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GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

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Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#3

Post by _pdp_ »

There is noticeable trend across all agentic coding platforms that this situation is no longer sustainable.

With this kind of pricing (sonnet 4.6 has 9x multiplier, previously 1x) it begs the question why use Copilot to begin with.

You could easily just buy the tokens directly and have a lot more choice as well.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#4

Post by my002 »

The era of subsidised inference is truly ending. The new model multipliers (https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing...) seem like a huge leap, though. From 1x to 6x for new-ish GPT and Sonnet models. 27x for Opus...

Seems like folks would be better off with OpenRouter instead.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#5

Post by Ilaurens »

"Your plan pricing is unchanged: Copilot Pro remains $10/month and Pro+ remains $39/month, and each includes $10 and $39 in monthly AI Credits, respectively."

If there's no discount on credits (in terms of tokens per dollar) over other providers, I'm going to switch to a PAYG provider. If there's a month where there's little to no coding I can pocket the 10$. What incentive do they give to stay with this plan?

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#6

Post by Ronsenshi »

Just got an email with this announcement.

I have Copilot Pro that I use occasionally, but not enough to tell how the switch to per use would affect my usage.

Based on description Pro plan users will get $10 in monthly AI Credits, but that seems rather low compared to what you could use same plan until now.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#7

Post by bsdz »

_pdp_ wrote: post #3

There is noticeable trend across all agentic coding platforms that this situation is no longer sustainable. With this kind of pricing (sonnet 4.6 has 9x multiplier, previously 1x) it begs the question why use Copilot to begin with. You could easily just buy the tokens directly and have a lot more choice as well.

Doesn't GitHub get volume discounting they can pass on to their Copilot customers?

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#8

Post by ItsClo688 »

my002 wrote: post #4

The era of subsidised inference is truly ending. The new model multipliers ( https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing... ) seem like a huge leap, though. From 1x to 6x for new-ish GPT and Sonnet models. 27x for Opus... Seems like folks would be better off with OpenRouter instead.

27x for Opus is genuinely shocking. at that point you're not paying for convenience anymore, you're just paying a GitHub tax. OpenRouter or direct API makes way more sense unless you're really glued to the IDE integration.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#9

Post by minimaxir »

my002 wrote: post #4

The era of subsidised inference is truly ending. The new model multipliers ( https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing... ) seem like a huge leap, though. From 1x to 6x for new-ish GPT and Sonnet models. 27x for Opus... Seems like folks would be better off with OpenRouter instead.

What's annoying is that it's obvious. In the case of GPT 5.5, if Copilot is going to charge 7.5x what GPT 5.4 costs while OpenAI themselves via the API/Codex only charges 2x of what GPT 5.4 costs, that will immediately raise an eyebrow.
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