last reviewed: 18 October 2026.
