From 1 June, GitHub Copilot bills by what you use. Every plan now draws down a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits, consumed by token usage — input, output and cached — at published per-model rates. The change, set out on the GitHub blog, replaces the older system of premium request units. The autocomplete most engineers lean on dozens of times a day now runs on a meter.

What actually changes

Headline prices hold. Copilot Pro+ stays at US$39 a month and includes US$39 of AI Credits; Business is US$19 a user with US$19 of credits; Enterprise is US$39 with US$39. The shift is in how usage is counted. Premium request units are gone, replaced by credits drawn down per token at each model's API rate. Heavier models cost more per call. A developer who lived comfortably inside a flat plan can now run the meter down faster than expected.

Why developers pushed back

The official announcement thread drew more than 400 comments and close to 900 downvotes, per the GitHub community discussion. The worry is predictability. A flat fee is easy to budget; a token meter is not, especially for engineers who keep an AI assistant running through the day. There is also a quieter change: from 1 June, code-review workflows consume GitHub Actions minutes too, so the cost of automation creeps in from more than one direction.

What it signals

This is the AI-tools business model catching up with the cost of running the models. Flat-rate AI was always a subsidy. As usage grows and inference stays expensive, vendors are moving the cost back onto the people generating it, and GitHub is large enough to set the tone. Expect more coding tools to follow Copilot onto a meter, per Enterprise DNA.

What to do before the meter bites

Check which model your team defaults to, since the gap between a light and a heavy model is where credits disappear. Watch the first month's consumption before assuming the included allowance is enough, and set spending limits where the plan allows. The tools have not changed. The bill might.