GitHub Copilot Pricing 2026: What Free Actually Includes, Pro at $10, and the New Max Tier
Is GitHub Copilot free? Yes, and unlike most AI coding free tiers, Copilot Free is genuinely usable for completions-led coding rather than being a demo: $0 gets you 2,000 completions per month, 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits), access to multiple models, and the Copilot CLI. The working tier above it is Pro at $10/month — half the price of most AI-native editor subscriptions — which removes the completion cap and adds the cloud agent, code review, and third-party agents. Above that sit Pro+ at $39, a new Max tier at $100 for high-volume agent workflows, and the organization plans at $19 (Business) and $39 (Enterprise) per user. Every number in this paragraph was checked against GitHub's official pricing pages on 2026-07-11.
The full lineup, cross-checked 2026-07-11
| Plan | Price (2026-07-11) | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2,000 completions/mo, 50 chat requests (incl. Copilot Edits), multiple models, Copilot CLI |
| Pro | $10/mo | Unlimited completions, cloud agent, code review, third-party agents, model selection, $15 monthly credits |
| Pro+ | $39/mo | Premium models (incl. Opus), audit logs, $70 monthly credits |
| Max | $100/mo | Priority access to new models/features, $200 monthly credits, built for sustained agent workflows |
| Business / Enterprise | $19 / $39 per user/mo | Org management, pooled credits, governance, IP indemnity; Enterprise adds codebase indexing and 2x usage |
What the free tier is actually for
Copilot Free is the strongest free tier in the AI coding category for one specific profile: a developer whose main want is autocomplete in an editor they already use, with occasional chat. Two thousand completions is roughly a month of part-time coding; fifty chat requests is not. The cap structure tells you the intent — completions are the product, chat is the taster. The CLI being included at $0 matters more than it looks: it is the same Copilot CLI we ran in our own benchmark, where version 1.0.70 completed a real root-cause-and-fix task in 2.97 minutes, running the test suite itself and passing on the first attempt. The capability floor of this product at $0 is genuinely high. What Free is not for: agent-led work. Heavier chat, agent mode, and cloud agents draw on limited allowances, so if your workflow is delegate-and-review rather than type-and-accept, you will feel the ceiling in days and the $10 question answers itself.
When $10 pays for itself — and when $39 or $100 does not
The Pro upgrade case is simple arithmetic on interruptions: the month the completion cap cuts you off mid-work, or the week you reach for code review or the cloud agent more than once, $10 is cheaper than the friction. The upper tiers deserve more skepticism. Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100 are usage multipliers — their headline difference is monthly credit allowances ($70 and $200 versus Pro's $15) plus premium-model access and, for Max, priority access. If you do not yet know your monthly metered usage, you cannot know whether these tiers save or waste money; run a month on Pro, read the usage page, then decide. One structural note from this check: Max did not exist in our previous verification of this lineup — the tier structure moved within weeks, which is itself the lesson. Date every price you rely on, including ours: everything here says 2026-07-11 because it may not survive to 2026-08-11.
Frequently asked questions
Is GitHub Copilot free?
Yes. Copilot Free costs $0 and includes 2,000 completions per month, 50 chat requests including Copilot Edits, access to multiple models, and the Copilot CLI — verified on GitHub's official pages 2026-07-11. Verified students get Copilot at no cost. It is a genuinely usable completions tier, not a trial.
How much is GitHub Copilot Pro and what does it add?
Pro is $10/month (verified 2026-07-11): unlimited code completions, the cloud agent, code review, third-party agents, model selection, and $15 in monthly credits. It is the working tier — upgrade when the Free completion cap interrupts real work.
What is the GitHub Copilot Max plan?
Max is a $100/month individual tier for sustained, high-volume agent workflows: priority access to new models and features plus $200 in monthly credits. It is a usage-tier upgrade over Pro+ ($39, $70 credits), not a separate product — only metered-usage data can justify it. It is also new: it did not appear in our previous lineup check.
Is GitHub Copilot free tier enough for daily coding?
For completions-led coding, often yes: 2,000 completions covers light daily use in one editor. For chat- or agent-led work, no: 50 monthly chat requests and limited agent allowances run out in days of serious use. Match the tier to your workflow shape, not your total hours.
Bottom line: Copilot's pricing ladder rewards starting low. Free is a real tier, $10 Pro is the best-priced working tier in the category, and everything above it is a usage decision you should make with a month of your own metered data — not a feature decision you can make from a pricing page, including this one. All prices dated 2026-07-11; the appearance of the Max tier since our last check is the proof that you should re-verify before paying.