When the Meter Runs, Trust Runs Out
GitHub officially moved Copilot to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026, replacing flat subscriptions with AI Credits consumed per token. The backlash was immediate and brutal: developers reported burning through a month's credits in hours, with one Pro+ user ($39/month) watching 8% of their 7,000-credit quota vanish in two hours of work. Another developer made a single refactoring request and burned $6. The core issue isn't the price table—it's that predictable consumption just died.
The new model works like this: code completions remain unlimited, but chat and agentic features now drain monthly AI Credit allotments based on token usage (input, output, cached). Pro costs $10/month with $15 in credits; Pro+ is $39 with $70; the new Max tier is $100 with $200. Business and Enterprise get pooled credits—1,900 and 3,900 per user respectively, with promotional bumps to 3,000 and 7,000 through September 1. One AI Credit equals one cent.
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