GitHub Copilot Business: $19/User/Month
The Business plan is GitHub Copilot for teams — adding SSO, audit logs, policy controls, and IP indemnity. Here's what your organisation actually gets, and the real cost at different team sizes.
Business Plan: Feature Breakdown
Centralised Licence Management
Assign, remove, and manage Copilot seats from a single GitHub organisation admin panel. No need for each developer to manage their own subscription. Billing consolidated to one invoice.
Organisation-wide Policy Controls
Admins can set policies across all seats: enable/disable specific Copilot features, control which models are available, restrict Copilot to only work on specific repositories.
Audit Logs
Full audit trail of Copilot usage events: who used Copilot when, which features they accessed, policy changes. Essential for compliance-conscious organisations and required by many security frameworks (SOC 2, ISO 27001).
SAML SSO Support
Copilot access controlled through your identity provider (Okta, Azure AD, etc.). Users provisioned and de-provisioned automatically when they join or leave your org. Required by most enterprise IT security policies.
IP Indemnity
GitHub's indemnification covers your organisation against legal claims that Copilot's code suggestions infringe open-source licences. Critical for any commercial software product where code provenance matters.
300 Premium Requests / User
Each Business seat includes 300 premium requests per month — the same as Pro. Premium requests power agent mode and advanced model access. For most developers, 300/month is sufficient for professional use.
Real Cost at Different Team Sizes
| Team Size | Monthly Cost | Annual Cost | Cost per Developer / Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 seats | $95/mo | $1,140/yr | $228 |
| 10 seats | $190/mo | $2,280/yr | $228 |
| 25 seats | $475/mo | $5,700/yr | $228 |
| 50 seats | $950/mo | $11,400/yr | $228 |
| 100 seats | $1,900/mo | $22,800/yr | $228 |
| 250 seats | $4,750/mo | $57,000/yr | $228 |
Costs at $19/user/month with monthly billing. No annual discount available for Business or Enterprise plans.
Business vs Enterprise: What Does $39/User Add?
| Feature | Business $19/user | Enterprise $39/user |
|---|---|---|
| Unlimited code completions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Unlimited chat | ✓ | ✓ |
| Premium requests/month | 300/user | 1,000/user |
| Org policy management | ✓ | ✓ |
| SAML SSO | ✓ | ✓ |
| Audit logs | ✓ | ✓ |
| IP indemnity | ✓ | ✓ |
| Codebase indexing | — | ✓ Copilot understands your full repo |
| Fine-tuned custom models | — | ✓ Train on your codebase |
| GitHub.com chat interface | — | ✓ Ask questions about any repo |
| Model access | GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet | GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet & Opus, Custom |
| Annual cost premium (100 devs) | $22,800/yr | $46,800/yr (+$24,000) |
When to choose Enterprise over Business: Codebase indexing (Enterprise-only) allows Copilot to understand your entire private codebase — giving context-aware suggestions that know your internal APIs, conventions, and architecture. This is valuable for large codebases with complex internal abstractions. For most teams under 200 developers without these requirements, Business is sufficient.
Business vs Giving Everyone Pro: Which Is Cheaper?
Business costs $19/user/month. Pro costs $10/user/month. The question is whether the $9/user/month premium is worth it.
| Team Size | Everyone on Pro (annual) | Business Plan (monthly) | Annual Cost Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 devs | $500/yr (Pro annual at $100/yr each) | $1,140/yr | Business costs $640 more/yr |
| 10 devs | $1,000/yr (Pro annual at $100/yr each) | $2,280/yr | Business costs $1,280 more/yr |
| 25 devs | $2,500/yr (Pro annual at $100/yr each) | $5,700/yr | Business costs $3,200 more/yr |
| 50 devs | $5,000/yr (Pro annual at $100/yr each) | $11,400/yr | Business costs $6,400 more/yr |
Verdict: Business costs significantly more than giving everyone Pro. The premium is justified only if you need SAML SSO (required by most enterprise IT policies), audit logs (compliance), centralised policy management, or IP indemnity. A team of 5 friends building a side project can save ~$640/year on Pro — but a corporate team deploying to customers should be on Business for the SSO and audit trail alone.
Common Business Plan Questions
Can I mix Business and Pro plans in the same organisation?
No — org-managed Copilot seats are all-or-nothing at the Business or Enterprise tier. Individual contributors can separately hold personal Pro subscriptions, but that's outside org management.
Do students get Business for free?
No. The GitHub Student Developer Pack only covers individual Pro access. The Business plan requires a paid organisational subscription regardless of whether individuals qualify for free programmes.
Does GitHub Copilot Business include GitHub Enterprise?
No. These are separate products. GitHub Copilot Business is only the AI coding assistant add-on — it requires an existing GitHub organisation (Team or Enterprise plan) to be layered on top of.
Is annual billing available for Business?
No. Business and Enterprise are billed monthly only. There is no annual discount at these tiers, unlike individual Pro ($100/yr vs $120/yr monthly). For large teams wanting cost predictability, Enterprise Agreement negotiations directly with GitHub/Microsoft sales may offer custom pricing.