GitHub Copilot Pricing 2026: Which Plan to Choose?

TL;DR

• GitHub Copilot Free provides limited autocomplete and chat without subscription, directly in VS Code.
• Copilot Pro costs $10/month (or $100/year, ~40-45 PLN/month) with full model access and unlimited completions.
• Copilot Pro+ costs $19/month (~76-80 PLN/month) with access to stronger models (Claude Sonnet, GPT-4o), closer to Cursor.
• Business costs $19/user/month: makes sense for teams of 5+ where centralized access control matters.
• Students, teachers, and open source maintainers get Copilot Pro free through GitHub Education.

GitHub Copilot pricing is one of the most searched phrases by Polish developers comparing AI tools. This post breaks down the plans and gives concrete recommendations on who should buy what.

GitHub Copilot Pricing 2026: Plan Comparison Table

GitHub Copilot pricing starts at $0 (Free plan) and goes up to $39/user/month for Enterprise.

Full plan table (USD prices, check current rates at github.com/copilot):

In PLN at current USD/PLN rates: Pro is approximately 40-45 PLN/month, Business approximately 76-80 PLN/user/month.

What Does GitHub Copilot Free Include?

GitHub Copilot Free provides limited autocomplete and chat in VS Code, JetBrains, and GitHub.com without any charge.

The free Copilot plan introduced in late 2024 is available to all GitHub users without any requirements. Free plan limits (check current at docs.github.com):

• Limited monthly completions (after exhausting the limit, autocomplete stops working until next month)
• Limited daily Copilot Chat messages
• Access to base model, not frontier models
• No access to Copilot Workspace and agents

Free is good for testing whether Copilot fits your workflow at all. With daily programming, limits hit after a few days and you need to upgrade to Pro to avoid blocking your work.

GitHub Copilot Pro vs Free: What Do You Actually Gain?

Copilot Pro ($10/month, ~40-45 PLN/month) unlocks unlimited completions, access to stronger models, and full Copilot Chat.

Key differences Pro vs Free:

• Unlimited completions: autocomplete works all month without stopping, regardless of intensity.
• Stronger models: access to Claude Sonnet and GPT-4o in Copilot Chat instead of base model in Free.
• Copilot Workspace and agents: autonomous tasks, PR draft generation, change planning.
• Full Copilot Chat: no daily message limit.

Copilot Pro comes out cheaper than all competitors in this category: $10/month vs $20/month for Cursor Pro or Claude Pro. If you're looking for the cheapest entry into AI coding assistance with reasonable capabilities, Copilot Pro is the logical choice.

What Is GitHub Copilot Pro+ and When Is It Worth Paying More?

Pro+ ($19/month, ~76-80 PLN/month) gives access to the strongest available models, including Claude Sonnet 4.6 and GPT-4o, instead of the base model in standard Pro.

Difference Pro vs Pro+:

• Pro: access to stronger models in Copilot Chat (but with limits on premium model queries)
• Pro+: broader access to frontier models without additional limits, earlier access to new features

Pro+ is priced close to Cursor Pro ($20/month). Here the decision comes down to: do you prefer staying in VS Code with Copilot, or switching to Cursor as a separate IDE? Cursor has the advantage of project context and Agent mode. Pro+ has the advantage of staying in familiar tools without changing IDE.

For developers deeply embedded in VS Code with many custom extensions and configuration: Pro+ without changing environment may be more sensible than migrating to Cursor.

When Does GitHub Copilot Business Make Sense for a Team?

GitHub Copilot Business ($19/user/month, ~76-80 PLN/user/month) pays off for teams above 5 people where centralized access policy and usage visibility matter.

What Business gives over Pro:

• Centralized license management through organization admin (one billing, not N individual cards)
• Content exclusion policies: you can disable suggestions from public repositories for specific projects
• Copilot in GitHub.com (code review, pull request summary, issue Q&A)
• Usage audit: who uses how often, which repositories
• Priority support through GitHub

Mathematically: Business ($19/user) is more expensive than Pro ($10/user) when team pays individually. For 5 people: Business is $95/month vs Pro is $50/month. The $45/month difference pays off when centralized management, compliance, or content policies have real business significance. For a 5-person startup working in one repo without compliance requirements: everyone can have their own Pro.

Is GitHub Copilot Free for Students?

Yes, GitHub Copilot Pro is free for verified students, teachers, and open source project maintainers.

Access through GitHub Education: students verify academic status through GitHub Student Developer Pack. After verification, you get Copilot Pro without charges for the duration of studies. Verification process takes 1-7 business days.

Maintainers of popular open source projects can apply for free access through GitHub Sponsors or directly through GitHub support.

This is the only category where Copilot unquestionably wins on price against competition: $0 vs $20/month for Cursor Pro or Claude Pro.

GitHub Copilot vs Cursor vs Claude Code: Comparison for Polish Developers

Three main tools in this category solve different problems and have different GitHub Copilot pricing:

GitHub Copilot Pro ($10/month, ~40-45 PLN/month): Cheapest, easiest start without changing IDE. Weaker project context than Cursor, no terminal-first agents like Claude Code. Choose if you want minimal cost and staying in VS Code.

Cursor Pro ($20/month, ~80-85 PLN/month): Best project context in IDE, Agent mode with multi-file editing. Requires switching to new IDE (VS Code fork). Choose if you spend 6+ hours daily in editor and project has 10,000+ lines of code.

Claude Code/Claude Pro ($20/month, ~80-85 PLN/month): Terminal-first, autonomous multi-stage agents, no GUI. Choose if you want to "assign a task and come back in 15 minutes", not "code together with AI in editor". Detailed comparison in our analysis.

Many teams use combinations: Copilot Pro for inline autocomplete (cheap, everywhere), plus Cursor or Claude Code for complex tasks. Total: $30/month is comprehensive AI tooling for a developer.

GitHub Copilot Enterprise: When Does $39 Per User Make Sense?

Copilot Enterprise ($39/user/month, ~156-165 PLN/user/month) pays off for organizations that need fine-tuning on their own codebase and advanced compliance.

What Enterprise gives over Business:

• Model fine-tuning on own repositories (Copilot understands your internal code, APIs, conventions)
• Copilot Knowledge Bases: indexing internal documentation for Copilot Chat
• Extended security and compliance policies, including audit log export
• Dedicated Enterprise support

Threshold: Enterprise makes sense for organizations with 100+ developers where ROI from suggestion precision based on own code can be measured. For smaller companies: Business or Pro give 90% of features for half the price.

GitHub Copilot pricing for entire company of 100 developers on Enterprise: $3,900/month, $46,800/year. This is a budget decision, not impulse.

GitHub Copilot Pricing: Which Plan Should You Choose.

One sentence for each case:

• Student or open source contributor: Free GitHub Education, $0, no discussion.
• Freelancer or individual developer: Copilot Pro ($10/month) as cheapest start; upgrade to Pro+ ($19/month) if you need frontier models; Cursor Pro ($20/month) if you want better project context.
• Team 3-20 people: Business ($19/user/month) for centralized management, or everyone has own Pro/Pro+ if compliance isn't a requirement.
• Enterprise 50+: Business or Enterprise depending on compliance and fine-tuning requirements.

Check current GitHub Copilot pricing directly at github.com/copilot before purchase: GitHub regularly updates plans and capabilities.

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