AGCAI Generated, Human Reviewed

GitHub Copilot review

The most widely deployed AI coding assistant, used by over 20 million developers. Integrated directly into VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Vim, and more. Five tiers from free to $39/user/month for enterprise.

Try GitHub →Affiliate link — disclosure
What it is

GitHub Copilot brings AI code completion, chat, and agentic coding capabilities directly into the development environment. Trained on public GitHub repositories and powered by models from GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft, it generates inline suggestions, explains code, reviews pull requests, and — on higher tiers — operates autonomously as a coding agent.

The product expanded significantly in early 2026: a free tier launched in February, and Pro+ added access to all available models including Claude Opus 4 and OpenAI o3. The premium request system introduced in 2025 means understanding what counts as a ‘premium request’ is now essential to avoid unexpected costs.

Key capabilities

Inline code completion

Real-time suggestions as you type, across all major languages and frameworks. Unlimited on all paid tiers.

Copilot Chat

Conversational AI in the IDE for code explanation, debugging, refactoring, and documentation. Available on all tiers.

Agent Mode + Copilot Workspace

Autonomous coding agent that can read your codebase, plan changes, and implement them across multiple files. Pro and above.

Code review

AI-powered pull request review with contextual suggestions. Available on Pro and above.

Multi-model access

Choose between GitHub’s models, GPT-5, Claude, and more. Full model selection on Pro+.

Copilot CLI

AI assistance directly in the terminal. Available on all paid tiers.

Pricing — April 2026

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Training data note: On Free and Pro plans, code and interactions may be used to improve Copilot models unless you opt out in settings. On Business and Enterprise plans, your code is never used for training. This distinction matters for IP-sensitive work.

Free

$0/mo

2,000 completions/month. 50 premium requests. VS Code and JetBrains only.

  • 2,000 code completions/mo
  • 50 premium requests/mo
  • Copilot Chat (limited)
  • VS Code + JetBrains only
  • No agent mode
Best value

Pro

$10/mo

Unlimited completions, 300 premium requests, full IDE support. $100/year with annual billing.

  • Unlimited completions
  • 300 premium requests/mo
  • All supported IDEs
  • Agent Mode + Copilot Workspace
  • 30-day free trial

Pro+

$39/mo

1,500 premium requests, all models including Claude Opus 4 and o3. For power users who exhaust Pro limits.

  • Unlimited completions
  • 1,500 premium requests/mo
  • All available AI models
  • Claude Opus 4 + OpenAI o3
  • Full model selection

Business

$19/user/mo

Org management, IP indemnity, audit logs, SAML SSO. Code never used for training.

  • All Pro features
  • IP indemnity
  • Centralized admin
  • SAML SSO + audit logs
  • Code not used for training

Enterprise

$39/user/mo

Fine-tuning on your private codebase, knowledge base integration. Requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud.

  • All Business features
  • Custom model fine-tuning
  • Knowledge base integration
  • GitHub.com Chat
  • Requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud
Ethics assessment — summary

GitHub Copilot’s primary governance concern is training data provenance. The model was trained on public GitHub repositories, including code under various licences. GitHub provides IP indemnity only on Business and Enterprise tiers — meaning if Copilot generates code that reproduces copyrighted material, individual Pro users have no contractual protection. A secondary concern is the April 2026 policy change: starting April 24, GitHub may use Free, Pro, and Pro+ interactions to train models unless users opt out. This is a material change that affects anyone who hasn’t actively reviewed their privacy settings.

A full Ethics Score review is in the Ethical AI Reviews queue.

Who it’s for

Individual developersPro at $10/month is the practical standard. Unlimited completions, full IDE support, agent mode. Pays for itself if it saves 8+ minutes per month.
Students + open source maintainersFree Pro access through GitHub Education and GitHub Sponsors programmes. Check eligibility before subscribing.
Teams with IP concernsBusiness tier only — IP indemnity and the guarantee that your code is never used for training are only available here.
Enterprise engineering orgsEnterprise for large proprietary codebases where fine-tuning on internal code patterns significantly improves suggestion quality.

QUESTIONS

Is GitHub Copilot free?

Yes. The Free tier launched in February 2026 with 2,000 monthly code completions and 50 premium requests. Students and verified open source maintainers can access the full Pro plan for free through GitHub Education.

What is a premium request in GitHub Copilot?

Premium requests power Copilot Chat, agent mode, code review, and model selection. Free tier gets 50/month; Pro gets 300; Pro+ gets 1,500. Regular code completions do not count as premium requests on paid plans. Extra requests cost $0.04 each.

Does GitHub Copilot use my code to train its models?

On Free and Pro plans, yes — unless you opt out in settings. On Business and Enterprise plans, your code is never used for training by default. This is the primary reason compliance-sensitive organisations choose Business over individual Pro, even for single developers.

Which GitHub Copilot plan is right for me?

For individual developers: Pro at $10/month covers most workflows. For teams needing compliance features and IP protection: Business at $19/user/month. For power users needing all models and 5x more premium requests: Pro+ at $39/month.