GitHub Copilot, the AI coding assistant developed by Microsoft-owned GitHub, may soon see a price increase for some users. Recently, GitHub announced a new “premium requests” system for Copilot, introducing rate limits when users select AI models other than the base model for certain tasks, including “agentic” coding and multi-file edits. Subscribers to GitHub Copilot can still perform unlimited actions using the base model, OpenAI’s GPT-4o, but tasks involving newer models such as Anthropic’s 3.7 Sonnet will face restrictions.
Starting May 5, GitHub’s Copilot Pro tier, priced at $20 per month, will include 300 monthly premium requests, as communicated through a blog post by GitHub. Meanwhile, users of Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise will receive 300 and 1,000 monthly premium requests, respectively, beginning between May 12 and May 19.
Users on these plans will have the option to purchase additional premium requests at a cost of $0.04 per request or upgrade to the new Copilot Pro+ plan. Priced at $39 per month, Copilot Pro+ offers 1,500 premium requests and “access to the best models,” according to GitHub, including OpenAI’s GPT-4.5.
This increase in cost for the more advanced models of Copilot follows closely after another AI coding platform, Devin, raised rates for some users. The price adjustments could be a reflection of the increased computing costs associated with these advanced models. Models like 3.7 Sonnet, known for their reasoning capabilities, require more time to verify their answers, which enhances reliability but also raises the computational resources needed.
Despite these changes, Copilot remains profitable. Last August, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella disclosed that Copilot was responsible for over 40% of GitHub’s revenue growth in 2024 and has become a larger business than the entirety of GitHub at the time of its acquisition by Microsoft approximately seven years ago.