Field note
Why GitHub Copilot got pricier in September 2026
The seat price did not move. The credits that came with it did.
GitHub Copilot got more expensive on September 1, 2026 because a three month promotional credit boost ended, not because GitHub raised its list price. Business seats still cost $19 a month and Enterprise $39, but the included AI credits that came with each seat dropped back to match that price exactly, from $30 and $70 worth during the promotion.
Before
Promotional cushion, June to August
After
Matches the seat price exactly
What actually changed on September 1, 2026
GitHub moved all Copilot plans to usage based billing on June 1, 2026. To soften the landing, Business and Enterprise customers got a three month promotional boost: Business seats came with 3,000 AI credits a month instead of the standard 1,900, and Enterprise seats came with 7,000 instead of 3,900. That promotion ran out on September 1, 2026. The seat price did not move: Business is still $19 a user a month and Enterprise is still $39. What moved is how much usage that seat price actually buys.
Why a flat seat price can still mean a bigger bill
Once a seat runs out of included credits, GitHub does not quietly switch the team to a cheaper model. Extra usage bills at the standard per token rate, and organizations have paid overage turned on by default rather than a hard stop. A team that used Copilot freely during the three month promotion, when the ceiling was nearly double, can now burn through the smaller allowance days into the month and start seeing metered charges it never had in August.
What a small dev team should check this week
Pull your organization's actual Copilot usage from July and August in GitHub's billing settings and compare it to the new allowance: 1,900 credits for Business, 3,900 for Enterprise. If last month's usage was already close to that number, either set a hard spending cap so nobody gets a surprise invoice, or budget for the overage as a real cost of the tool going forward. If usage was comfortably under it, nothing changes and this is a non event for you.
The included credit allowance on GitHub Copilot Business fell to 1,900 a seat when the launch promotion ended, down from the 3,000 credits included during the first three months of usage based billing.
The takeaway
Check your organization's actual Copilot usage against the new 1,900 (Business) or 3,900 (Enterprise) credit allowance this week, and set a spending cap in GitHub's billing settings before a normal month turns into a metered overage bill.