GitHub Copilot Licensing Guide

Key Takeaways

• Two plans exist: GitHub Copilot Business ($19/user/month) and GitHub Copilot Enterprise ($39/user/month). Enterprise requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

• Premium requests are the billing lever: Both plans include a monthly allowance of premium requests. Exceed that allowance and you pay $0.04 per additional request.

• GitHub Copilot is not Microsoft 365 Copilot: Despite the shared “Copilot” branding, these are completely separate products with different pricing, billing models, and use cases.

• Enterprise breakeven is around 800 requests: If your developers consistently exceed 800 premium requests per month, Enterprise becomes cheaper than Business plus overage.

• Seat billing is consolidated: If a user has seats in multiple organisations within the same enterprise, you only pay for that user once.

• Model multipliers can surprise you: Advanced models consume multiple premium requests per interaction. A single Claude Sonnet query costs 5 requests; a GPT-4.5 query costs 20.

1. What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant built into development environments. It helps developers write code faster by suggesting completions, generating functions, explaining code, and answering technical questions directly in their editor.

If Microsoft 365 Copilot is the productivity assistant for knowledge workers, GitHub Copilot is the equivalent for software developers. Both use generative AI, both carry the Copilot brand, but they serve entirely different audiences and operate on separate billing systems.

What GitHub Copilot does:

• Code completion: Copilot suggests lines or entire functions as developers type.

• Chat: Developers can ask questions about their code, get explanations of errors, and generate tests.

• Pull request summaries: Copilot automatically summarises code changes for reviewers.

• Documentation generation: Copilot creates docstrings and README content from existing code.

• Code review: Copilot suggests improvements and catches potential issues before merge.

Where it works:

GitHub Copilot integrates with Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.), Neovim, and GitHub.com itself. Enterprise users can also chat with Copilot directly on GitHub.com.

2. How Does GitHub Copilot Differ from Microsoft 365 Copilot?

The shared “Copilot” name creates confusion, especially during procurement. These are distinct products.

You may be asked to approve “Copilot” without clarity on which product. Ensure requests specify either “GitHub Copilot” (development teams) or “Microsoft 365 Copilot” (productivity suite). The costs, contracts, and billing models are completely different.

Source: GitHub Copilot Plans

🖐 Understand how Copilot fits into your wider Microsoft estate. Learn more: Microsoft Licensing Services for Enterprises.

3. How Much Does GitHub Copilot Cost?

3.1 Plan Comparison

Source: GitHub Copilot Plans, GitHub Copilot Billing

3.2 What is a Premium Request?

Not all GitHub Copilot interactions are equal. Standard code completions (the suggestions that appear as you type) are unlimited. Premium requests are the more compute-intensive operations: chat interactions, code completions that use advanced models, agent mode operations, and code review suggestions.

Each plan includes a monthly allocation of premium requests per user. Exceed that allocation and you pay $0.04 per additional request.

3.3 Model Multipliers

Advanced AI models consume more than one premium request per interaction. GitHub applies multipliers based on the model’s computational cost.

Budget implication: A developer using Claude Sonnet for chat exhausts their Business allocation (300 requests) after just 60 interactions. With GPT-4.5, that drops to 15 interactions before overage begins.

Source: GitHub Copilot Premium Requests

3.4 When Enterprise Makes Financial Sense

Enterprise costs $20 more per user per month but provides 700 additional premium requests. At $0.04 per overage request on Business, the breakeven is:

$20 divided by $0.04 = 500 additional requests

If a Business user exceeds 300 requests by more than 500 (that is, uses more than 800 premium requests monthly), Enterprise becomes cheaper.

Calculation example:

A developer using 1,200 premium requests per month:

For high-volume users, Enterprise saves money. For users who stay within 300 requests, Business is the better value.

4. How Seat Billing Works

4.1 End-of-Cycle Billing

Unlike many Microsoft subscriptions that bill at the start of a cycle, GitHub Copilot charges at the end of each billing cycle based on actual seat assignments during that period. New seats added mid-cycle are prorated. Removed seats stop billing from the removal date. You pay for what you actually used.

4.2 Enterprise-Level Consolidation

If your organisation uses GitHub Enterprise Cloud and a user has Copilot seats in multiple organisations within the same enterprise, you only pay once for that user.

Example: Your enterprise has three GitHub organisations (Development, Platform, and Data). A developer with seats in all three organisations is billed as one seat, not three.

Without Enterprise Cloud, each organisation bills separately. A user with seats in multiple standalone organisations pays multiple times.

Source: GitHub Copilot Billing for Organisations and Enterprises

5. Enterprise-Only Features

The $20 premium for Enterprise provides capabilities beyond the larger request allocation:

5.1 Knowledge Bases

Enterprise users can create knowledge bases that index your documentation, wikis, and code repositories. When developers ask Copilot questions, it searches these knowledge bases to provide organisation-specific answers rather than generic responses.

Use case: A developer asks “How do we handle authentication in our API?” Copilot searches your internal documentation and code patterns to answer, rather than suggesting generic approaches that might not fit your architecture.

5.2 GitHub.com Chat

Enterprise users can chat with Copilot directly on GitHub.com without opening a code editor. Business users must use their IDE for Copilot interactions.

5.3 Earlier Feature Access

New Copilot capabilities roll out to Enterprise users first. If your development teams want early access to new AI tooling, the Enterprise plan delivers that.

5.4 Fine-Tuned Models

Enterprise customers can request custom models trained on their codebase for more relevant suggestions, though fine-tuning requires a separate arrangement with GitHub.

Source: Choosing Your Enterprise’s Plan for GitHub Copilot

6. Prerequisites and Requirements

6.1 GitHub Copilot Business

GitHub Copilot Business requires a GitHub organisation, which is free to create. It works with any GitHub plan, whether Free, Team, or Enterprise. The organisation owner or billing manager assigns seats to users.

6.2 GitHub Copilot Enterprise

GitHub Copilot Enterprise requires a GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription with an enterprise account enabled. The enterprise owner controls policy and seat management across all organisations within the enterprise.

Note: GitHub Enterprise Cloud is a separate subscription with its own pricing. If you are not already on Enterprise Cloud, factor that cost into your total when evaluating Copilot Enterprise.

7. Managing Costs

7.1 Monitor Premium Request Usage

GitHub provides usage dashboards showing premium request consumption by user and by model. Review these monthly to identify users approaching their allocation, high-consumption patterns such as frequent use of advanced models, and opportunities to adjust model defaults.

7.2 Set Organisation Policies

Administrators can configure default models and restrict access to high-multiplier models. If you need tighter budget control, consider limiting GPT-4.5 (20x multiplier) to specific teams.

7.3 Right-Size Your Plan

Not every developer needs Enterprise. Business suits developers who primarily use code completion, while Enterprise makes sense for developers who rely heavily on chat, agents, and knowledge bases. A mixed approach, with Business for most users and Enterprise for power users, may optimise costs.

🖐 Benchmark AI-related licensing and cost exposure. Learn more: Pricing Research and Pricing Metrics.

8. Procurement Checklist

When evaluating GitHub Copilot for your organisation:

• ⬜ Clarify which Copilot: Confirm the request is for GitHub Copilot (development), not Microsoft 365 Copilot (productivity)

• ⬜ Assess current GitHub tier: Enterprise Copilot requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud

• ⬜ Estimate premium request usage: Survey developers on expected chat and advanced model usage

• ⬜ Calculate overage scenarios: Model what happens if usage exceeds allocation

• ⬜ Review contract vehicle: GitHub agreements are separate from Microsoft agreements

• ⬜ Plan seat management: Decide who assigns seats and how you will handle mid-cycle changes

• ⬜ Set model policies: Determine whether to restrict high-multiplier models

Need Help?

GitHub Copilot sits outside traditional Microsoft licensing agreements, but many organisations manage both alongside each other. If you’re trying to understand how AI tools fit into your broader Microsoft estate, or need help negotiating your Microsoft agreement, get in touch.

We don’t sell Microsoft licences or GitHub subscriptions, so our advice is unbiased.