Last week, we reported that GitHub may move to token-based billing in June due to the unsustainable fixed-cost subscription model. The usage of GitHub Copilot has grown exponentially over the past few months, which led to Microsoft temporarily pausing new sign-ups for GitHub Copilot Pro, Pro+, and Student plans.
In order to better serve customers reliably over the long term, GitHub today officially announced that it will move to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026. Instead of the current premium requests based on the subscription tier, users will receive a monthly allotment of GitHub AI Credits. Once they have used their AI Credits for the month, users can purchase additional credits based on their usage. AI Credits will be debited based on token consumption, including input, output, and cached tokens, using the listed API rates for each model.
To help customers with this transition, GitHub will prepare a preview bill in early May to allow users to estimate their projected costs before the June 1 transition.
It is important to note that the base plan pricing of current GitHub Copilot subscriptions is not changing. Users must still subscribe to one of the following plans; however, instead of premium requests, they will receive monthly AI Credits equivalent to their subscription cost. For example, if you are on a $10 plan, you will receive $10 in AI Credits, and so on.
- GitHub Copilot Pro - $10/month
- GitHub Copilot Pro+ - $39/month
- GitHub Copilot Business - $19/user/month
- GitHub Copilot Enterprise - $39/user/month
The GitHub team highlighted that code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included in all plans without incurring AI Credits. However, once the AI credits are exhausted, there is no free, low-cost model to continue usage; instead, users must purchase additional credits. Another significant change is that Copilot code reviews will also consume GitHub Actions minutes along with GitHub AI Credits.
For business customers, pooled AI credits are available. This allows users within an organization to make use of unused credits from other employees. Admins can set budgets for their employees at the enterprise, cost center, and user levels. To support the transition for business customers, Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise customers will get the following increased AI Credits for June, July, and August:
- Copilot Business: $30 in monthly AI Credits
- Copilot Enterprise: $70 in monthly AI Credits
Finally, GitHub Copilot users who are already on annual Pro or Pro+ plans will remain on their existing plans with premium request-based pricing until their plans expire. The catch, however, is that model multipliers will increase significantly starting June 1. For example, OpenAI's GPT-5.4 model will be available at a 6x multiplier, instead of the current 1x multiplier.
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