Copilot Pricing FAQ 2026

GitHub Copilot Questions

1. Is GitHub Copilot free?

Yes. GitHub Copilot Free offers 2,000 code completions and 50 chat messages per month at no cost. No credit card required — just a GitHub account. Available at github.com/features/copilot.

2. How much does GitHub Copilot cost per month?

GitHub Copilot has five tiers: Free ($0), Pro ($10/month or $100/year), Pro+ ($39/month or $390/year), Business ($19/user/month), and Enterprise ($39/user/month). Business and Enterprise are monthly-only with no annual discount.

3. Is there a GitHub Copilot annual subscription?

Yes, for individual plans only. Pro costs $100/year (vs $120/year on monthly billing — save $20). Pro+ costs $390/year (vs $468/year — save $78). Business and Enterprise plans don't offer annual billing at the published price.

4. Can students get GitHub Copilot free?

Yes. Verified students through the GitHub Student Developer Pack receive GitHub Copilot Pro free — the full Pro experience with unlimited completions, GPT-4o and Claude Sonnet access. Apply at education.github.com. Verified educators also qualify.

5. What's the difference between GitHub Copilot Pro and Pro+?

Both include unlimited completions and chat. Pro ($10/mo) gives 300 premium requests/month and access to GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, and Gemini 2.0. Pro+ ($39/mo) gives 1,500 premium requests/month and adds access to Claude Opus, o3, and Gemini 2.0 Pro — the most powerful models available. Choose Pro+ if you use agent mode heavily or need the highest-capability models regularly.

6. Does GitHub Copilot work in VS Code?

Yes. GitHub Copilot has first-party integration in VS Code via the GitHub Copilot extension. It also supports JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, Rider, CLion, etc.), Visual Studio, Neovim, and Xcode. The same licence works across all supported IDEs.

7. What is a 'premium request' in GitHub Copilot?

A premium request is a credit consumed by advanced AI operations: switching to a powerful model (Claude Opus, o3), using agent mode for multi-file agentic tasks, or running advanced Copilot Workspace features. Standard completions and chat using the default model do not consume premium requests. Pro gets 300/month; Pro+ gets 1,500/month; Business gets 300/user; Enterprise gets 1,000/user.

8. What is the GitHub Copilot Business plan?

GitHub Copilot Business ($19/user/month) is the team tier adding org-level controls: centralised licence management, SAML SSO, audit logs, organisation-wide policy management, and IP indemnity. It's the minimum tier for companies needing these enterprise security features. Monthly billing only — no annual discount at this tier.

Microsoft 365 Copilot Questions

9. Is Microsoft Copilot free?

A limited free version of Microsoft Copilot is available at copilot.microsoft.com and in Edge, Bing, and Windows. It answers general questions and helps with basic drafting. Full Microsoft 365 Copilot — which integrates into your emails, meetings, documents, and Teams history — requires a paid add-on licence ($18–30/user/month).

10. How much is Microsoft 365 Copilot per user?

Microsoft 365 Copilot Business costs $18/user/month (promotional rate until June 30, 2026, then $21/user/month). Enterprise costs $30/user/month. These are add-on costs on top of a qualifying Microsoft 365 base licence ($6–$22+ per user per month) that you must also have.

11. Do I need a Microsoft 365 licence for Copilot?

Yes. M365 Copilot cannot be purchased standalone. Business plan requires: M365 Business Basic ($6/user), Business Standard ($12.50/user), or Business Premium ($22/user). Enterprise requires M365 E3 ($36/user) or E5 ($57/user). The Copilot add-on is on top of these costs.

12. What is the difference between GitHub Copilot and Microsoft 365 Copilot?

They are completely different products. GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant for software developers — it suggests code in your IDE (VS Code, JetBrains, etc.). Microsoft 365 Copilot is an AI productivity layer for office workers in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams. There is no overlap in functionality. Choose GitHub Copilot if you write code; choose M365 Copilot if you work in Office apps.

13. Is Microsoft 365 Copilot available for individuals?

Microsoft Copilot Pro ($20/month) is the individual version for personal Microsoft 365 subscribers. It gives priority GPT-4o access, deeper Copilot integration in personal Word/Excel/PowerPoint/Outlook, and 60 AI image boosts per day. This is separate from M365 Copilot Business (for work accounts).

14. When does the Microsoft 365 Copilot price increase?

July 1, 2026. The Business plan promotional rate of $18/user/month rises to $21/user/month — a 17% increase. For a 50-seat organisation, that's $1,800/year more. Annual billing contracted before June 30, 2026 locks in the current rate until renewal. Enterprise ($30/user) is not changing in this round.

15. What is Copilot Chat and is it free?

Copilot Chat is a basic Microsoft 365 Copilot experience included free for eligible M365 subscribers. It provides general AI assistance — answering questions, helping draft content — but does not access your specific emails, calendar, documents, or Teams history. The paid M365 Copilot add-on enables full data integration.

16. How many users does the Business plan support?

The Microsoft 365 Copilot Business plan supports up to 300 users. Organisations with more than 300 users must use the Enterprise plan ($30/user/month). This is a hard cap with no exceptions — planning for growth beyond 300 seats means planning for Enterprise pricing.

General Copilot Questions

17. Which Copilot should I buy — GitHub or Microsoft 365?

It depends entirely on what you do. If you write software code, GitHub Copilot (from $10/month) is the product you need — it works in your IDE and assists with code. If you work in Word, Excel, Outlook, or Teams and want AI assistance with documents, emails, and meetings, Microsoft 365 Copilot ($18+/user/month) is the product. Many organisations buy both — developers get GitHub Copilot; office staff get M365 Copilot.

18. Is Copilot worth the cost?

GitHub Copilot Pro at $10/month is considered high-value by most professional developers — unlimited completions and Claude/GPT-4o access for less than one hour of typical consulting rates. Microsoft 365 Copilot's ROI is more workflow-dependent: heavy meeting and email users typically see strong returns; occasional Office users may not. Both offer trial periods (GitHub Copilot Free is permanently available; M365 Copilot offers a 30-day trial).

19. What are the best alternatives to Copilot?

GitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor ($20/mo, excellent agentic editing), Tabnine ($12/mo, on-premise option), Amazon Q Developer ($19/mo, AWS-native), Claude Code (API-based, terminal tool). Microsoft 365 Copilot alternatives: Google Workspace with Gemini AI ($18/user/mo at Business Plus tier), ChatGPT Enterprise, standalone ChatGPT Plus ($20/mo) for general AI assistance.

20. Does Copilot use my data to train AI models?

For GitHub Copilot Business and Enterprise: code you write with Copilot is not used to train GitHub's AI models (you can verify via the org policy settings). For individual plans (Free, Pro, Pro+): code snippets may be used to improve Copilot unless you opt out in settings. For M365 Copilot: Microsoft has committed that your Microsoft 365 data (emails, documents) is not used to train general AI models — only to generate your personal Copilot responses.