Updated April 2026
GitHub Copilot Free Plan 2026:
What You Get (and Where It Runs Out)
Yes, GitHub Copilot has a free tier. 2,000 code completions and 50 premium requests per month. No credit card required. Here is exactly what that means in practice.
2,000
code completions/mo
50
premium requests/mo
$0
no credit card needed
What Is Included in the Free Tier
Included
- ✓2,000 code completions per month (inline tab suggestions)
- ✓50 premium requests per month (Chat, agent mode, code review)
- ✓Copilot Chat in VS Code and JetBrains IDEs
- ✓Agent mode (counts against 50 PRU quota)
- ✓GPT-4o-mini model (free, does not consume PRUs)
- ✓Mobile app (GitHub Mobile with Copilot Chat)
- ✓CLI (GitHub Copilot in the command line)
- ✓Public code filter (blocks suggestions matching public code)
Not Included in Free
- ✗Unlimited code completions (capped at 2,000/month)
- ✗Premium models without PRU cost (GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet 3.5)
- ✗Frontier models (Claude Opus 4, OpenAI o3 - Pro+ only)
- ✗Unlimited Copilot Chat (capped at 50 messages/month)
- ✗IP indemnity (Business and Enterprise only)
- ✗Organisation policy management (Business and Enterprise only)
- ✗Knowledge bases (Enterprise only)
- ✗Annual billing option (Pro plan only)
Will the Free Tier Last You the Month?
Premium requests are the real constraint. Here are three realistic usage scenarios.
Light User
Code suggestions only, occasional Chat
1-2 chat messages per day on working days. No agent mode.
Est. 20-30 PRUs/month
Free tier is fine.
You have ~20 PRUs to spare each month.
Regular User
Daily Chat + occasional agent mode
5-7 chat messages per day, 1-2 agent mode sessions per week.
Est. 100-150 PRUs/month
Upgrade to Pro ($10/mo).
You will exhaust free quota by week 2.
Power User
Heavy agent mode + code review
Daily agent mode sessions (5-20 PRUs each), code review on PRs, heavy Chat use.
Est. 300+ PRUs/month
Upgrade to Pro+ ($39/mo).
Pro (300/mo) may not be enough either.
Free vs Pro: Side-by-Side
| Feature | Free ($0) | Pro ($10/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Code completions | 2,000/mo | Unlimited |
| Premium requests/mo | 50 | 300 |
| Copilot Chat | Yes (uses PRUs) | Yes (uses PRUs) |
| Agent mode | Yes (uses PRUs) | Yes (uses PRUs) |
| GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet | Limited (uses PRUs) | Yes (uses PRUs) |
| Frontier models (o3, Opus 4) | No | No (Pro+ only) |
| CLI support | Yes | Yes |
| Annual billing | No | $100/yr (save $20) |
| IP indemnity | No | No (Business only) |
Are you a student? You may qualify for free Pro-level access via Copilot Student.