> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://efreedirectory.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # GitHub Copilot Free: 2,000 Completions, 50 Chats a Month - URL: https://efreedirectory.com/github-copilot-free-plan-limits/ - Published: 2026-10-20T04:31:54.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-20T06:58:02.000Z - Description: Two separate meters, both monthly, and neither rolls over. The completion cap usually survives longer than the chat cap, and model choice is gone on Free. - Author: Rohit Bhadani - Tags: tool, Developer & Code **GitHub Copilot Free gives 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests per month on a personal GitHub account, with automatic model selection only and no AI credits. Pro is $10 a month with unlimited completions and $15 of monthly AI credits. Since 1 June 2026 usage is billed in GitHub AI Credits at one cent each, replacing premium request units.**[1](#sources) The two meters matter more than the price. Completions and chat are counted separately, so running out of one does not stop the other, and neither rolls over at the end of the month. Most people hit the 50-chat ceiling long before they exhaust 2,000 completions. The other change that dates older guides: on 24 June 2026 GitHub restricted Free and Student accounts to automatic model selection. You cannot pick a model on the free tier any more, even a cheap one. ## What the free plan actually includes | | Free | Pro | | --------------------------- | ---------------------------- | --------------------- | | Price | $0 | $10/mo | | Code completions | 2,000 per month | Unlimited | | Chat requests | 50 per month | Metered in AI credits | | AI credits | None | $15 of usage monthly | | Model selection | Automatic only | Manual picker | | Next edit suggestions | Included in completion count | Unlimited | | Agent mode and CLI | Limited | Included | | Cloud agent and code review | No | Yes | | Organisation features | Not eligible | Business plans | Free is explicitly for personal use. It cannot join organisation-managed feature sets, so it is not a route to trying Copilot inside a company account. ## The 2026 billing change, and why it matters even on free Until June 2026, Copilot counted premium request units, where a cheap model cost one unit and an expensive one cost fifty. That system is gone. Every paid plan now includes a monthly allowance of AI credits worth one cent each, and usage is metered by actual token consumption at each model's published rate. GitHub was candid about why: a one-line question and a multi-hour agent session used to cost the same single unit, which stopped making sense once agent mode became the main use. Metering tokens is fairer and also much harder to predict, because a long conversation costs more than a short one on the same model. Free sits outside this entirely. It has fixed quotas and no credits, so the switch did not change the free tier at all. That is worth knowing because it means free is the only Copilot plan whose limit you can actually plan around. ## Fifty chats is the meter that fails first 2,000 completions is roughly 65 a day across a working month. A developer accepting inline suggestions constantly can clear that, but it takes real use. 50 chat requests is under two a day. Anyone who uses Copilot Chat for explanations, test generation or refactoring will exhaust it inside the first fortnight, and then spend two weeks with completions only. Splitting the two deliberately would be reasonable. Rationing chat to two a day and leaning on completions for the rest gets a free account through a full month of light work. ## Auto model selection is a real downgrade Before June, Free users could pick between the cheap and expensive models, accepting that a premium model burned the chat allowance faster. That option was removed, and the router now decides. The consequence is that a hard question on Free might be routed to a small model and answered poorly, and you have spent one of your fifty chats finding out. On [Claude's free tier](https://efreedirectory.com/claude-free-plan-limits/) you at least know which model you are talking to. ## What Pro buys that free does not Unlimited completions and next-edit suggestions, which are the features that make Copilot feel native rather than bolted on. Then the agent surface: cloud agent, code review, Copilot CLI, and third-party agents including Claude Code and Codex. The $15 of monthly credits is the part to watch. It is not unlimited usage, it is fifteen dollars of token spend, and a heavy agentic month can exceed it. Copilot Pro at $10 is cheaper than Cursor's $20, but the ceilings are different in kind. [Cursor meters agent requests](https://efreedirectory.com/cursor-free-plan-limits/) where Copilot meters tokens. ## When the free plan is enough Learning what AI completion feels like, working in a small personal project, using it alongside a paid tool rather than instead of one. Two thousand completions is a genuine amount of autocomplete. It is also enough for a student or a hobbyist who codes at weekends. The monthly reset means a slow month costs nothing, and the quota is not so tight that you spend more time managing it than coding. ## When it stops being enough The first time chat runs dry and you still have code to write. That is a fortnight into a normal month for most people. The second is agent work. Agent mode, cloud agents and the CLI are the direction the product is moving, and free gets a limited version of the least capable part. If your reason for wanting Copilot is multi-file refactoring, free will not do it. At $10, Pro is the cheapest serious coding subscription in this category, and it is worth comparing against simply staying free and pairing it with [DeepSeek](https://efreedirectory.com/deepseek-free-plan-limits/) for the questions. ## Frequently asked questions **How many free completions does GitHub Copilot give?** 2,000 per month, including next edit suggestions. They do not roll over. **How many Copilot chat messages are free?** 50 per month, counted on a separate meter from completions. **Can I choose a model on Copilot Free?** No. Since 24 June 2026 Free and Student accounts are limited to automatic model selection. **What happens when a Copilot Free quota runs out?** That feature stops until the monthly reset. The other meter keeps working, so chat can run out while completions continue. **Can I use Copilot Free at work?** Not through an organisation. Free is for personal accounts only and cannot join organisation-managed feature sets. *Quotas, billing model, model-selection policy and pricing verified against GitHub's Copilot plans documentation and pricing page on 20 October 2026\. Any guide still quoting premium request units is describing a billing system retired on 1 June 2026.* ## Sources 1. GitHub Copilot plans: [github.com/features/copilot/plans](https://github.com/features/copilot/plans?ref=efreedirectory.com). Used for: Free quotas for completions and chat, and Pro pricing. *All sources are the vendor's own plan or documentation pages, checked on 20 October 2026\. Plan terms change without notice, so confirm current limits before you rely on them.*