Pricing
GitHub Copilot Premium Requests Explained: Limits, Multipliers, Reset
GitHub Copilot premium requests in 2026: allowance per plan, model multipliers, when they reset, overage cost per request, and how to check usage, sourced.
9 min read
Allowances, multipliers, reset times and overage rates checked Oct 31, 2026 in GitHub Docs: legacy premium requests, legacy multipliers, usage-based billing for individuals and models and pricing. Every source is listed at the bottom. No affiliate links on this page (how we work).
Here’s the thing nobody at GitHub put in a banner big enough: GitHub Copilot premium requests were retired for new plans on June 1, 2026. GitHub “replaced request-based billing with usage-based billing”, and Copilot now meters chat and agents in GitHub AI Credits, where 1 credit is $0.01 and the cost depends on the model and the tokens you use.
Premium requests still exist in exactly one place: if you’re on an existing annual Copilot Pro or Pro+ plan and chose to stay on the old billing. For you, it’s still 300 premium requests a month on Pro, 1,500 on Pro+, $0.04 per extra request, reset on the 1st at 00:00 UTC. Everyone else, read “premium requests” as “AI credits” and keep going.
What a premium request is (and what replaced it)
GitHub’s legacy docs define a request as “any interaction where you ask Copilot to do something for you.” Premium requests were the subset that hit advanced models or features, and each model had a multiplier: a 1x model cost one request per prompt, a 27x model cost 27.
The new meter is AI credits. In GitHub’s words, the cost of an interaction “depends on two things: the model and the number of tokens consumed,” converted at 1 AI credit = $0.01. So instead of “this prompt cost 9 requests”, the question is now “how many cents did this prompt cost?” Same agency, new letterhead, like Sterling Cooper becoming Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce overnight in a hotel suite: the clients mostly found out after the sign changed.
Who’s on which system (GitHub Docs, Oct 31, 2026):
- Monthly Pro, Pro+, Max, Free, Student: AI credits.
- Business and Enterprise: AI credits, pooled per organization.
- Existing annual Pro or Pro+ that stayed on legacy billing: premium requests, until the plan ends. Then GitHub “automatically downgraded” you to Copilot Free.
Allowance table
Verified Oct 31, 2026 in GitHub’s plans docs, individual billing and legacy requests pages.
| Plan | Monthly | Overage |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Not published | Upgrade |
| Pro ($10) | 1,500 credits | $0.01/credit |
| Pro+ ($39) | 7,000 credits | $0.01/credit |
| Max ($100) | 20,000 credits | $0.01/credit |
| Business ($19) | 1,900/user, pooled | $0.01/credit |
| Enterprise ($39) | 3,900/user, pooled | $0.01/credit |
| Legacy annual Pro | 300 requests | $0.04/request |
| Legacy annual Pro+ | 1,500 requests | $0.04/request |
Paid individual allowances are base credits plus a “flex allotment”: Pro is 1,000 + 500, Pro+ 3,900 + 3,100, Max 10,000 + 10,000. GitHub says flex “is designed to adapt as the economics of AI evolve,” which is corporate for “this part can change.” Base credits match your subscription price and “never change.” Free and Student get “an allowance of AI credits”, and GitHub doesn’t publish the size. The free plan’s limits are covered in GitHub Copilot free plan.
What doesn’t count, on any paid plan: code completions and next edit suggestions. GitHub: they “are not billed in AI credits and remain unlimited for all paid plans.” Copilot Free gets 2,000 completions a month.
What does count: Copilot Chat, Copilot CLI, the cloud agent, Spaces, Spark and third-party coding agents.
Model multipliers
Multipliers only exist on legacy annual plans now. GitHub: they “are a concept specific to the legacy premium request-based billing system, and do not apply to GitHub’s new usage-based billing model.”
Here’s the full legacy table GitHub publishes (verified Oct 31, 2026):
| Model | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | 0.33 |
| MAI-Code-1.1-Flash | 0.25 |
| GPT-5.3-Codex | 6 |
| Claude Sonnet 4.6 | 9 |
| Claude Opus 4.8 | 27 |
| Code review | 13 |
That’s the whole list. Five models. GitHub also says “Users on legacy annual Copilot plans will not receive access to new models and features,” so the annual crowd is frozen out of GPT-6.1 Terra and friends. Auto model selection takes 10% off (1x billed as 0.9x).
Do the math on Opus 4.8: 300 requests ÷ 27 is about 11 prompts a month on legacy Pro (our arithmetic). That’s not a plan, that’s a free sample.
On AI credits there’s no multiplier, just per-token prices. A few from GitHub’s table, per 1 million tokens, input / output, standard context (verified Oct 31, 2026):
- GPT-6 Luna: $0.10 / $0.50
- Claude Haiku 5.5: $0.10 / $0.50
- GPT-6.1 Terra: $1.00 / $5.00
- GPT-6.1 Sol: $2.00 / $10.00
- Gemini 4 Argon: $2.00 / $10.00 (promo “until December 1, 2026”)
- Claude Opus 5.5: $4.00 / $20.00
- Claude Fable 5.1: $10.00 / $50.00
- GPT-6 Astra: $10.00 / $50.00
The spread from GPT-6 Luna to GPT-6 Astra is 100x on both input and output. That’s the new multiplier, it’s just written in dollars now. Think of it as Pied Piper’s Weissman score in reverse: the number that matters is how little of your allowance each prompt eats, and the cheap models score off the charts.
Code review is its own animal. The model “is selected automatically and is not disclosed,” so GitHub publishes estimates per review instead: Lite about $0.25 on average, Balanced about $1.50, Max about $10, with ranges up to $25, plus GitHub Actions minutes on top. On legacy plans, each review costs a flat 13 premium requests.
When they reset and how to check usage
Both systems reset on the same clock. Legacy: “Premium request counters reset on the 1st of each month at 00:00:00 UTC.” AI credits: your allowance “resets to the full monthly amount at 00:00:00 UTC on the first day of each calendar month. This reset date is fixed and does not change based on your subscription billing date.”
Nothing carries over. Unused credits “are forfeited.” If you’re in a timezone east of UTC, your reset lands on the morning of the 1st; west of it, the evening of the last day of the month.
To check usage, GitHub’s plans page says you can “track your usage and reset date in your Copilot settings, with alerts at 75%, 90%, and 100% of any configured budget.” GitHub also asks you to update your editor and extension (VS Code 1.120+, JetBrains plugin 1.9.1+, Copilot CLI 1.0.48+), because older versions “may display incorrect model pricing, inaccurate usage information, or outdated billing terminology.” If your IDE still says “premium requests” on a monthly plan, that’s probably why.
What happens at zero
If you came here after an “exceeded your premium request allowance” moment, here’s what GitHub’s docs say happens next. We’re not quoting the exact pop-up text, because GitHub’s docs don’t publish it.
On legacy annual plans: “you can still use Copilot with one of the included models for the rest of the month,” subject to rate limits. Or buy more at $0.04 a request via a budget, or upgrade. Extra requests “are not available” if you subscribed through GitHub Mobile on iOS or Android.
On AI credits (individual plans): three options, per GitHub:
- Upgrade. “The upgrade cost is only the price difference between your current plan and the new plan,” and your earlier usage counts inside the bigger allowance.
- Pay for more. Set a budget in dollars; “a $10 budget covers 1,000 AI credits.” GitHub notes that “additional usage may be capped.”
- Wait for the 1st.
On Business or Enterprise: you’ll see “a banner on GitHub.com offering you the option to request more budget from your administrator.” Admins decide whether extra paid usage is allowed; if not, “Copilot pauses until the next cycle.”
Want a hard stop so you never get a surprise bill? GitHub’s instruction: create or edit a “Bundled AI credits” budget, set it to $0, and enable “Stop usage when budget limit is reached.” One more catch: if you bought Pro, Pro+ or Max through an iOS or Android in-app purchase, you can’t buy credits through the app store, and extra usage bills to whatever payment method is on your GitHub account.
Two discounts, dated: paid plans get 10% off model costs with auto model selection, and GitHub’s billing docs now say “Through November 30, 2026, users on paid Copilot plans receive a 30% discount on model costs when using Copilot Fusion” (verified Oct 31, 2026). GitHub doesn’t define Copilot Fusion on that page, so check the docs before planning around it. The old 30% Max promo ended Oct 28.
Here’s what I’d do
I haven’t burned a Copilot allowance to measure it; this is GitHub’s docs plus arithmetic.
If I were on a legacy annual Pro plan, I’d be annoyed, honestly. Five models, no new ones, and 11 Opus prompts a month. GitHub lets you cancel for a prorated refund and re-subscribe monthly, or upgrade to a monthly plan with prorated credit for what’s left of the annual term. For most people, one of those beats sitting it out.
If I were on monthly Pro, I’d default to auto model selection for the 10% and pick cheap models for chat. Then I’d set a small budget instead of upgrading the first time I hit zero. If I hit it three months running, I’d compare Copilot Pro vs Pro+. Teams: Copilot Pro vs Business. Heavy users comparing ecosystems: Copilot Max vs Claude Max. Full plan prices: GitHub Copilot cost and GitHub Copilot pricing. Other tools: AI coding tools compared.
Seeing “Sorry, you’ve exceeded your rate limits” instead? That’s a different wall from your monthly allowance; the Copilot rate-limit error explains both.
If a model disappears from Copilot Chat with “Language model unavailable”, this fix covers org policies and VS Code causes.
FAQ
How many premium requests does Copilot Pro get? Legacy annual Pro gets 300 premium requests a month; monthly Pro now gets 1,500 AI credits (1,000 base plus 500 flex) instead, since GitHub replaced premium requests on June 1, 2026.
When do Copilot premium requests reset? On the 1st of each month at 00:00:00 UTC, for both legacy premium requests and AI credits, regardless of your billing date, and nothing carries over.
What is a premium request multiplier? On legacy annual plans it’s how many premium requests one prompt costs on a given model, from 0.25 for MAI-Code-1.1-Flash to 27 for Claude Opus 4.8; AI-credit plans use per-token prices instead.
How much do extra premium requests cost? $0.04 per premium request on legacy annual plans, and $0.01 per AI credit on current plans, both paid through a budget you set.
Are premium requests the same as AI credits? No, AI credits replaced them on June 1, 2026 and are priced by model and tokens at $0.01 each, while premium requests are a per-prompt count kept only for legacy annual Pro and Pro+.
Sources
- GitHub Docs, Requests in GitHub Copilot (legacy) (definition, 300/1,500 allowance, $0.04 overage, reset, out-of-requests behavior, code review 13): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/request-based-billing-legacy/copilot-requests (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Docs, Model multipliers for annual plans on request-based billing (legacy): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/request-based-billing-legacy/model-multipliers-for-annual-plans (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Docs, What changed with Copilot billing (legacy) (June 1, 2026 switch, annual options): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/request-based-billing-legacy/what-changed-with-billing (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Docs, Usage-based billing for individuals (base and flex, reset, what uses credits, at-zero options, discounts, minimum versions): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing-and-usage/individuals/billing (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Docs, Models and pricing for GitHub Copilot (per-token rates, code review estimates, $0 budget, in-app purchases): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/models-and-pricing (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub Docs, Plans for GitHub Copilot (plan prices, Business and Enterprise credits): https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans (verified 2026-10-31)
- GitHub, Copilot plans page (usage tracking, budget alerts, Business admin limits): https://github.com/features/copilot/plans (verified 2026-10-31)