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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

#101

Post by cedws »

specproc wrote: post #26
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.

Yeah, totally. The recent pricing changes have just made my Copilot subscription go from great deal to awful value over night. I've been wanting to get off MS more generally and this is good motivation. Will be playing round with OR this week.

Just be aware OpenRouter charges a 5.5% fee, I didn’t know until recently. I like the product, and I think the fee is fair, but if you want the absolute best pricing then go direct.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#102

Post by Mattwmaster58 »

to11mtm wrote: post #77
Someone1234 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. Or if you're a business with multiple seats, these plans may be more inefficient than raw API usage billing. Since if anyone at your organization fails to utilize their full $19/39 allotment each month, that's wasting money, whereas with API credits it is 100% utilized. I don't think they've thought through the implications of this. Everyone should cancel and go usage-based billing with caps.

They do address this in the doc, Orgs can now (although it was vague as to whether it was an option or just the new standard, probably option due to business contracts) 'pool' the Usage billing across all users. I'm guessing they did that (and the 'temporary bonus credits') to make the pill easier to swallow for that side of customers.

For orgs, each user was allotted their own quota. For messages beyond that quota, a pooled budget is available.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#103

Post by born_a_skeptic »

I wonder if GitHub (Microsoft) is implicitly betting that enterprise demand is sticky enough to absorb these rates, especially given that Opus 4.6 “fast” was being listed at a 27x multiplier. Maybe they saw enough usage at that price point to conclude the demand is real. Or maybe the strategy is to keep the enterprise customers who can justify it while shedding heavier individual and power-user usage.

The interesting question is how long it takes enterprises to notice the capability/pricing tradeoff, and whether they respond by limiting access to the strongest models internally.

The part that worries me is that this market is still very early. Most developers and organizations are still learning how to use these tools effectively. Raising the experimentation cost this much may slow down the discovery process that makes the tools valuable in the first place.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#104

Post by kristjansson »

t-sauer wrote: post #92
motoboi wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not apples for apples. Before: - Opus 4.6 each premium request is 3 premium requests After: - Opus 4.6 each dollar spent is 27 dollars in copilot AI Credits. Given that you'll receive 19 dollars of AI Credits in Business plan, that means you can probably say 1 "hi" to opus per month.

It is an apples for apples comparison since those new multipliers only count if you are on an annual plan in which case the premium request system stays in place until you either cancel and get a refund or until your renewal comes up. https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing/usage-ba... If you are not on an annual plan, multipliers will be gone completely. You can see the rates that apply instead here: htt…

Based on the pricing and comparing to competitors e.g. bedrock[1] looks like cache-write will only be on 5 minute TTL.

[1]: https://aws.amazon.com/bedrock/pricing/

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#105

Post by drumttocs8 »

999900000999 wrote: post #17

Well. Just got an email from GitHub saying they'll be raising prices for Co Pilot. "To keep up with the way you use Copilot, we're transitioning to usage-based billing, and we want to give you enough time to prepare." Man, it was fun. Having my tokens subsidized by Microsoft. If the prices go up to much I guess I'll try Deepseek again.

It's amazing how much I was able to build for $40/mo- something that would have taken a team of 100 twice the time just a few years ago.

Will always be grateful for the greed of trillion dollar corporations that subsidized me.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#106

Post by skeeter2020 »

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.

"This change aligns Copilot pricing with actual usage and is an important step toward a sustainable, reliable Copilot business and experience for all users."

I see statements like this as strong indicators that the sales people are wrapping up their work and the accountants are taking over. The land rush is switching to an operational efficiency play.

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#107

Post by netule »

KronisLV wrote: post #83
netule wrote: post #21

I pay for Copilot annually, and mostly for its code auto completion features. I use CC if I want to do anything agentic. Not sure if I want to pay more for occasionally-good-intellisense at this point.

Same! I wonder what other alternatives there might be for autocomplete.

If you find out, please let me know!

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#108

Post by Austizzle »

sefrost wrote: post #25

I was curious why a company would still use the VS Code + Copilot sidebar method for coding, rather than something like Claude Code. Turns out there’s a GitHub Copilot CLI! I thought I was pretty familiar with available options, but no one in my circles ever mentions this product. It doesn’t seem to have much mindshare. Has anyone used it? What’s your experience? https://github.com/features/copilot/cli

The vs code integration is pretty slick. I can copy and paste function names into the prompt and it automatically turns them into these `#sym:` reference objects that I presume populate the context window with metadata about the function and where it lives. It knows what file I'm currently looking at as I jump around in the code, and that automatically gets loaded into the context. I can also drag and drop folders or specific files for context into the sidebar.

It's a lot of stuff that makes me have to type less into the prompt, since it's already getting so much info from my editor

Re: GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing

#109

Post by Waterluvian »

alecsm wrote: post #22

So I guess from now on GH Copilot is only worth it if you want a quality autocomplete in VSCode.

That was the first thing I turned off in VSCode. Autocomplete for my TypeScript projects was great. And the "AI" suggestions/completions were really getting in the way of me still being the "driver."
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