Find out what your Copilot bill will actually be.
GitHub Copilot switched to token-based AI Credits billing on June 1, 2026. Enter your workflow — chat usage, agentic sessions, model choice — to see your estimated monthly cost and whether you're at risk of overages.
How the calculator works
- 1
Select your Copilot plan
Choose from Free, Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, or Enterprise. Each plan has a different monthly price and a different number of AI Credits included. The calculator shows your plan's credit allowance alongside your estimated usage.
- 2
Describe your daily workflow
Adjust three sliders: how many chat messages you send per day (and what model tier), how many agentic sessions you run per day (and on what size codebase), and how many code reviews you do per week. Set your working days per month to 20 for a standard month.
- 3
The calculator estimates monthly credit consumption
Each activity type is multiplied by its average credit cost and your working days. Chat at 80 credits/message × 10 messages/day × 20 days = 16,000 credits from chat alone. Agentic sessions and code reviews add on top.
- 4
Overages are calculated against your plan allowance
If your estimated total exceeds your plan's included credits, the overage is billed at $0.01 per credit. The credit bar turns red and shows how far over you are. The cost breakdown shows plan fee + overage separately.
- 5
Alternatives are compared side by side
Your total monthly Copilot cost is compared against flat-rate alternatives: Cursor Pro ($20), Claude Code Pro ($17), Windsurf Pro ($20), and Gemini Code Assist (free tier). Any alternative cheaper than your current Copilot total is highlighted in green with the monthly saving.
- 6
A plain-English recommendation is generated
Based on your usage pattern, the calculator recommends whether to stay on your current plan, upgrade, downgrade, or consider switching tools — with the specific dollar saving shown if a cheaper option exists.
What each output section means
The results panel has three sections — understand what each tells you before acting on it.
Shows your estimated monthly credit consumption vs your plan's included allowance. Green means no overages; red means you've exceeded your plan limit. The bar caps at 100% even if overages are large — the overage count appears as text below it.
Scenario: Pro+ plan (7,000 credits), using 4,200 credits/month
[████████░░░░░░░░] 60% used — no overages
4,200 credits used / 7,000 included in Pro+
Scenario: Pro+ plan, using 9,800 credits/month
[████████████████] 100% + 2,800 credits over limit
9,800 credits used / 7,000 included — $28.00 overageThe dollar cost of credits consumed above your plan allowance. Calculated as: (total credits − plan credits) × $0.01. This is the number most likely to surprise you — it's charged on top of your monthly plan fee and appears on your GitHub billing invoice separately.
Total credits: 14,000
Plan includes: 7,000
Overage: 7,000 credits × $0.01 = $70.00
Total: $39 (Pro+ plan) + $70.00 = $109.00/monthA plain-English summary based on your usage. If you have no overages but are using less than 40% of your credits, it suggests a cheaper plan. If overages exist and a flat-rate alternative would be cheaper, it names the tool and shows the monthly saving. The recommendation is always directional — verify against your actual GitHub billing data before switching plans.
"Your usage generates $58.00 in monthly overages (total: $97.00/mo).
Cursor Pro ($20/mo flat) would save you ~$77/month — worth
evaluating before your next billing cycle."GitHub Copilot plan pricing reference
Plans as of June 2026 under the AI Credits billing model. All plans include the stated credits per month — overages are billed at $0.01/credit.
| Plan | Monthly Fee | Included Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2,000 |
| Pro | $10/mo | 3,000 |
| Pro+ | $39/mo | 7,000 |
| Max | $100/mo | 100,000 |
| Business | $19/user/mo | 3,000/seat |
| Enterprise | $39/user/mo | 7,000/seat |
Credit costs vary by model. Lightweight models (GPT-4o mini) use ~15 credits per chat message; Standard models (Claude Sonnet 3.5, GPT-4o) use ~80; Premium models (Claude Opus 4, GPT-4.5) use ~500. Agentic sessions consume 150–1,200+ credits per session depending on codebase size.
When to use this calculator
| Situation |
|---|
| Just received a Copilot overage bill |
| Evaluating whether to enable agent mode |
| Choosing between Copilot plans |
| Team lead evaluating Business seats |
| Deciding whether to switch to Cursor or Claude Code |
| Sharing a cost scenario with a teammate |
Frequently Asked Questions
What are GitHub Copilot AI Credits and how do they work?
AI Credits are GitHub's unit of account for Copilot usage under the token-based billing model that launched on June 1, 2026. One AI Credit costs $0.01 (1 cent). Every interaction with Copilot — a chat message, an agentic session, a code review — consumes a number of credits proportional to the tokens processed by the underlying model.
Your Copilot plan includes a monthly credit allowance (for example, Pro+ includes 7,000 credits = $70 of compute). If your usage exceeds that allowance, you're billed for the overages at $0.01 per credit on top of your plan fee.
How does this calculator estimate my cost?
The calculator multiplies your daily activity counts by the average credits each interaction type consumes, then scales to a full month using your working days setting.
Monthly credits =
(chat_per_day × credits_per_chat × working_days)
+ (agentic_per_day × credits_per_session × working_days)
+ (reviews_per_week × weeks_per_month × credits_per_review)
Overage cost = max(0, total_credits - plan_allowance) × $0.01
Total cost = plan_monthly_fee + overage_costCredit costs per interaction are estimates derived from GitHub's published token rates and cross-referenced with developer usage reports. Actual costs vary based on context window size, response length, and whether the model uses its extended thinking capability. Treat the output as a directionally accurate estimate, not a precise bill preview.
How does Copilot's token billing compare to Cursor and Claude Code?
| Copilot Pro+ (token-based) | Cursor Pro / Claude Code Pro (flat rate) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $39/mo + overages at $0.01/credit | Fixed monthly fee, no overages |
| Heavy agentic usage | Can easily reach $100–200+/mo | Same price regardless of usage |
| Light usage | $39/mo (Pro+ plan, no overages) | $17–20/mo flat |
| Model choice | Access to GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini in-IDE | Limited to provider's model lineup |
| IDE integration | Deep VS Code / JetBrains native | Own IDE (Cursor) or terminal (Claude Code) |
| Cost predictability | Unpredictable — varies with workflow | Fully predictable |
The break-even point depends entirely on your workflow. Light users who mainly use chat for quick questions and rarely run agent mode will often find Copilot Pro+ competitive or even cheaper. Power users running multiple daily agentic sessions with Sonnet-class or Opus-class models will typically exceed the Pro+ allowance quickly.
How do I reduce my Copilot AI Credit costs?
- Use lightweight models for routine questions. GPT-4o mini uses ~15 credits per message vs ~80 for Claude Sonnet. For simple completions, autocomplete suggestions, and quick explanations, the lightweight tier is often just as useful.
- Limit agentic sessions to genuinely complex tasks. Agent mode on a large codebase can consume 1,000+ credits per session. Reserve it for actual multi-step refactors, not single-file edits.
- Set a spending limit in GitHub's billing settings. GitHub lets you cap your monthly overage spend so you can't get a surprise $200 bill. Set it to $0 to enforce the plan limit strictly.
- Track your usage in GitHub's Billing Dashboard. Check it weekly during the first month to understand where your credits actually go before optimising.
- Evaluate your plan tier. If you consistently use less than 50% of your Pro+ credits, downgrading to Pro (or even Free) may save money without changing your workflow.
Does this calculator send my usage data anywhere?
No. All calculation logic runs in JavaScript in your browser. Nothing is sent to any server. The share button encodes your settings as URL parameters — no data is ever transmitted to Dev Encyclopedia.
Is the Max plan worth it for heavy agentic users?
Copilot Max ($100/month) includes 100,000 credits — $1,000 worth of compute — making it effectively unlimited for almost all individual developers. If you run 3+ long agentic sessions per day with premium models, Max may be cheaper than Pro+ with overages.
The break-even is roughly: if your Pro+ monthly total (plan + overages) would regularly exceed $100, Max pays for itself. Use the calculator's Pro+ scenario, then compare to the Max row in the alternatives table.
Why are agentic session credit estimates marked as estimates?
Agentic sessions are the hardest to estimate because the number of tokens consumed depends on how many tool calls the model makes, how large the files it reads are, and how many revision loops it takes to complete the task. A 10-minute refactor on a 500-line file costs far fewer credits than a 30-minute multi-file migration on a monorepo.
The calculator uses conservative midpoints from developer usage reports (cross-referenced with GitHub's token rate documentation) for small, medium, and large codebases. These will be accurate within 30–50% for most users, but your actual sessions may cost significantly more or less depending on task complexity.