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GitHub Copilot switches to AI Credits billing on June 1 as individual sign-ups stay paused and a Max plan joins the lineup

· by Pondero Newsdesk

Starting June 1, 2026, GitHub is replacing premium request units with token-based AI Credits across all Copilot plans, introducing a new $100/month Max tier and keeping base prices flat.

GitHub Copilot switches to AI Credits billing on June 1 as individual sign-ups stay paused and a Max plan joins the lineup

On June 1, 2026, GitHub replaces the premium request unit (PRU) system with token-based "AI Credits" across all Copilot plans. Base prices hold flat. New individual sign-ups have been paused since April 20 and have not reopened.

What

GitHub announced the billing transition on April 27, 2026. Per the GitHub blog, every Copilot plan moves from counting PRUs to consuming credits calculated from token usage, including input, output, and cached tokens at published API rates.

Per the April 27 billing post, base subscription prices do not change: Copilot Pro stays at $10/month, Pro+ at $39/month, Business at $19/user/month, and Enterprise at $39/user/month. Code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included in all paid plans and do not draw from credit balances.

A May 12 update introduced "flex allotments" on top of base credits. Per the May 12 GitHub announcement, the full individual lineup on June 1 looks like this:

  • Pro ($10/month): $10 base + $5 flex = $15 total included usage (source)
  • Pro+ ($39/month): $39 base + $31 flex = $70 total included usage (source)
  • Max ($100/month): $100 base + $100 flex = $200 total included usage (source)

The Max plan is new. It is positioned for developers running long, parallelized agent sessions. Users can also buy additional credits beyond their included allotment.

Business and Enterprise customers receive promotional included usage for June, July, and August. Per the April 27 billing post, Business accounts get $30 in monthly AI Credits during that window (vs the standard $19 base), and Enterprise accounts get $70.

Fallback model access disappears on June 1. Under the PRU model, a user who exhausted requests could fall back to a lower-cost model and keep working. Under AI Credits, once included usage and any purchased credits are spent, further use requires adding more credits or waiting for the monthly reset. Admins gain budget controls at the enterprise, cost center, and user levels.

Sign-ups for Copilot Pro, Pro+, and Student have been paused since April 20, 2026. Per the April 20 GitHub post, the pause was a reliability measure as agentic workflows drove token consumption well above what flat-rate plans were priced to absorb. The same post removed Opus models from Pro (Opus 4.7 remains on Pro+). GitHub has not announced when sign-ups will reopen, though the April 27 billing post stated limits would loosen once usage-based billing takes effect.

Monthly Pro and Pro+ subscribers auto-migrate on June 1. Annual subscribers remain on PRU pricing until their plan expires, at which point they roll off to Copilot Free with an option to upgrade to a monthly paid plan.

Why it matters

The shift ends flat-rate billing for Copilot. For users who keep usage modest, primarily code completions and short chat exchanges, the transition is likely low-impact: code completions stay unlimited on paid plans and do not consume credits. For developers running Copilot agents on long, multi-step tasks, the credit balance becomes a real variable. A session that previously consumed PRUs now draws down token-priced credits, and the cost of a given session varies by which model handles it.

The structural change also removes the PRU "fallback" safety net. Previously a user who burned through premium requests could still finish work on a lighter model. That option goes away. GitHub's published documentation points to admin budget controls as the replacement mechanism for organizations that want to cap spend.

For teams evaluating whether to stay on Pro or upgrade to Pro+, the flex-allotment update changes the comparison. Per GitHub's May 12 post, Pro now includes $15 in total monthly usage rather than $10, and Pro+ includes $70 rather than $39. Whether $15 covers a given developer's agent workload depends on the models they use and session length.

The Max tier at $100/month with $200 in included usage targets the segment that was driving the agentic usage spikes described in the April 20 post. GitHub cited cases where "a handful of requests" incurred costs exceeding the monthly plan price.

The new sign-up pause adds a wrinkle for developers who want Copilot and have not yet subscribed. Copilot Free remains open for new accounts, but access to Pro or Pro+ features is blocked until GitHub lifts the pause.

Context and reactions

The April 20 changes drew public criticism. GitHub's Joe Binder, VP of Product, acknowledged the disruption directly in the April 20 post: "We know these changes are disruptive, and we want to be clear about why we're making them." The company offered full refunds to monthly subscribers and prorated refunds to annual subscribers who canceled before May 20.

The May 12 flex-allotment update was framed as a direct response to user feedback about whether included credits would be sufficient. GitHub CPO Mario Rodriguez wrote in the April 27 billing post that the agentic shift made flat-rate pricing structurally unsustainable: "Today, a quick chat question and a multi-hour autonomous coding session can cost the user the same amount."

The credit model aligns Copilot pricing with how Anthropic and OpenAI already price their APIs. For enterprise buyers already managing token budgets on those platforms, the model is familiar. For individual developers accustomed to a flat monthly fee, it introduces variability that did not previously exist.

What to watch next

The June 1 go-live is the immediate trigger. Watch whether GitHub reopens individual sign-ups at that date, as the April 27 post described the sign-up pause as a temporary measure tied to the billing transition. First credit-based billing statements will arrive in July for monthly subscribers, which is when any budget-overage patterns will surface.

The flex allotment is also variable by design. Per GitHub's May 12 post, the flex amount "will vary over time" based on AI economics, including model pricing and efficiency improvements. Developers on Pro and Pro+ should track whether that $5 or $31 flex component adjusts after launch.

Developers who want to compare plans before June 1 can review current options at /go/copilot.

Sources