Limits & credits
GitHub Copilot Premium Requests Explained: AI Credits, Limits, and Upgrades
GitHub Copilot premium requests explained: understand the June 2026 move to GitHub AI Credits, token-based costs for Claude Sonnet 5.5 and GPT-6 Sol, unmetered completions, and upgrade thresholds.
Updated
In short
A premium request is one prompt multiplied by the model's rate: on GitHub's legacy table a Claude Sonnet 4.6 prompt costs 9 premium requests and a Claude Opus 4.8 prompt 27, however long or short it is. Since June 1, 2026 GitHub has metered every other plan in AI Credits instead, at $0.01 a credit charged on each model's token price. Only annual Pro and Pro+ subscriptions bought before that date still count premium requests. Their owners can stay on request billing until the term ends and then drop to Copilot Free, cancel with a prorated refund, or move to a monthly plan with prorated credit.
On this page3
Who still has premium requests
Only individual Pro and Pro+ subscribers on annual billing who bought before June 1, 2026 still have premium requests. Monthly Pro and Pro+ moved to AI Credits automatically, and Free, Student, Max, Business and Enterprise use AI Credits too. Accounts still on premium requests live with two changes made on June 1:
- Higher multipliers. Each prompt still costs one premium request times the model's multiplier, and GitHub raised the multipliers for annual plans. Examples from GitHub's legacy table: Claude Haiku 4.5 ×0.33, GPT-5.4 ×6, Claude Sonnet 4.6 ×9, Claude Opus 4.8 ×27, GPT-5.5 ×57, and a code review ×13.
- No new models or features. Annual plans still on premium requests do not get models released since, such as Claude Opus 5.5 or Gemini 4 Argon.
At those multipliers, the 1,500 premium requests a month that annual Pro+ still includes cover about 167 prompts to Sonnet 4.6 or about 55 to Opus 4.8, however short each prompt is.
Staying, cancelling or switching to monthly AI Credits
Choice | What happens | Fits when |
|---|---|---|
Stay until the annual term ends | Premium requests still apply, at the new multipliers; at the end the account becomes Copilot Free | the models you already use are enough and the term ends soon |
Cancel | Prorated refund for the unused term | you are leaving Copilot or moving to a company seat |
Switch to a monthly plan | Prorated credit toward the monthly plan, which runs on AI Credits | you want current models, or a long term remains |
Only a monthly plan reaches models released after June 1, so staying means doing without them until the term ends. Monthly Pro includes 1,500 AI Credits and Pro+ 7,000, and both allowances reset at 00:00 UTC on the first of each month.
What changed for heavy users when premium requests became AI Credits
Before AI Credits, a short question and a long refactoring prompt to the same model cost the same, and running out of requests dropped you to included models, more slowly but still working, unless you paid $0.04 per extra request. AI Credits charge by tokens, so long context and agent sessions that resend it cost more, and short questions cost less. GitHub also removed the fallback: when credits run out, a paid individual plan can buy extra usage at $0.01 a credit, upgrade or wait for the monthly reset, Copilot Free can only upgrade or wait, and a Business or Enterprise member whose organization has disabled paid usage is blocked until the reset.
GitHub Copilot AI Credits explained shows what typical requests cost in credits, and Copilot Free vs Pro vs Pro+ vs Business compares the monthly plans you can switch to.
Edited byRick Finch
Official sources
Editorial guidance grounded in official product sources.
FAQ
Common questions
Are GitHub Copilot premium requests still the current limit?
Usually no. GitHub's current usage-based billing uses GitHub AI Credits. Premium requests mainly apply to Copilot Pro and Pro+ subscribers on existing annual plans that remained on legacy request-based billing after June 1, 2026.
What happened to the old 300 and 1,500 premium request allowances?
Those numbers belong to legacy request-based billing for Pro and Pro+ annual-plan users who stayed on that model. Current paid individual plans use AI Credit allowances instead: Pro, Pro+, and Max have different monthly credit allowances that are consumed by token and model usage.
Do normal Copilot code completions use AI Credits?
GitHub says code completions and next edit suggestions are not billed in AI Credits and remain unlimited for paid plans. Free has its own monthly completion and chat caps, so Free users can still hit limits even when paid-plan completions are unlimited.
Why can one Copilot agent session use so much allowance?
AI Credit usage depends on the model and token consumption. A long agentic task can involve multiple model calls, large repository context, tool use, and more output than a short chat question, so it can consume far more credits.
Should I upgrade to Pro+, Max, or Business for more usage?
Choose Pro+ or Max when the need is heavier individual usage or premium model access. Choose Business when the organization should own seats, policies, pooled credits, budgets, IP indemnity, and offboarding.
Can a team share GitHub Copilot AI Credits?
Yes, for Copilot Business and Enterprise, included credits are pooled at the billing entity level. Admins can still use budgets and user-level controls to prevent one heavy user or automated workflow from consuming too much of the shared pool.
Next steps
Take the next buying step
- Tool profileCheck Copilot pricingUse the pricing page next when you need the exact current Copilot plan table, AI credit allowances, model rates, and billing caveats behind this explainer.
- GuideChoose a Copilot planUse this plan guide when the usage terminology is clear and the remaining decision is which GitHub Copilot plan route fits a person or team.
- Tool profileCodexOpen Codex when Copilot's credit model pushes you to evaluate whether a task-oriented coding agent fits your work better than Copilot's GitHub-native assistant.