GitHub officially announced on Monday, April 27, 2026, that all Copilot plans will transition to usage-based billing starting June 1, 2026. This move replaces the previous “Premium Request Unit” (PRU) system with a granular GitHub AI Credits model based on token consumption.
The shift is designed to align pricing with the actual computational costs of high-end models like GPT-5.4 and Claude Opus 4.7, which have significantly higher inference expenses for GitHub.
1. The “AI Credit” Allotment
While the base subscription prices remain unchanged, they now represent a fixed dollar value of credits. Once these credits are exhausted, users must purchase more to continue using “premium” features.
| Plan | Monthly Price | Monthly AI Credits Included |
| Copilot Pro | $10 | $10 (1,000 credits) |
| Copilot Pro+ | $39 | $39 (3,900 credits) |
| Copilot Business | $19/user | $19 (Pooled across org) |
| Copilot Enterprise | $39/user | $39 (Pooled across org) |
- 1 AI Credit = $0.01 USD.
- What’s Still Free: Standard code completions and Next Edit Suggestions remain included in all plans and will not consume any AI credits.
- What Costs Credits: Copilot Chat, large-context windows, agentic workflows, and the new Copilot Code Review feature.
2. The Model Multiplier “Squeeze”
The most controversial aspect of the change is the introduction of Model Multipliers. Since models like Claude Opus 4.7 are more expensive to run, they consume credits at a much faster rate.
| Model | Previous Multiplier | New Multiplier (June 1) | Impact |
| Claude Opus 4.7 | 3x | 27x | 9x increase in cost per request |
| Gemini 3.1 Pro | 1x | 6x | 6x increase |
| GPT-5.4 | 1x | 6x | 6x increase |
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | N/A | 0.33x | Discounted rate for simple tasks |
- The Result: Using top-tier models for simple tasks will now rapidly deplete a user’s monthly budget. GitHub is encouraging a “right-tool-for-the-job” approach, where users use lightweight models for chat and reserve Opus/GPT-5 for complex architecture.
3. Transition for Annual Subscribers
If you are currently on an annual Pro or Pro+ plan, you are protected from the credit system until your current subscription expires.
- Retention of PRUs: You will remain on the old “request-based” system until your renewal date.
- The Catch: The model multipliers listed above will still apply to your requests starting June 1. For example, a single request to Claude Opus will now count as 27 requests against your monthly limit, effectively shrinking your 300-request allowance to just 11 requests.
4. Promotional “Ease-In” for Businesses
To help organizations adjust to the new pooled credit system, GitHub is providing a three-month promotional boost:
- Business Users: Will receive $30 in monthly credits (instead of $19) for June, July, and August.
- Enterprise Users: Will receive $70 in monthly credits (instead of $39) during the same period.