GitHub Copilot Shifts to Usage-Based Pricing, Shocking Power Users With Costs

Executive Briefing

• Reveals GitHub heavily subsidized Copilot users, with some previous monthly usage now valued at thousands of dollars
• Introduces credit-based system where one credit equals $0.01, with plans ranging from 1,500 to 20,000 credits monthly
• Warns model choice dramatically affects costs, with GPT-5.5 output running 24x more expensive than GPT nano
• Suggests token-efficient models like DeepSeek may gain competitive edge as usage-based pricing spreads industry-wide