On 28 October 2026, GitHub announced that GitHub Enterprise includes Copilot for every licensed user. The seat fee goes to $0, and every request is billed against your enterprise budget from the first one. Right now it's available through a GitHub or Microsoft account team. GitHub's changelog says self-serve isn't available yet, with a staged rollout and dates to follow in the coming weeks. It applies to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and GitHub's Plans documentation excludes GitHub Enterprise Server.
If you're approaching a renewal, that's a different budgeting problem from the per-seat one you've been running.
What GitHub changed
Per GitHub's changelog, every GitHub Enterprise Cloud user gets Copilot access with the same features and models as Copilot Enterprise. There are no monthly AI credits per seat. Usage meters against the enterprise budget from the first request, so there's no included allowance to track.
Users who don't hold a GitHub Enterprise Cloud licence get the same access through Copilot Standalone, which GitHub's Plans documentation prices at $10 per user per month. Standalone isn't self-serve either; it's available to eligible enterprises. GitHub's Universe 2026 post puts the pitch in one line: you pay for the AI credits you use. It also says existing customers can keep their current plans or move over when they're ready, and the changelog confirms Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise remain available to new and existing enterprises.
Seats with pooled credits versus Copilot access
GitHub's usage-based billing documentation sets one AI credit at $0.01. Its Plans page lists Copilot Business at $19 and Copilot Enterprise at $39 per granted seat per month, and the billing page says those seats include 1,900 and 3,900 credits per user per month. Run the conversion and each seat price buys exactly its price in credits. That's our arithmetic, not a GitHub statement.
| Option | Seat price per month | Included credits | Billing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copilot Business | $19 | 1,900 | Per granted seat, credits pooled |
| Copilot Enterprise | $39 | 3,900 | Per granted seat, credits pooled |
| Copilot access (GitHub Enterprise Cloud) | $0 | 0 | Metered from first use |
| Copilot Standalone | $10 | 0 | Metered from first use |
The break-even sits at the pool level, not the individual. GitHub's documentation says Business and Enterprise credits are pooled across the billing entity: 100 Business users share 190,000 credits. A light user's unused credits stay in the pool for heavier users. Credits don't carry over, and they reset on the first day of each month, so credits on idle seats are simply lost.
Usage past the pool isn't blocked. GitHub's documentation says it continues at published per-credit rates, and additional usage is enabled by default unless an admin disables the AI credits paid usage policy, in which case usage is blocked until the next billing cycle.
Our arithmetic: a seat plan costs the greater of seats times $19 or $39 and consumption times $0.01. Access costs consumption times $0.01 alone. On price per credit, access is never dearer, and the saving is the idle part of the pool. Take 100 Enterprise seats, which is $3,900 a month. A team burning $2,500 of credits pays $3,900 on seats and $2,500 on access. A team burning $5,000 pays about $5,000 either way. What you trade is predictability: a known floor against a variable line. Access terms are negotiated through sales, so confirm the per-credit rate in your Sales quote.
GitHub Enterprise Cloud is $21 per user per month on GitHub's pricing page. That $21 is the same whether a licensed user sits on an Enterprise seat or on access (Business needs no GitHub Enterprise licence).
For the Business versus Enterprise tier question, we compared Cursor and Copilot team plans separately. That piece predates Copilot access, so read its Copilot pricing as seat-only.
How the metered budget behaves
GitHub's usage-based billing documentation lists four budget types: an enterprise spending limit, cost-centre budgets, user-level budgets and organization-level budgets. A user-level budget is a hard stop. A $0 user budget blocks credit-consuming features entirely. There's a "Stop usage when budget limit is reached" setting that decides whether spending halts at the cap.
What keeps working when the money runs out matters more than the cap. Per the changelog, Chat, code review and Copilot in the cloud stop; completions and next edit continue.
The documentation advises configuring budgets before users begin consuming. With no allowance, every request a budget permits is billable from the first one, so set the budget before users start.
How to set a budget before you switch
1. Pull per-user credit consumption for the last two or three months
Use your current billing and usage data, and convert credits to dollars at $0.01. Teams already on seats have this. If you can't get per-user figures, our guide to measuring AI coding tool ROI covers how to get them from tooling you already run.
2. Compute the pool-level break-even
Add up total monthly consumption across the team and subtract it from seats times $19 or $39. A positive gap is the potential saving on access. Look at the spread too. A team where three engineers burn most of the credits behaves differently from one with even use. This is our arithmetic, not GitHub's, and the per-credit rate should be confirmed in your Sales quote.
3. Set the enterprise spending limit and cost-centre budgets
Set the enterprise spending limit, then give each cost centre its own budget. Turn on "Stop usage when budget limit is reached" if you want a ceiling rather than a surprise. Consider that setting a judgment call: a hard ceiling protects finance but can cut off a release-week agent run.
4. Decide user-level caps for heavy agent users
User-level budgets are hard stops, so they're the right tool for the few people running long agent sessions. Judgment: start with a cap for the top handful of consumers from step 1, not for everyone.
5. Move one pilot cost centre first
Switch a single cost centre, then review actual spend after one billing cycle against your step 2 forecast. Judgment: don't move the whole enterprise on a forecast built from seat-era data, because metered behaviour with no allowance may differ.
Contractors and agency engineers
Contractors without a GitHub Enterprise Cloud licence get Copilot Standalone at $10 with no allowance. Per the changelog, users in your enterprise account get the same Copilot access through Copilot Standalone, and their usage meters against the same enterprise budget.
That means an agency engineer's agent runs can drain a budget you set for employees. Decide up front who pays. Our view, and it's judgment: give contractor usage its own cost centre so it's visible and capped separately, and write the cap into the engagement terms. Since October's upfront seat billing rules already made stale seats cost money, ended engagements deserve the same cleanup under Standalone.
What this means for your AI tooling budget
The decision at renewal is whether to keep per-seat Business or Enterprise with pooled credits, or move to Copilot access under GitHub Enterprise and pay for what's consumed. Nothing forces you to switch, per GitHub. Run the pool-level sum first. By our arithmetic, access costs the same per credit and drops idle-seat credits, so the saving is the unused part of the pool. What you give up is a fixed monthly figure, so if a few power users dominate usage, caps matter more than the plan.
For finance, the shift is from a predictable line to a variable one. That's why the budget settings come before the switch, not after. Self-serve isn't available yet, so the realistic move now is to start the conversation with your GitHub account team and gather the usage data in the meantime.
Where Copilot sits among your other costs is covered in AI seats in an engineering budget, which is the place to go next if you're setting the line item. Other licensing shifts like this one are collected in our AI news roundup.
FAQ
Is Copilot included with GitHub Enterprise?
Yes, as of 28 October 2026, for every licensed GitHub Enterprise Cloud user, with the same features and models as Copilot Enterprise. It's available through a GitHub or Microsoft account team now, and applies to GitHub Enterprise Cloud, not Enterprise Server. There's no seat fee and no included credits, so usage is billed from the first request.
How much is Copilot Standalone?
$10 per user per month, per GitHub's Plans documentation, for users without a GitHub Enterprise Cloud licence. It carries no included allowance, so usage is metered on top.
Do I have to move off Copilot Business or Enterprise?
No. GitHub's Universe post says existing customers can keep their current plans or move over when they're ready, and the changelog says both plans remain available to new and existing enterprises.
What happens when the Copilot budget runs out?
Code completion and next edit keep working with no budget. Chat, code review and Copilot in the cloud need budget. A user-level budget is a hard stop, and the "Stop usage when budget limit is reached" setting controls whether spending halts at the limit.
Can self-serve customers switch?
Not yet. The changelog says self-serve is unavailable, with a staged rollout and dates to be announced in the coming weeks.