GitHub Copilot Premium Requests: AI Credits Explained

GitHub Copilot no longer uses premium requests. Since June 1, 2026, every paid Copilot plan is metered in GitHub AI Credits, where one credit is worth a fixed $0.01. Instead of counting a flat monthly quota of premium request units (PRUs), Copilot now draws down credits based on actual token consumption — input, output and cached tokens — at the published API rate for whichever model you invoke. Code completions are the exception: they stay unlimited on every plan and consume no credits at all.

New to Copilot generally? Our complete GitHub Copilot developer guide covers agent mode, custom instructions and the CLI. This page is specifically about billing.

What Changed: Premium Requests to AI Credits

The old model gave each paid tier a fixed number of premium requests per month. One request was one request, regardless of how much work it actually triggered. That worked when Copilot mostly answered questions. It stopped working when agents started running for minutes at a time.

GitHub was blunt about why. "Agentic usage is becoming the default, and it brings significantly higher compute and inference demands," said GitHub product leader Mario Rodriguez, with the company stating that "the current premium request model is no longer sustainable."

So the unit of account changed. You are no longer buying a number of interactions; you are buying a dollar-denominated balance that drains at the real cost of the tokens you consume.

What an AI Credit Is Worth

One AI Credit = $0.01. That fixed rate makes the arithmetic trivial, which matters because GitHub quotes plan allowances in dollars and usage in credits:

Credits	Dollar value
100 credits	$1
1,000 credits	$10
1,900 credits	$19
3,000 credits	$30
3,900 credits	$39
7,000 credits	$70

There is no bulk discount and no expiry premium in the conversion itself — a credit is a cent, always. What varies is how fast you spend them, which depends entirely on the model you pick.

What Each Plan Includes

Every paid tier ships with a monthly credit allotment equal to its price. In other words, your subscription fee is your starting balance:

Plan	Price	Included credits
Copilot Free	$0	No credit allotment
Copilot Pro	$10/mo	$10 (1,000 credits)
Copilot Pro+	$39/mo	$39 (3,900 credits)
Copilot Business	$19/user/mo	$19 per user (1,900 credits)
Copilot Enterprise	$39/user/mo	$39 per user (3,900 credits)

Paid plans can buy additional usage once the included allotment runs out. That is the practical difference from the old model: hitting your limit no longer stops you, it bills you.

What Burns Credits and What Does Not

This is the single most important distinction on the page, and it is the reason many developers will never notice the change.

Free, unlimited, on every plan:

• Inline code completions — the original Copilot pitch
• Next Edit suggestions

"Code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included in all plans and do not consume AI Credits," GitHub confirmed.

Metered against your credit balance:

• Copilot Chat
• Coding agents
• Multi-step model calls and agentic workflows

If you live in autocomplete, your bill is your subscription fee and nothing more. If you run agents, the meter is running.

Is GitHub Copilot Still Unlimited?

Partly. Code completions and Next Edit suggestions are genuinely unlimited on all plans, including Free. Everything agentic is not — chat and coding agents draw on a finite credit balance, and once the included allotment is spent you either buy more usage or stop.

So the honest answer to "is Copilot unlimited" is that the feature most people think of as Copilot still is, and the feature GitHub is actually investing in no longer is.

How Credits Are Metered Per Model

Credits are drawn at the published API rate for the specific model you invoke, counted across input, output and cached tokens. There is no single flat multiplier that applies to everything — an expensive frontier model drains a balance far faster than a cheap fast model for identical work, which is why GitHub prices per model rather than per request.

The practical consequence: model selection is now a budgeting decision, not just a quality one. Under the PRU model, picking the most capable model available cost you one request either way. Under credits, it can cost several times more. Check GitHub's current per-model rates before assuming a habit you formed in 2025 is still economical.

If You Are on an Annual Plan

The migration was not uniform, and annual subscribers got the worse end of it.

• Monthly subscribers were moved to usage-based billing automatically on June 1, 2026.
• Annual Copilot Pro and Pro+ subscribers stay on the old premium request model until their term expires — but face higher model multipliers in the meantime. They convert to credits, or fall back to the free tier, only once the year runs out.

If you prepaid for a year expecting the pricing you signed up for, you are on a worse version of the old model until renewal.

The Transition Credits Have Expired

To soften the switch, GitHub gave Business and Enterprise customers enhanced credit allotments for June through August 2026 only — $30 and $70 per user respectively, against the standard $19 and $39. That window has now closed. From September 2026 the standard allotments apply, which means Business customers see their included balance drop from 3,000 credits to 1,900, and Enterprise from 7,000 to 3,900.

If your team's usage settled into the enhanced allowance over the summer, the first standard billing cycle is where that shows up as an overage.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happened to GitHub Copilot premium requests?

GitHub retired premium request units on June 1, 2026 and replaced them with metered GitHub AI Credits. Instead of a fixed monthly quota of requests, paid plans now draw down a dollar-denominated credit balance based on actual token consumption.

How much is 3,000 AI credits in Copilot?

3,000 AI Credits is worth $30, because one credit is fixed at $0.01. That was the enhanced monthly allotment given to Copilot Business users during the June to August 2026 transition period; the standard Business allotment is $19, or 1,900 credits.

Is GitHub Copilot unlimited?

Code completions and Next Edit suggestions are unlimited on every plan, including Free, and consume no credits. Copilot Chat, coding agents and multi-step agentic workflows are metered against your credit balance and are not unlimited.

How many credits does each Copilot plan include?

Each paid plan includes a credit allotment equal to its price: Copilot Pro includes $10 (1,000 credits), Pro+ includes $39 (3,900 credits), Business includes $19 per user (1,900 credits) and Enterprise includes $39 per user (3,900 credits). Copilot Free has no credit allotment.

Can I buy more Copilot credits?

Yes. Paid plans can purchase additional usage once the included monthly allotment runs out. This is the main behavioural change from the premium request model, where hitting the limit stopped you rather than billing you.

How many tokens does Copilot Pro give you?

There is no fixed token count. Copilot Pro includes $10 of credits, and how many tokens that buys depends entirely on which model you invoke, since credits are drawn at each model's published API rate across input, output and cached tokens. An expensive frontier model consumes the same balance far faster than a cheap fast model.

What is the GitHub Copilot model multiplier?

Under usage-based billing there is no single flat multiplier. Credits are charged at the published per-model API rate, so cost varies by which model you choose rather than by a fixed request multiplier. Annual Pro and Pro+ subscribers who remain on the legacy premium request model do face higher model multipliers until their term expires.

Why did GitHub switch Copilot to usage-based billing?

GitHub said the flat-rate model could not absorb the compute cost of agentic coding. Product leader Mario Rodriguez said agentic usage is becoming the default and brings significantly higher compute and inference demands, with the company stating that the premium request model is "no longer sustainable."

Do code completions cost credits?

No. GitHub confirmed that code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included in all plans and do not consume AI Credits. Only chat, coding agents and multi-step model calls are metered.

Updated August 2026. Credit values and plan allotments as published by GitHub; per-model rates change, so check GitHub’s current pricing before budgeting.