The quick answer
Yes, GitHub Copilot has a free plan. Copilot Free costs $0, needs no credit card, and gives you 2,000 code completions a month plus “limited chat and agent usage.” Copilot Pro costs $10 a month and removes the completion cap, adds $15 of monthly AI Credits, pull request reviews and the cloud coding agent. Prices and limits checked on GitHub’s plans page on November 2, 2026.
If you code a few hours a week on side projects, Free is enough. If you build client sites or apps every day, you will hit the 2,000 completion cap within a couple of weeks, and Pro at $10 is one of the cheapest paid AI coding plans you can buy.
GitHub changed Copilot pricing a lot in 2026. On June 1 it dropped “premium requests” and moved every plan to GitHub AI Credits, where 1 credit equals $0.01 and usage is metered by the model and the length of the task. A lot of pages still quote the old “50 chat requests” and “300 premium requests” limits. Those no longer apply.
GitHub Copilot Free vs Pro vs Pro+ vs Max
The main differences are the monthly AI Credits, the completion cap, and whether Copilot can work on its own in GitHub.
| Feature | Free | Pro | Pro+ | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | $0 | $10/month | $39/month | $100/month |
| Code completions | 2,000 a month | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| AI Credits each month | Limited chat and agent use (no number published) | $15 ($10 base + $5 flex) | $70 ($39 base + $31 flex) | $200 ($100 base + $100 flex) |
| Buy extra credits | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Agent mode in VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Copilot CLI (terminal) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Pull request reviews on GitHub | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Assign an issue and get a pull request back | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hand tasks to Claude or OpenAI Codex agents (preview) | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| IP indemnity | No | No | No | No |
Teams pay per seat instead: Business is $19 per user a month and Enterprise is $39 per user a month, with credits pooled across the company. Source: GitHub Copilot plans page, checked November 2, 2026. GitHub says the flex part “may change over time,” so treat the totals as current, not fixed.
What Copilot Free actually gives you
Copilot Free is a real plan, not a trial. It has no end date and needs no card. Here is what you get each month:
- 2,000 code completions. These are the grey suggestions that appear as you type.
- Limited chat and agent usage. GitHub no longer publishes a fixed number for Free. Older guides say 50 chat requests, but that was the pre-June system.
- Models picked for you. GitHub’s FAQ says Free gets “entry level models,” and you don’t choose which one answers. Paid plans let you pick the model.
- Agent mode in your editor and the Copilot CLI. You can ask Copilot to edit files in VS Code or run it in the terminal, within the usage limit.
- Works in the main editors: VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Neovim, Eclipse and Zed, plus github.com and GitHub Mobile.
What Free does not include: pull request reviews, the cloud agent that turns an issue into a pull request, and the option to buy more usage. When you hit a limit on Free, you wait for next month or upgrade.
How fast does 2,000 run out? It depends on how much you type. A few hours of coding on weekends will usually stay under it. A full work week of building a client site can use a large share of it. [OUR TEST] Add how many completions we used in a normal week and on which day we hit the cap.
What Copilot Pro adds for $10 a month
Pro is the plan most freelancers should look at, because it removes the two limits that hurt on Free: the completion cap and the small chat allowance.
- Unlimited code completions and next edit suggestions. These never use AI Credits on any paid plan.
- $15 of AI Credits a month (1,500 credits). Chat, agent mode, code review, the CLI and the cloud agent draw from this.
- Pull request reviews on github.com and file diff reviews in your editor.
- The cloud agent. Assign an issue to Copilot and it researches, writes the code and opens a pull request for you to review. If you want to compare it with other agents, see our Top 10 AI agents list.
- Model choice, so you can use a light model for quick questions and a stronger one for hard bugs.
How AI Credits work, in plain terms
1 AI Credit is $0.01. A quick question to a light model costs a fraction of a credit. A long agent session on a top model across many files costs much more. So $15 can last a light user the whole month, or a heavy agent user a few days.
When you run out, you have three choices: wait for the monthly reset, set a dollar budget and keep going (a $10 budget buys 1,000 credits), or switch to a cheaper model. GitHub sends alerts at 75%, 90% and 100% of any budget you set.
Tip for freelancers: set a small budget, like $5, the day you subscribe. That way a long agent session on a client project can’t surprise you on your card.
Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise: who needs them
Most solo freelancers never need more than Pro. The bigger plans are about more usage, not different basic features.
- Pro+ ($39/month): $70 of credits, about 4.7 times Pro’s allowance for about 3.9 times the price. It also lets you hand tasks to third-party agents like Claude and OpenAI Codex (in preview). Worth it if you run agent mode for hours most days.
- Max ($100/month): $200 of credits and priority access to premium models. This is for people who use Copilot as an all-day agent. A freelancer billing for full-time development might justify it; most won’t.
- Business ($19 per user/month): for agencies and small teams. Credits are pooled across the team, admins control spending, and it adds IP indemnity, user management and usage metrics.
- Enterprise ($39 per user/month): for larger companies that need advanced controls. GitHub now also offers Copilot access through GitHub Enterprise Cloud.
If you run a small agency with 2 to 5 developers, Business is the one to compare against giving each person Pro. Business costs $9 more per seat, but you get one bill, shared credits and legal protection on the code.
Other ways to get Copilot for free
Three groups can get more than the standard Free plan without paying:
| Who | What they get | How to apply |
|---|---|---|
| Verified students | Copilot Student: unlimited completions, a small AI Credits allowance, models picked automatically | GitHub Education |
| Verified teachers | Copilot Pro, free | GitHub Education |
| Maintainers of popular open source projects | Copilot Pro, free | Check your GitHub Copilot settings page for the offer |
Note that the Student plan is no longer the same as Pro. Since the June 2026 billing change it has a much smaller credit allowance, so heavy chat or agent use will run out fast.
Is Copilot Pro worth $10 for freelancers?
Yes, if you code on paid work most weeks. One saved hour a month covers the cost for almost any freelance rate. Stay on Free if coding is a small part of what you do.
| Your situation | Plan to pick |
|---|---|
| You edit a WordPress theme or script now and then | Free |
| You build client sites or apps a few days a week | Pro |
| You let the agent write whole features most days | Pro+ |
| You run a small dev team or agency | Business |
| You are a student or teacher | Apply through GitHub Education first |
One thing freelancers should check: client code and training
GitHub’s FAQ says that on individual plans (Free, Pro, Pro+), it may use your prompts, suggestions and code snippets to train its AI models. Business and Enterprise data is not used this way. If you work on client code under an NDA, turn this off in your Copilot settings on day one. It takes a few seconds and doesn’t change what features you get.
When to upgrade from Free
- You hit the 2,000 completion cap before the month ends.
- Copilot chat stops answering because your limit is used up.
- You want Copilot to review pull requests before you send work to a client.
GitHub Copilot alternatives
Copilot Pro is half the price of the main rivals’ entry plans. The trade off is that Cursor and Windsurf are full editors built around AI, while Copilot plugs into the editor you already use.
| Tool | Free plan | Entry paid plan | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Yes, 2,000 completions a month | Pro, $10/month | Working in any editor, GitHub pull requests |
| Cursor | Yes, Hobby (limited) | Pro, $20/month | Large edits across many files in one AI editor |
| Windsurf | Yes, daily quota | Pro, $20/month | An AI editor with daily and weekly usage limits instead of credits |
| Claude Code | No separate free plan | Included with Claude Pro | Working from the terminal on bigger refactors |
We compared three of these head to head in OpenCode vs Cursor vs Claude Code, and our AI coding tools list covers the wider market. Competitor prices checked from vendor pages and recent pricing guides, November 2026.
FAQ
Is GitHub Copilot free?
Yes. Copilot Free costs $0 and includes 2,000 code completions a month plus limited chat and agent use. No credit card is needed.
Is GitHub Copilot free forever?
The Free plan has no time limit. The monthly limits reset each month, and you can stay on it as long as you like.
How much is GitHub Copilot Pro?
$10 a month. It includes unlimited completions and $15 of AI Credits for chat, agents and code review.
What happens when I run out of AI Credits?
On Pro and above you can wait for the monthly reset, set a budget to keep going at $0.01 per credit, or switch to a cheaper model. On Free you wait for next month.
Does Copilot still use premium requests?
No. GitHub replaced premium requests with AI Credits on June 1, 2026. Limits like “50 chat requests” or “300 premium requests” are out of date.
Can students get GitHub Copilot free?
Yes. Verified students get the Copilot Student plan through GitHub Education. Verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects can get Copilot Pro free.
Does GitHub use my code to train its AI?
On Free, Pro and Pro+, GitHub may use your prompts and code snippets for training unless you opt out in your Copilot settings. Business and Enterprise data is not used for training.
Our verdict
Start on Copilot Free. If you hit the 2,000 completion cap or the chat limit in your first month, move to Pro at $10. For freelancers who code on paid projects most weeks, Pro is an easy yes, as long as you set a credit budget and turn off training on client code. Only look at Pro+ or Cursor if you lean on agents for large, multi-file work every day.
Sources
- GitHub Copilot plans and pricing, checked November 2, 2026
- aiworthit: Is GitHub Copilot Free? Free vs Pro Price & Limits, competitor reference, updated October 28, 2026
