Business · The Register
Microsoft's GitHub shifts to metered AI billing amid cost crisis
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Microsoft is closing the AI buffet offered to GitHub Copilot customers, acknowledging that it can’t sell AI like Red Lobster's Endless Shrimp.
Key facts
- GitHub's subscription rates will remain the same: Copilot Pro is $10/month, Pro+ is $39/month, Business is $19/user/month, and Enterprise is $39/user/month
- At the $0.01 GitHub AI Credit rate, Copilot Pro subscribers get 1,000 AI Credits per month
- For example, Anthropic's Opus 4.7, subject to a 7.5x multiple under request-based billing, will see its multiplier jump to 27 going forward
- Organizations and enterprises will receive 1,900 and 3,900 API Credits per user per month respectively
Summary
The US seafood restaurant's all-you-can-eat shrimp promotion led the company to bankruptcy in 2024 and while Microsoft is nowhere near so financially overextended, the software giant's code hosting biz has decided it no longer wants Copilot to operate at a loss. GitHub is therefore shifting Copilot from request-based billing to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026. GitHub absorbed much of the escalating inference cost, but the current premium request model is no longer sustainable. Under request-based billing, GitHub Copilot subscribers will be allowed to submit a set number of premium requests, with certain models priced at a higher request rate but without any consideration for the complexity of the request.