GitHub Copilot Free Plan Changed on June 1: What Developers Need to Know

GitHub Copilot switched to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026. If you have been using the free tier or a paid plan, some things changed today. Here is a clear breakdown of what is different, who it affects, and whether Copilot's free tier is still worth using.

What Changed on June 1

GitHub replaced the old flat monthly limits (2,000 completions and 50 chat messages per month for individual free users) with a system called AI Credits. Every Copilot plan now includes a monthly allotment of AI Credits, and certain features draw from that allotment based on how many tokens they consume.

The key distinction is which features count against credits and which do not. Code completions and Next Edit suggestions do not consume AI Credits on any plan, including the free tier. They still work. What does consume credits now: chat interactions, agent tasks, and using premium models like GPT-4.1 or Claude Opus inside Copilot.

For most developers who mainly use inline autocomplete, the day-to-day experience does not change much. For developers who rely heavily on the chat interface or agentic coding workflows, the monthly credit allotment becomes the new limiting factor.

What the Free Tier Still Includes

The free plan still exists and still includes:

• Code completions and Next Edit suggestions, which do not count against credits
• A limited monthly AI Credits allotment for chat and agent tasks
• Access to Copilot in VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, and other supported editors

GitHub has not published the exact monthly credit figure for free tier users at launch. The expectation is that light users can stay on free, but developers who run agentic workflows or spend hours in Copilot chat will need to monitor credit usage carefully.

What Students and Open Source Contributors Get

Nothing changed for these two groups. Verified students through the GitHub Student Developer Pack and active open source maintainers who qualify for GitHub's free access program still get generous Copilot access. If you are in either group, your access level remains the same.

The New Sign-Up Situation

One practical issue: GitHub paused new sign-ups for Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, and student plans starting April 20, 2026. Existing subscribers are unaffected, but new users wanting a paid plan currently cannot sign up. No end date has been announced for this pause. The free plan itself is still accepting new users.

Is the Free Tier Still Worth Using?

For pure autocomplete use, yes. The free tier remains a solid, no-cost option for code completion in your IDE. It is not as unlimited as Codeium's free forever offering, but the quality of Copilot's suggestions is well established.

For developers who use Copilot chat heavily or run multi-step agent tasks, the new credit system makes the free tier harder to rely on for daily use. You may want to either budget credits carefully or consider whether a free alternative like Codeium better matches how you actually work. You can see our full GitHub Copilot listing including updated free tier details on SpotFreeAI.

The honest summary: Copilot is still a top tool. The June 1 billing change matters more to power users than to casual ones. Keep an eye on your credit allotment during the first few weeks to understand where you land.

How AI Credits Are Calculated

GitHub has not published a precise token-to-credit conversion table, but the general principle is straightforward: the more tokens a task consumes, the more credits it draws. A short inline completion uses very few tokens. A multi-step agent task that reads several files, proposes a plan, writes code across multiple files, and runs tests can consume hundreds or thousands of tokens in a single session.

Premium models like GPT-4.1 and Claude Opus are also more expensive in credits than the default base models. If you regularly switch to a premium model for complex tasks, your monthly credit budget will drain faster than if you stick to the standard model for most work.

GitHub has indicated it will publish clearer credit consumption guidance in the weeks following the June 1 launch. Until that documentation appears, the practical advice is to avoid running large agentic sessions on the free tier without keeping an eye on your usage dashboard.

What This Means for VS Code and JetBrains Users

The editor experience itself is largely unchanged. Inline completions still appear as you type in VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, and other supported editors. The Copilot Chat sidebar continues to work. The difference you will notice is a credit balance indicator in the Copilot settings or account dashboard rather than a flat message counter.

For VS Code users running Copilot extensions, make sure your extension is updated to a post-June-1 version to correctly reflect the new billing model in the UI. Older extension versions may show the previous monthly message counter, which is no longer the active limit.

Best Free Alternatives If You Hit Your Credit Limit

If you find the free tier credit allotment does not cover your usage, several strong free alternatives are worth considering. Codeium offers unlimited AI code completions with no daily limit on the free tier and works in all major editors including VS Code, JetBrains, and Neovim. It covers code completion, chat, and refactoring across over 70 programming languages without requiring a paid subscription.

Cursor offers a generous free tier with a monthly limit of 2,000 completions and 50 slow premium model requests. For developers primarily doing frontend work, Bolt.new and Lovable offer browser-based AI coding environments with free tier credits that do not require any editor setup. You can compare these tools side by side on the SpotFreeAI coding tools page.

Watching the Pause on New Paid Sign-Ups

The sign-up pause for paid Copilot plans that began April 20 is worth monitoring. If your team or organization is planning to onboard new developers to paid Copilot plans, you will need to wait for GitHub to resume subscriptions. GitHub has not committed to a timeline. Existing paid subscribers, whether on individual Pro, Pro+, Max, or business plans, are unaffected and will continue to be billed and have access as normal.

The pause does not affect the free tier, so new developers who want to evaluate Copilot before any paid plan becomes available again can still sign up for free access immediately.