Key Terms
- PRU (Premium Request Unit) - GitHub's legacy billing unit for Copilot. Each chat, agent mode turn, or code review consumed one or more PRUs depending on the model. Replaced by AI Credits on June 1, 2026. Source: GitHub – Copilot Requests
- AI Credits - Token-based billing unit replacing PRUs on June 1, 2026. One AI Credit equals $0.01 of token consumption at published API rates. Plans include a monthly allotment of credits; additional credits can be purchased. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Model multiplier - Under legacy PRU billing, each model had a multiplier representing its cost relative to a base request. Opus 4.8 is 27x, GPT-5.5 is 57x, Haiku 4.5 is 0.33x. These multipliers no longer apply under AI Credits billing. Source: GitHub – Model Multipliers For Annual Plans
- Cloud agent - Copilot's hosted coding agent that runs on GitHub's infrastructure, can research, plan, and write code with or without creating a pull request. Source: GitHub – Plans
- Agent mode - Copilot's interactive coding mode in IDEs that can make file changes, run commands, and iterate on code. Source: GitHub – Copilot
- Copilot CLI - Terminal-based Copilot experience for command-line workflows. Usage nearly doubling month over month per Microsoft earnings. Source: GitHub – Github Recognized As A Leader In The Gartner Magic Quadrant For Enterprise Ai Coding Agents For The Third Year In A Row
Latest Changes
Changes since the 2026-04 report.
- Plan change (major): Premium request units replaced by AI Credits on June 1, 2026. Pro: $10/mo includes $10 AI Credits. Pro+: $39/mo includes $39 AI Credits. Business: $19/user/mo includes $19 AI Credits (promo $30 through Aug). Enterprise: $39/user/mo includes $39 AI Credits (promo $70 through Aug). Credits are consumed based on token usage at published API rates. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Plan change: Pro and Pro+ self-serve upgrades paused during billing transition. Source: GitHub – Plans
- Plan change: Fallback to cheaper models will no longer be available when credits are exhausted. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Plan change: Copilot code review will also consume GitHub Actions minutes in addition to AI Credits. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Plan change: Code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included and do not consume AI Credits. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Plan change: Annual Pro/Pro+ subscribers remain on legacy PRU billing until expiration, but model multipliers increase on June 1. At expiration, they transition to Free with option to upgrade. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- Plan change: Business and Enterprise customers get pooled included usage across the organization (eliminates stranded per-seat capacity). Admins can set budgets at enterprise, cost center, and user levels. Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
- New model: Claude Opus 4.8 GA (May 28). 27x multiplier on legacy annual plans. Available on Pro+, Business, Enterprise. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 28 Claude Opus 4 8 Is Generally Available For Github Copilot
- New model: Gemini 3.5 Flash GA (May 19). 14x multiplier. Available on Pro, Pro+, Business, Enterprise. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 19 Gemini 3 5 Flash Is Generally Available For Github Copilot
- New model: GPT-5.3-Codex becomes base model for Business/Enterprise (May 17). First LTS model guaranteed for 12 months through Feb 4, 2027. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 17 Gpt 5 3 Codex Is Now The Base Model For Copilot Business And Enterprise
- Feature added: GitHub Copilot App (technical preview, May 14). Desktop experience for agentic development. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 14 Github Copilot App Is Now Available In Technical Preview
- Feature added: Auto model selection in VS Code (May 20). Picks optimal model based on task. 10% discount on multiplier when using Auto. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 20 Auto Model Selection Now Routes Based On Your Task In Vs Code
- Feature added: Copilot cloud agent fast models (May 18). Claude Haiku 4.5 and GPT-5.4 mini at 0.33x multiplier for simpler tasks. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 18 Copilot Cloud Agent Fast Cost Efficient Models For Simple Tasks
- Feature added: Copilot Spaces API GA (May 18). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 18 Copilot Spaces Api Now Generally Available
- Feature added: Semantic issue search in Copilot Chat (May 20). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 20 Semantic Issue Search In Copilot Chat
- Feature added: Cloud agent tasks via REST API (May 13). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 13 Start Copilot Cloud Agent Tasks Via The Rest Api
- Feature added: Copilot for Eclipse is now open source (May 21). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 21 Github Copilot For Eclipse Is Open Source
- Feature added: Copilot Memory improvements, including deletion, scope, and CLI support. Source: GitHub – Changelog
- Deprecation: GPT-5.2 and GPT-5.2-Codex deprecated June 5, 2026 (replaced by GPT-5.5 and GPT-5.3-Codex). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 01 Upcoming Deprecation Of Gpt 5 2 And Gpt 5 2 Codex
- Deprecation: GPT-4.1 deprecated June 1, 2026 (replaced by GPT-5.5). Source: GitHub – 2026 05 07 Upcoming Deprecation Of Gpt 4 1
- Deprecation: Claude Sonnet 4 deprecated May 7, 2026. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 07 Claude Sonnet 4 Deprecated
- Deprecation: Grok Code Fast 1 deprecated May 15, 2026. Source: GitHub – 2026 05 15 Grok Code Fast 1 Deprecated
- Policy change: Data collection for Free/Pro/Pro+ users changed from opt-in to opt-out on April 24, 2026. GitHub may use prompts, suggestions, and code snippets for AI training unless users opt out. Source: GitHub – Plans
Plans
Individual Plans
| Plan | Price (monthly) | Included Usage | Key Inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 agent mode/chat requests/mo, 2,000 completions/mo | Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, Copilot CLI, agent mode, MCP servers, custom instructions |
| Pro | $10/mo ($120/yr) | 300 premium requests/mo (legacy) / $10 AI Credits (from June 1) | Everything in Free + Claude and Codex models, unlimited GPT-5 mini chats/agent, unlimited inline suggestions, code review, cloud agent, Copilot CLI |
| Pro+ | $39/mo | 1,500 premium requests/mo (legacy) / $39 AI Credits (from June 1) | Everything in Pro + all models (Opus 4.8, GPT-5.5, etc.), GitHub Spark (preview) |
Business/Enterprise Plans
| Plan | Price (monthly) | Included AI Credits (from June 1) | Key Inclusions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business | $19/user/mo | $19/user/mo ($30 promo through Aug 2026) | All models, SSO, policy management, IP indemnity, code review, cloud agent, pooled credits, admin budgets |
| Enterprise | $39/user/mo | $39/user/mo ($70 promo through Aug 2026) | Everything in Business + GitHub.com integration, codebase indexing, fine-tuned models, Spaces API |
Additional purchases: Extra AI Credits at published token rates. Auto model selection gives 10% discount.
Source: GitHub – Plans, GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
API Pricing
Under AI Credits billing (from June 1), token costs follow each provider's published API rates. The multipliers below apply only to annual Pro/Pro+ subscribers on legacy PRU billing.
| Model | Legacy Multiplier | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0.33x | Cheapest Anthropic model |
| Claude Sonnet 4.5 | 6x | |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 9x | |
| Claude Opus 4.5 | 15x | |
| Claude Opus 4.6 | 27x | |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | 27x | |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | 27x | New May 28 |
| GPT-5 mini | 0.33x | Unlimited for Pro/Pro+ |
| GPT-5.4 mini | 0.33x (cloud agent fast model) | |
| GPT-5.2 / GPT-5.2-Codex | 3x | Deprecated June 5 |
| GPT-5.3-Codex | 6x | New base model for Business/Enterprise |
| GPT-5.4 | 6x | |
| GPT-5.5 | 57x | Most expensive model |
| Gemini 2.5 Pro | 1x | Best value frontier model |
| Gemini 3 Flash | 0.33x | |
| Gemini 3 Pro / 3.1 Pro | 6x | |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | 14x | New May 19 |
| Raptor mini | 0.33x | Preview |
| Copilot code review | 13x | Per review |
Source: GitHub – Model Multipliers For Annual Plans
Model Performance / Benchmarks
GitHub Copilot does not publish its own benchmarks. Performance depends on the underlying model selected. See individual supplier reports for model-specific benchmarks.
Notable: GitHub recognized as a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise AI Coding Agents for the third consecutive year (May 22, 2026). Copilot serves 140,000 organizations (nearly 3x YoY). Copilot CLI usage nearly doubling month over month.
Latest News
AI Credits Transition (June 1, 2026)
All Copilot plans move from premium request units to token-based AI Credits. Base plan pricing unchanged. Credits consumed at published API rates. No more fallback to cheaper models. Business/Enterprise get 3-month promotional credits. Annual subscribers stay on legacy PRU billing until expiration. Code completions remain free.
Source: GitHub – Github Copilot Is Moving To Usage Based Billing
GPT-5.3-Codex as Base Model for Business/Enterprise (May 17)
GPT-5.3-Codex replaced GPT-4.1 as the default model for Copilot Business and Enterprise. It is the first LTS (Long-Term Support) model, guaranteed available for 12 months through February 4, 2027.
Source: GitHub – 2026 05 17 Gpt 5 3 Codex Is Now The Base Model For Copilot Business And Enterprise
GitHub Copilot App Technical Preview (May 14)
New desktop application for agentic development. Start from issues, PRs, or prompts. Focused sessions with isolated branches. Agent Merge feature for follow-through. Available to Pro/Pro+ sign-up; Business/Enterprise rolling out.
Source: GitHub – 2026 05 14 Github Copilot App Is Now Available In Technical Preview
Auto Model Selection (May 20)
Copilot now automatically selects the optimal model based on task complexity, reasoning needs, and real-time model health. Limited to 0x-1x multiplier models. 10% discount on multiplier when using Auto.
Source: GitHub – 2026 05 20 Auto Model Selection Now Routes Based On Your Task In Vs Code
Token Efficiency in Agentic Workflows (May 7)
GitHub published a blog post on how they instrumented production agentic workflows running on every PR, found token inefficiencies, and built agents to fix them.
Source: GitHub – Improving Token Efficiency In Github Agentic Workflows
Microsoft Canceling Claude Code Licenses (May 22-23)
The Verge reported that Microsoft is canceling Claude Code subscriptions for internal teams. HN commenters believe this is to push teams toward dogfooding GitHub Copilot rather than a cost decision.
Source: News – Item
Corporate America Rationing AI (WSJ, May 30)
Wall Street Journal reported on corporate AI cost issues, with Copilot's pricing transition as a primary example. HN thread with extensive discussion.
Source: News – Item
Community Signals
AI Credits Backlash: The Dominant Narrative of May 2026
The PRU-to-AI-Credits transition generated the most negative community response of any Copilot change to date. Reddit's r/GithubCopilot had 18 of its top 25 posts related to the billing change.
Concrete user-reported cost projections:
| User | Before | Projected After | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reddit (uzico) | $39/mo | $5,851.77/mo | Old – Ill Just Leave This Here |
| Reddit (Individual-Trip-1447) | $39/mo | $942/mo | Old – 1Tlb6Ju |
| Multiple (HN vmbm) | $40/mo | $3,000-5,000/mo | News – Item |
| HN (toraway company) | Business plan | 4x increase | News – Item |
Key community quotes:
- Reddit (2,564 upvotes): "All going according to plan"
- Reddit (569 upvotes, 230 comments): Screenshot showing billing $39.00, usage-based billing $5,851.77
- Reddit (313 upvotes): "Holy fuck how much money was copilot losing"
- Reddit (255 upvotes, 200 comments): "100% sure I am out, GitHub just turned my $39/month Copilot into $942/month overnight"
- Reddit (290 upvotes): "Farewell friend. Good while it lasted" (cancellation screenshot)
- X/@rentierdigital: "3900 AI credits per month divided by 27x multiplier equals 144 Opus requests maximum. That's 4.8 per day. One serious Claude Code agentic session (2 hours) burns 50 to 200 inferences. One session eats a week of your quota."
- X/@Cliffinkent (237 likes): Visual Studio Magazine headline: "You will get less, but pay the same price."
Churn signals: Multiple cancellation screenshot threads. Users reporting switching to Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or direct API access. One HN user's company dropped Copilot Business for OpenAI Business with Codex before June 1.
Quality Comparisons
- HN (thombles): "Today I was a few hours into chasing down a very tricky timing-dependent bug with GPT 5.5... I noticed Opus 4.8 had showed up in GitHub Copilot so I switched over... Another hour of steady progress and it tracked it down... N=1 but worth every one of those rather expensive 15x requests today."
- HN (256BitChris): "I don't understand how anyone would use GitHub copilot... it's basically running a custom harness and using close to API pricing for Opus. This is why Microsoft is cooked in this game."
- HN (toraway): Company dropped Copilot Business for OpenAI Business with Codex. "Codex becoming more or less a 1:1 replacement for CC made that a no brainer given our options and the exploitative value proposition of Copilot under the new pricing model."
Service Reliability
- May 26 incident: "Most of the frontier models disappearing from most people's subscriptions" (322 upvotes on Reddit). GitHub Copilot Pro+ users temporarily reduced to Free-tier model access.
- Multiple reports of GitHub being down "almost daily."
- Drew DeVault blog post: "I can't cancel GitHub Copilot" (May 1). HN thread: News – Item
Data Collection Change
HN user helloplanets: "GitHub recently changing their GitHub Copilot data collection from opt in to opt out, being in direct cahoots with OpenAI." The change took effect April 24, 2026 for Free/Pro/Pro+ users. Business and Enterprise data is not used for training.
Source: News – Item
Enterprise Readiness
| Feature | Available? | Details |
|---|---|---|
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | Business plan and above. Source: GitHub – Plans |
| SSO (OIDC) | Partial | OIDC supported through GitHub's SAML integration. Not a standalone option. |
| SCIM | Yes | Enterprise plan. Source: GitHub – Identity And Access Management |
| Audit logs | Yes | Enterprise plan. Source: GitHub – Plans |
| IP indemnity | Yes | Business and Enterprise plans, when filtering is enabled. Microsoft's Copilot Copyright Commitment. Source: Blogs – Copilot Copyright Commitment Ai Legal Concerns |
| Data residency | Partial | GitHub Enterprise Cloud supports EU data residency. No air-gapped option. |
| HIPAA | Yes | Available with Enterprise plan and BAA. Source: GitHub – Enterprise |
| Air-gapped / on-prem | No | GitHub Copilot requires internet connectivity. GitHub Enterprise Server can run on-prem but Copilot features require cloud connectivity. |
| SLA | Yes | GitHub Enterprise Cloud offers 99.9% uptime SLA. Source: GitHub – Enterprise |
| Admin controls (RBAC) | Yes | Policy management, model restrictions, budget controls (new with AI Credits), organization-level settings. Source: GitHub – Plans |
Transparency Gaps
| Gap | Details | Severity |
|---|---|---|
| AI Credit consumption rates | GitHub has not published a clear table showing how many AI Credits a typical agent mode turn, chat message, or code review consumes for each model. Users must check their billing dashboard after the fact. | High |
| Effective cost per agentic session | No published estimate of how many credits a typical agentic coding session (e.g., 2 hours with Opus 4.8) will consume. Community estimates range from 50 to 200 inferences per session. | High |
| Promo credit expiration | Business ($30) and Enterprise ($70) promotional credits expire after August 2026. What the ongoing included amount will be is unclear. | Medium |
| Pro/Pro+ upgrade freeze | Self-serve upgrades to Pro and Pro+ are paused with no communicated end date. Source: "Upgrades are paused as we roll out a flexible billing experience." | High |
| Model multiplier changes | Annual plan subscribers will see model multipliers increase on June 1, but the new multipliers have not been published in full. | Medium |
| Auto model selection logic | The auto model selection feature picks models based on "task complexity, reasoning needs, and real-time model health" but the exact logic and routing rules are not documented. | Low |
| Copilot code review cost | Code review will consume both AI Credits and GitHub Actions minutes. The combined cost per review is not clearly quantified. | Medium |
| Free tier model access | The Free plan lists access to "Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more" but the full model list for Free users is not clearly documented. | Low |