GitHub Copilot Introduces Pricing Tiers and Limits for Premium AI Models

GitHub Copilot, the AI coding assistant owned by Microsoft, could soon become pricier for certain users. On Friday, GitHub announced the introduction of «premium requests,» a new system that imposes speed limits when users opt for AI models other than the base one for tasks like agent-based coding and multi-file editing.

While subscribers to GitHub Copilot will still be able to utilize the base model (OpenAI’s GPT-4) without restrictions, access to newer models, such as Anthropic’s 3.7 Sonnet, will now come with limitations on tasks and actions.

Pro plan clients ($20 per month) will receive 300 premium requests each month, starting May 5, as noted in a GitHub blog post. For users on the Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise plans, they will get 300 and 1,000 premium requests monthly, respectively, commencing from May 12 to May 19.

Clients across all plans have the option to purchase additional premium requests at $0.04 each or upgrade to the new GitHub Copilot Pro+ plan. Priced from $39 per month, Copilot Pro+ offers 1,500 premium requests and “access to top-tier models,” according to GitHub, including OpenAI’s GPT-4.5.

The actual cost increase for utilizing more advanced Copilot models, which occurred the day after the AI coding platform Devin raised rates for some users, may reflect the heightened computational costs associated with these models. Reasoning models like the 3.7 Sonnet take longer to verify their responses, rendering them more reliable yet also augmenting the computational expenses required for their operation.

However, Copilot is not operating at a loss. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella mentioned last August that Copilot accounted for more than 40% of GitHub’s revenue growth in 2024 and that it has already outgrown the entire business of GitHub since the tech giant acquired it around seven years ago.

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