GitHub Copilot switches to usage-based pricing; users report burning through monthly credit allotments in hours or days

In April, GitHub announced a shift from request-based billing to usage-based pricing for Copilot. The new system grants paid subscribers a monthly allotment of AI 'credits,' with one credit equal to $0.01 of usage. The $10/month Pro plan includes 1,500 credits ($15 worth); the $39/month Pro+ plan includes 7,000 credits ($70 worth); and the $100/month Copilot Max plan includes 20,000 credits ($200 worth).

Under the old system, GitHub absorbed much of the cost difference between simple queries and multi-hour coding sessions. Now, credit consumption depends on input and output tokens used and the underlying LLM (large language model) chosen—OpenAI's GPT-5.4 nano costs $1.25 per million output tokens via Copilot, while GPT-5.5 frontier model costs $30 per million output tokens.

Many users report extreme sticker shock: some burned through a month's quota in a single day, one user spent 840 credits in limited testing on the first day, and another used 21 percent of their monthly Pro allotment in one day. Users sharing cost estimates from GitHub's own tool showed their previous monthly usage would have cost thousands of dollars under the new pricing. Some Copilot users are threatening to cancel or switch to other AI coding services.