Independent pricing guide. Not affiliated with GitHub or Microsoft.

GitHub Copilot Pricing: The Free Tier Gives You 2,000 Completions Per Month. Is Paid Worth the Upgrade?

Updated 30 March 2026

Free, Individual at $10/mo, Business at $19/user/mo, Enterprise at $39/user/mo. Most solo developers can work within the free limits. Teams need Business for policy controls and IP indemnity. Here is everything you need to know to pick the right plan.

FREE

$0

2,000 completions/mo

INDIVIDUAL

$10

per month

BUSINESS

$19

per user/month

ENTERPRISE

$39

per user/month

Complete Plan Comparison

Free

$0forever
  • ✓2,000 code completions/month
  • ✓50 chat messages/month
  • ✓VS Code + JetBrains support
  • ✓Limited model selection
  • ✓Public code filter
  • ✓Community support
  • ✗No CLI support
  • ✗No multi-file editing
  • ✗Code may be used for training
  • ✗Single user only

Individual

$10/month

$100/year (save $20)

  • ✓Unlimited completions
  • ✓Unlimited chat messages
  • ✓All supported IDEs
  • ✓Multiple models (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet)
  • ✓CLI support
  • ✓Multi-file editing
  • ✓Public code filter
  • ✓Opt-out of telemetry
  • ✗No org management
  • ✗No IP indemnity
  • ✗No audit logs
Most Popular

Business

$19/user/month
  • ✓Everything in Individual
  • ✓IP indemnity
  • ✓Code never used for training
  • ✓Organization policy management
  • ✓User management
  • ✓Audit logs
  • ✓SAML SSO
  • ✓Proxy support
  • ✗No knowledge bases
  • ✗No fine-tuning
  • ✗No Copilot in github.com

Enterprise

$39/user/month
  • ✓Everything in Business
  • ✓Knowledge bases (index your docs)
  • ✓Fine-tuning on your codebase
  • ✓Copilot in github.com
  • ✓Pull request summaries
  • ✓Code review assistance
  • ✓Security vulnerability detection
  • ✓Dedicated support

Is the Free Tier Enough?

Free tier works if you...

  • ✓Code 1 to 2 hours per day (part-time developers, managers who still code)
  • ✓Accept about 1 in 4 suggestions (roughly 20 useful completions per day)
  • ✓Use chat sparingly for complex questions (2 to 3 messages per day)
  • ✓Work on personal or open-source projects

Upgrade to paid if you...

  • ▲Code 4 or more hours per day (you will exhaust 2,000 completions by mid-month)
  • ▲Rely on chat for debugging and code review (50 messages runs out fast)
  • ▲Want multi-file editing and CLI support
  • ▲Need access to GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, or other advanced models

The math: 2,000 completions per month is roughly 100 completions per workday (assuming 20 working days). With a typical 25% acceptance rate, that translates to about 25 useful completions daily. For a developer writing code for 6 hours per day, this means you get roughly 4 helpful suggestions per hour. Most full-time developers find this limiting by mid-afternoon. If you code fewer than 2 hours daily, the free tier is genuinely sufficient.

Individual vs Business: The Key Differences

The $9 per user price difference between Individual ($10/mo) and Business ($19/user/mo) comes down to three critical areas: legal protection, privacy, and team management.

FeatureIndividual ($10/mo)Business ($19/user/mo)
Unlimited completions✓✓
Unlimited chat✓✓
IP indemnity✗✓
Code excluded from training✗✓
Org policy management✗✓
User management✗✓
Audit logs✗✓
SAML SSO✗✓

The verdict: For solo freelancers writing code for their own projects, Individual at $10 per month works fine. For any company with two or more developers, or any scenario where generated code ships in a commercial product, Business at $19 per month is the right choice. The IP indemnity alone protects against copyright claims on AI-generated code, which is increasingly important as legal frameworks around AI-generated content continue to evolve.

Enterprise at $39/User/Month: When It Makes Sense

The jump from Business ($19) to Enterprise ($39) doubles the per-seat cost. Here is what you get and whether the additional $20 per user per month is justified.

Knowledge Bases

Index your internal documentation, wikis, and design docs. When developers ask Copilot a question, it can search your internal knowledge base and answer with company-specific information. This eliminates the constant Slack messages asking "where is the auth service documentation?" or "how do we handle retry logic in our system?" For engineering orgs with extensive internal docs, this is transformative.

Fine-Tuning on Your Codebase

Copilot learns your coding patterns, naming conventions, architectural decisions, and internal library usage. Suggestions match your team's style guide automatically. This is most valuable for large codebases (100,000+ lines) with strong conventions that differ from open-source patterns. A new hire gets suggestions that match senior developers' coding style from day one.

Copilot in github.com

Chat with Copilot directly in pull requests, issues, and code search on github.com. Ask it to explain a pull request, summarize an issue thread, or search across your entire codebase with natural language. Code reviewers can ask Copilot to explain complex changes instead of reading through hundreds of lines of diffs manually.

The ROI Math

If a developer earns $150,000 per year ($72/hour loaded cost) and Enterprise saves 30 minutes per day through better suggestions and knowledge base access, that is $36 per day in productivity value. Over 22 working days per month, that is $792 in value versus $39 in cost. Even at a conservative 15 minutes saved per day, the return is $396 versus $39. The math works for any developer earning above $60,000 per year.

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor: Quick Comparison

FactorGitHub CopilotCursor
TypeIDE extensionStandalone IDE (VS Code fork)
Monthly cost (individual)$10/mo$20/mo
IDE supportVS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, XcodeCursor only (VS Code fork)
Multi-file editingLimitedStrong (Composer mode)
Enterprise controlsFull (SSO, audit, indemnity)Business plan available
Best forTeams wanting IDE flexibilityDevelopers wanting deep AI integration

Read the full GitHub Copilot vs Cursor comparison for a detailed feature-by-feature breakdown.

Student and Open Source Pricing

Students: Free Individual Plan

GitHub Copilot is completely free for verified students through the GitHub Education program. This includes the full Individual plan with unlimited completions, unlimited chat, all IDE support, and multiple model selection.

  • ✓Requires a .edu email address or proof of enrollment
  • ✓Verification through GitHub Education portal
  • ✓Access lasts until verification expires (annual renewal)
  • ✓Also includes GitHub Pro, Codespaces hours, and more

Open Source Maintainers: Free Access

Maintainers of popular open-source projects on GitHub can apply for free Copilot access. Eligibility is determined by your project's activity level, star count, and contributor base.

  • ✓Project must be actively maintained with recent commits
  • ✓Typically requires meaningful star count (varies by language)
  • ✓Application through GitHub Sponsors or Education portal
  • ✓Full Individual plan features included

GitHub Copilot ROI Calculator

Estimate your team's cost and productivity gains. Based on research showing Copilot saves developers 15% of coding time on average.

1200
1h8h
$50k$250k

Recommended plan

Business

$19/seat/month

Monthly cost

$190

Annual cost

$2,280

Monthly value saved

$9,519

0.8h/dev/day saved

ROI

+4910%

Same team on competing tools

Cursor Pro (10 seats)$200/mo
Claude Code (est.)$200/mo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GitHub Copilot free?▼
Yes, GitHub Copilot now offers a free tier. The free plan includes 2,000 code completions per month and 50 chat messages per month. It works with VS Code and JetBrains IDEs. You get limited model selection compared to paid plans, but there is no credit card required to start. For many developers who code part-time, the free tier is sufficient.
How much does GitHub Copilot cost per month?▼
GitHub Copilot Individual costs $10 per month or $100 per year (saving $20 annually). GitHub Copilot Business costs $19 per user per month. GitHub Copilot Enterprise costs $39 per user per month. All paid plans include unlimited code completions and chat messages.
What is the difference between GitHub Copilot Individual and Business?▼
The key differences are IP indemnity (Business protects your company if Copilot generates copyrighted code), privacy controls (Business code is never used for model training), organization management (admin controls, user management, audit logs), and policy settings. For solo freelancers, Individual at $10 per month works fine. For any company with more than one developer, Business at $19 per month is recommended for legal protection.
Does GitHub Copilot use my code for training?▼
On the free and Individual plans, code suggestions and usage data may be used to improve the model (you can opt out of telemetry in settings). On Business and Enterprise plans, your code is never used for model training. This is a key reason companies choose Business over Individual, even for single developers.
Is GitHub Copilot free for students?▼
Yes. GitHub Copilot is free for verified students through the GitHub Education program. You need a valid student email or proof of enrollment. The free student access includes the full Individual plan features with unlimited completions and chat. Access lasts for the duration of your student verification, which needs to be renewed annually.
Can I use GitHub Copilot in JetBrains IDEs?▼
Yes. GitHub Copilot supports VS Code, JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, and others), Neovim, and Visual Studio. The free tier supports VS Code and JetBrains. Paid plans support all listed IDEs. Xcode support is available in preview for paid plans.
How does GitHub Copilot compare to Cursor?▼
GitHub Copilot is an extension that works inside your existing IDE. Cursor is a standalone IDE (a fork of VS Code) with deeper AI integration. Copilot Individual costs $10 per month while Cursor Pro costs $20 per month. Copilot supports more IDEs. Cursor offers better multi-file editing through its Composer feature and often produces better suggestions for complex refactoring. Some developers use both depending on the task.
Does GitHub Copilot work offline?▼
No. GitHub Copilot requires an internet connection to function. All code completions and chat messages are processed through cloud-based models. If your internet connection drops, Copilot will stop providing suggestions until connectivity is restored. There is no offline mode or local model option available.