Copilot Free Has No Credit Balance, So the Meter Is a Dead End
Every other Copilot plan carries a spendable credit figure. Free carries a sentence about 'limited usage' instead, and that difference is the whole product.
GitHub's Copilot pricing page gives every paid plan a number. Pro carries $15 of monthly credits against a $10 list price, Pro+ carries $70, Max carries $200. The Free plan carries none of that and describes itself instead as 2,000 completions a month plus limited chat and agent usage. There is no balance to top up and no overage rate, so when the free allowance runs out the feature simply stops until the cycle resets.1
Read against the rest of this month's launches, the shape is unusual. Those free tiers are smaller versions of the paid product. Copilot Free is a separate product wearing the same name.
What each plan actually includes
| Plan | Price | Monthly credits | Free-plan note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | None listed | 2,000 completions, limited chat and agent |
| Pro | $10 | $15 in total credits | Cloud agents, code review, model choice |
| Pro+ | $39 | $70 in total credits | Premium models including Opus, audit logs |
| Max | $100 | $200 in total credits | Priority model access, highest included usage |
Prices measured on 27 October 2026. Vendor plan terms, allowances and prices change without notice, so treat every figure on this page as a dated snapshot rather than a permanent fact. Where a number here differs from the vendor's own pricing page, the vendor's page is correct and the figure above is simply older than it.
Pro is the plan worth reading twice. Ten dollars a month buys fifteen dollars of credit, which means the subscription is worth more than its price the moment you use agents, and the credit is the only thing that limits you.
Why no balance is worse than a small balance
A balance is a decision point. On Pro, once the fifteen dollars is gone you can buy more and keep working, which turns a hard stop into a cost. On Free there is no purchase mechanism at all, so the allowance is a wall rather than a price.
For anyone weighing Copilot against Cursor or Claude Code, that limit decides the comparison. Evaluation takes more than a few sessions, and the allowance is sized for an afternoon. Cursor's free tier has the same character: enough to decide whether you like the interface, not enough to decide whether it replaces what you use now.
The 2,000 completions are the part that survives. Inline suggestions are not metered against credits on paid plans and are not the first thing to run dry on Free, so the editor keeps working as an autocomplete tool long after the chat pane has gone quiet.
What the ceiling looks like in practice
A single agentic task does not cost one interaction. The model plans, reads files, edits, checks results and iterates, and each of those steps draws on the allowance. That is why GitHub reorganised the whole system around credits rather than request counts in June: the old unit could not express what a modern agent session costs.
On a paid plan the effect is a number that drops faster than people expect. On Free the effect is that the agent door closes early in the month and the completions keep running.
The other restriction worth knowing is model choice. Free access is limited to the cheaper included models, with the frontier options reserved for Pro and above. That matters less for completion quality than for the agent, where a weaker model loops more and burns the allowance on retries.
Where the free tier is still the right answer
For a student, or anyone coding a few hours a week, 2,000 completions with no card is genuinely useful and there is no cheaper way to get inline suggestions inside VS Code. Verified students are eligible for the Student plan, which is the route worth taking before considering Pro.
The verdict is narrow. Copilot Free is the strongest free autocomplete on the market and a weak free agent, and three limits decide whether that matters: no credit balance to buy past, no model choice beyond the cheaper included set, and no cloud or code review work at all. If any of those three is the reason you are looking, the $10 Pro plan is the entry point, and the same paid-plan wall blocks Copilot's Xcode support.
Frequently asked questions
Does GitHub Copilot Free include AI credits?
No. The Free plan is listed with 2,000 completions and limited chat and agent usage, without a credit balance.
Can I buy more usage when Free runs out?
No. There is no top-up path on Free. The allowance refreshes at the start of the next cycle.
Are code completions metered?
No, not against credits. Completions are the allowance that keeps working after chat and agent usage ends.
What does Pro include for $10?
Unlimited completions, cloud agents, code review, model selection and $15 in monthly credits.
Is there a free route for students?
Yes, verified students have access to the Copilot Student plan.
The Free plan's 2,000 completions and limited chat and agent usage, the absence of a credit balance on Free, Pro at $10 with $15 of monthly credits, Pro+ at $39 with $70, Max at $100 with $200, and the inclusion of agent mode, cloud agents and code review in paid tiers verified on GitHub's Copilot plans page, read on 9 November 2026.
Sources
- GitHub Copilot plans and pricing: github.com/features/copilot/plans. Used for: 2,000 completions on Free, limited chat and agent usage, no credit balance on Free, and the $15/$70/$200 paid credit figures.
All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 27 October 2026. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.
