Student offer
Ongoing
- Offer
- Free
- Ends
- Ongoing
- Who
- Verified GitHub Education students
Verified Oct 12, 2026 · GitHub Docs
Coding & app buildersGitHub1 live
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot is GitHub's AI coding assistant and agent, built into editors, github.com, the terminal and a desktop app. Since June 1, 2026 every plan runs on usage-based GitHub AI Credits. It suits developers who already live on GitHub and want completions, chat, code review and cloud agents in one subscription.
Quick facts
Best for
- Developers whose code lives on GitHub
- Verified students and teachers
- Teams wanting PR-based coding agents
Key features
Inline and next edit suggestions
Completes code as you type and predicts your next edit; unlimited on paid plans and never billed in AI credits.
Copilot cloud agent
Assign an issue or task on GitHub and Copilot researches, plans and writes the code, with or without opening a pull request.
Copilot code review
Reviews pull requests on github.com and file diffs inside supported editors, starting with the Pro plan.
Copilot app for desktop
Runs parallel agent sessions, each in its own git worktree, on macOS, Windows and Linux for every Copilot plan.
Copilot CLI
Brings agent sessions to the terminal, including a programmatic mode, and is included on the Free plan too.
Wide model choice
Paid plans can pick models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI and others; each model consumes credits at its own rate.
Use cases
- Assign a backlog issue to the cloud agent and review the pull request it prepares.
- Get an automatic first-pass review on every pull request before a teammate looks at it.
- Run several agent sessions in the desktop app to fix bugs on separate branches at the same time.
Pricing
Current deals
What is GitHub Copilot?
GitHub Copilot offers completions, chat and agents in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Eclipse, Neovim and Zed, on github.com and GitHub Mobile, and in the terminal. The desktop Copilot app became available on every plan on July 7, 2026.
What changed in 2026
- Usage-based billing. Premium request counts were replaced on June 1, 2026 by GitHub AI Credits charged at each model’s token rates.
- Flex allotments and Max. GitHub announced on May 12, 2026 that Pro and Pro+ would add a variable flex allotment on top of base credits, alongside a new Max plan.
- Sign-up pause. Individual paid plans were closed to new users from April 20 until a gradual reopening starting June 17, 2026.
Limitations
Monthly cost is hard to predict: a long agent session on a frontier model burns far more credits than a quick question to a lightweight model. The flex part of each allowance is not fixed. Free and Student users cannot choose models manually, and pull request reviews on github.com are not part of Copilot Free.
GitHub Copilot FAQ
Yes. Copilot Free needs no credit card and includes 2,000 code completions a month, limited chat and agent usage, and Copilot CLI. Models are picked through auto model selection only.
One AI credit equals $0.01. Chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent and Copilot CLI consume credits based on the model and task. Allowances reset at 00:00 UTC on the first of each month, and unused credits do not roll over.
Yes. GitHub paused new Pro, Pro+ and Student sign-ups on April 20, 2026, citing agent compute demand, then began reopening Student, Pro, Pro+ and Max to new subscribers on June 17, 2026.
You can wait for the monthly reset, set a dollar budget and keep working with paid usage, or switch to a cheaper model. Budget alerts fire at 75%, 90% and 100%.
Alternatives to GitHub Copilot
Cursor
AI-first code editor with agents that plan, edit and run code.
Windsurf1 live
Cognition's agentic IDE, renamed Devin Desktop in June 2026.
OpenAI Codex1 live
OpenAI's coding agent for the terminal, IDE and cloud.
JetBrains AI
AI Assistant and the Junie coding agent inside JetBrains IDEs.
Cline
Open-source coding agent for VS Code and JetBrains that uses your own model keys.
Articles about GitHub Copilot
Deals
AI Student Discounts 2026: Free ChatGPT Plus, Google AI Pro, Copilot and More
As of October 2026, the best AI student discounts are 4 free months of ChatGPT Plus for US college students (claim by October 31), a free year of Google AI Pro (redeem by December 31), free GitHub Copilot through GitHub Education, Perplexity Education Pro at $10/month and free Notion Plus. Cursor's student offer ended on June 25, 2026.
8 min read
Comparisons
Best AI Coding Tools 2026: Claude Code, Cursor, Copilot and 12 More Compared
As of October 2026, the best AI coding tool depends on how you work: Claude Code for terminal agents (in Claude Pro, $20/month), Cursor for an all-in-one AI editor ($20/month), GitHub Copilot for value ($10/month, free for students), and Lovable or Replit for building apps without code.
10 min read
Guides
Best Free AI Tools 2026: 20 Free Plans Worth Using, by Category
As of October 2026, the best free AI tools are ChatGPT, Gemini and DeepSeek for chat, GitHub Copilot for coding, Canva and Freepik for images, Kling and CapCut for video, ElevenLabs and Suno for audio, and NotebookLM for research. Every free plan has a cap, usually credits that reset daily or monthly.
10 min read
Sources
- github.com/features/copilot/plans
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing-and-usage/individuals/billing
- github.blog/news-insights/company-news/github-copilot-individual-plans-introducing-flex-allotments-in-pro-and-pro-and-a-new-max-plan
- github.blog/changelog/2026-06-17-copilot-individual-plan-sign-ups-are-reopening
- github.blog/changelog/2026-07-07-github-copilot-app-available-to-all
Reviewed on Oct 12, 2026
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