GitHub

Executive Summary

What it is: GitHub Copilot is Microsoft's AI coding assistant integrated into VS Code, JetBrains, CLI, and GitHub.com. Plans range from $0 (Free, 50 premium requests/mo) to $39/mo (Pro+) for individuals, and $19 to $39/user/mo for business tiers. It offers 20+ models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, and GitHub itself, the widest model selection among all suppliers in this report.

What to watch out for: On June 1, 2026, Copilot transitions from per-request (PRU) billing to token-based billing (GitHub AI Credits), which the community calculates as a 600%+ price increase for many workflows. Claude Opus models were removed from the $10/mo Pro plan in April 2026, and the 7.5x PRU multiplier for Opus 4.7 is described as "introductory." Self-serve Business signups are paused, and Copilot code review will also consume GitHub Actions minutes starting June 1.

Bottom line: Copilot offers the widest model selection and deepest IDE integration of any supplier, but the June 1 billing transition will significantly increase costs for users of frontier models. Evaluate your actual model usage patterns before committing, and consider whether the $39/mo Pro+ tier (now required for Opus access) still fits your budget under token-based billing.

Key Terms

  • PRU (Premium Request Unit) - GitHub's current billing unit for Copilot. Each chat, agent mode turn, code review, or cloud agent task consumes one or more PRUs depending on the model and feature. A PRU multiplier applies per model (e.g., Opus 4.7 = 7.5x PRU). Source: GitHub – Copilot Requests
  • GitHub AI Credits - Replacing PRUs on June 1, 2026. Token-based billing where usage is charged based on actual input/output/cached tokens at per-model API rates. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
  • Model multiplier - a factor applied to each premium request based on the model used. A 7.5x multiplier means one request to that model counts as 7.5 PRUs against the monthly allowance. Source: GitHub – Models And Pricing
  • IP indemnity - the provider covers legal costs if their AI output infringes a third party's copyright. Included in Business and Enterprise plans. Source: Blogs – Copilot Copyright Commitment Ai Legal Concerns
  • SAML SSO - employees log in via their corporate identity provider (Okta, Azure AD) instead of separate passwords. Source: GitHub – Identity And Access Management
  • Agent mode - Copilot operates autonomously in the IDE, reading files, running commands, and making multi-step edits. Source: GitHub – Copilot Agent Mode
  • MCP servers (Model Context Protocol) - a standard for connecting AI agents to external tools and data sources. Copilot integrates with MCP servers in agent mode. Source: GitHub – Using Mcp Servers With Copilot

Latest Changes

First report for this supplier. All models, plans, and pricing are listed as current state.

Plans

Individual Plans

PlanPricePremium Requests / AI CreditsKey Inclusions
Free$0/mo50 premium requests/mo, 2,000 completions/moAgent mode (50/mo), chat, CLI, models: Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini + more
Pro$10/mo300 premium requests/moUnlimited GPT-5 mini agent/chats, unlimited inline suggestions, cloud agent, code review, Claude and Codex access, 20 models available
Pro+$39/mo1,500 premium requests/moAll models including Opus 4.7, GitHub Spark (preview), delegate to third-party agents (Claude, Codex)

Source: GitHub – Plans

Important: Pro and Pro+ are temporarily unavailable for new signups as of April 2026 (reliability measures ahead of billing transition). Source: GitHub – Changes To Github Copilot Individual Plans

Business Plans

PlanPricePremium Requests / AI CreditsKey Inclusions
Business$19/user/moIncluded (undisclosed PRU count)Everything in Pro + IP indemnity, SAML SSO, user management, policies, usage metrics
Enterprise$39/user/moIncluded (undisclosed PRU count)Everything in Business + codebase indexing, custom models, GitHub.com chat, knowledge base, third-party agent delegation

Important: Self-serve Business signups paused as of April 22, 2026. Source: GitHub – 2026 04 22 Pausing New Self Serve Signups For Github Copilot Business

Additional Premium Requests

$0.04 per additional premium request (current model). Under token-based billing (June 1), additional usage charged at published API rates.

Available Models (All Plans)

ProviderModels
AnthropicHaiku 4.5, Sonnet 4, Sonnet 4.5, Sonnet 4.6, Opus 4.5, Opus 4.6, Opus 4.6 (fast mode) (Preview), Opus 4.7
GoogleGemini 2.5 Pro, Gemini 3 Flash (Preview), Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview)
OpenAIGPT-5 mini, GPT-5.2, GPT-5.2-Codex, GPT-5.3-Codex, GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4 mini, GPT-5.5
xAIGrok Code Fast 1
GitHubRaptor mini (Preview)

Note: Opus models removed from Pro plan as of April 20, 2026. Pro+ ($39/mo) now required for Opus access. Source: GitHub – 2026 04 20 Changes To Github Copilot Plans For Individuals

API Pricing

GitHub Copilot does not offer a standalone API. Usage is billed through the subscription plans described above. Under the upcoming token-based billing model (June 1, 2026), usage will be charged at per-model API rates via GitHub AI Credits.

Model Performance / Benchmarks

GitHub does not publish independent benchmark scores for Copilot as a product. Copilot uses models from multiple providers; benchmark scores for those models are published by their respective providers. See the Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI raw reports for model-level benchmarks.

GitHub reported that Gemini 3 Pro delivers 35% higher accuracy vs Gemini 2.5 Pro in VS Code testing. Source: Deepmind – Gemini

Latest News

Token-Based Billing Announcement (April 27, 2026)

Major announcement: all Copilot plans transitioning to token-based billing on June 1, 2026, replacing premium request units with GitHub AI Credits. Base plan prices unchanged. See Token-Based Billing section above for details.

Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing

Opus Removed from Pro Plan (April 20, 2026)

Claude Opus models (4.5, 4.6, 4.7) removed from Copilot Pro ($10/mo). Pro+ ($39/mo) now required for Opus access. Opus 4.7 set at 7.5x PRU multiplier, described as an "introductory" rate.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 20 Changes To Github Copilot Plans For Individuals

Self-Serve Business Signups Paused (April 22, 2026)

New self-serve Copilot Business plan purchases temporarily suspended.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 22 Pausing New Self Serve Signups For Github Copilot Business

Pro Trials Paused, Opus 4.6 Fast Retired (April 10, 2026)

New Copilot Pro trials paused. Opus 4.6 Fast mode retired from Pro+.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 10 Pausing New Github Copilot Pro Trials

Opus 4.7 Launch (April 16, 2026)

Claude Opus 4.7 available on Copilot at 7.5x multiplier.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 16 Claude Opus 4 7 Is Generally Available

Copilot CLI BYOK and Local Models (April 7, 2026)

Copilot CLI now supports Bring Your Own Key (BYOK) and local models.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 07 Copilot Cli Now Supports Byok And Local Models

Code Review Consuming Actions Minutes (April 27, 2026)

Starting June 1, Copilot code review will consume GitHub Actions minutes in addition to AI Credits.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 27 Github Copilot Code Review Will Start Consuming Github Actions Minutes On June 1 2026

Student GPT-5.3-Codex Removed (April 27, 2026)

GPT-5.3-Codex removed from Student plan model picker.

Source: GitHub – 2026 04 27 Copilot Student Gpt 5 3 Codex Removal From Model Picker

Community Signals

Token-Based Billing Reaction

HN announcement thread: 747 points, 549 comments. Dominant community sentiment: the subsidized inference era is ending.

  • User calculated a single 3x multiplier Opus request consumed tokens equivalent to ~$260 at API prices, costing the user $0.12. Source: News – Item
  • 600%+ price increase reported for many workflows. Source: News – Item
  • Multiple users recommend switching to OpenRouter for direct API access at the same cost with no monthly expiration. Source: News – Item
  • Community consensus: "This is the best AI programming will be. From here on the enshitification starts and the prices go up." Source: News – Item

Quality Degradation After Opus Removal

Auto-router quality degraded after Opus models were removed from Pro. "Today was my first time using copilot since the change... It always worked well. Today it sucks, because they took away the option for the autorouter to use the best models." GPT-5.3 (new default) perceived as downgrade despite being SOTA weeks ago. Haiku deemed insufficient for complex work. Source: News – Item

Enterprise Users Choosing Alternatives

Enterprise user: "At my company basically everyone and their mother are using Claude Code via Bedrock, despite us having company-wide Windsurf, Copilot and ChatGPT Enterprise accounts." HN user: "Copilot is still an interesting case-study and (probably) failed predictor... consistently the weakest mainstream AI coding offering. Inferior to Cursor or Windsurf at editor completions, inferior to Codex, Claude, OpenCode." Source: News – Item

Price Comparisons

HN: "DeepSeek API pricing 300% difference vs Anthropic/OpenAI." One company reported average dev hitting $2,000/month in Claude Code costs. Source: News – Item

Enterprise Readiness

FeatureAvailable?Details
SSO (SAML)YesVia GitHub Enterprise Cloud. Business and Enterprise plans. Source: GitHub – About Saml For Enterprise Iam
SSO (OIDC)YesVia GitHub Enterprise Cloud with Entra ID. Source: GitHub – Identity And Access Management
SCIMYesWith Enterprise Managed Users or org-level SCIM with SAML SSO. Source: GitHub – Identity And Access Management
Audit logsYes180-day retention, streamable to SIEM, tracks Copilot policy/license changes and agent activity. Source: GitHub – Review Audit Logs
IP indemnityYesMicrosoft Copilot Copyright Commitment. Business and Enterprise plans. Source: Blogs – Copilot Copyright Commitment Ai Legal Concerns
Data residencyYesVia GitHub Enterprise Cloud with data residency. US + EU regions. +10% model multiplier applies. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot With Data Residency
HIPAAYesGitHub Enterprise Cloud offers BAA; Copilot data handling covered under enterprise terms. Source: Ghec
Air-gapped / on-premNoCopilot is not available on GitHub Enterprise Server (self-hosted). Source: GitHub – Plans
SLAYesGitHub Enterprise Cloud provides a 99.9% monthly uptime SLA. Copilot-specific SLA is not published separately. Source: GitHub – Enterprise
Admin controls (RBAC)YesCentralized policy management, model access controls, content exclusion, user/license management, premium request budgets, MCP server management, custom agent management. Source: GitHub – Manage Enterprise Policies

Transparency Gaps

GapDetailsSeverity
Model multipliers not clearly disclosedThe exact PRU multiplier for each model is not shown on the pricing page. Users must dig into docs. For token-based billing, the per-token rates that will be used are not yet published.High
"Introductory" Opus 4.7 multiplierThe 7.5x multiplier for Opus 4.7 is described as "introductory," implying it may increase. No commitment on duration.High
PRU counts for Business/EnterpriseThe number of included premium requests for Business ($19/mo) and Enterprise ($39/mo) plans is not disclosed on the pricing page.High
Promotional credit durationBusiness gets $30/mo and Enterprise gets $70/mo in promotional credits for June-August only. Unclear what happens after.Medium
Status page methodology change"Partial Outages" now count only 30% of duration, "Degraded Performance" counts 0%, inflating uptime numbers. Source: News – ItemMedium
Annual plan multiplier increasesAnnual subscribers face model multiplier increases on June 1 but the specific new multipliers are buried in docs.Medium
Free Copilot for maintainers cutFree Copilot Pro for open-source maintainers cut for small projects without formal announcement.Medium
Code review Actions minutes costNo published estimate of how many Actions minutes a typical code review consumes.Low