{"meta":{"title":"GitHub Copilot licenses","intro":"Learn how licenses for Copilot work, including usage measurement and managing your budget.","product":"Billing and payments","breadcrumbs":[{"href":"/en/billing","title":"Billing and payments"},{"href":"/en/billing/concepts","title":"Concepts"},{"href":"/en/billing/concepts/product-billing","title":"Product billing"},{"href":"/en/billing/concepts/product-billing/github-copilot-licenses","title":"GitHub Copilot licenses"}],"documentType":"article"},"body":"# GitHub Copilot licenses\n\nLearn how licenses for Copilot work, including usage measurement and managing your budget.\n\nUsage of GitHub Copilot is measured through a combination of licenses and AI credits. See [Usage-based billing for individuals](/en/copilot/concepts/billing/usage-based-billing-for-individuals) and [Usage-based billing for organizations and enterprises](/en/copilot/concepts/billing/usage-based-billing-for-organizations-and-enterprises).\n\n## Licenses for Copilot\n\nCopilot licenses are required for each user who uses Copilot. Licenses are available through different plans depending on your account type.\n\n| Account type | Options |\n| --------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |\n| **Personal accounts** | |\n| **Organizations** | Copilot Business: $19 USD per user per month (billed monthly). |\n| **Enterprises** | Choose Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise, or mix them across organizations. Both are billed monthly, pricing varies. |\n\n> \\[!NOTE] If you have an active Copilot Pro, Copilot Pro+, or Copilot Max plan, and are then assigned a seat as part of a Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise plan, your personal Copilot plan will be automatically canceled. You will receive a prorated refund for any remaining portion of your personal plan's current billing cycle. You will then be able to continue using Copilot according to the policies set by your company.\n\n## Free use of Copilot\n\nThere are several ways to use Copilot for free.\n\n### Copilot Free\n\n* Provides limited access to Copilot features at no cost.\n* Includes a monthly allowance of completions and limited chat and agent usage.\n* Intended for **individual use only** (not suitable for organizations or enterprises).\n* For usage beyond the free plan limits, upgrade to Copilot Pro.\n\n### Educational and open source benefits\n\n* Copilot Student offers free access to Copilot's premium features for verified students. See [Access GitHub Copilot for free as a student](/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/set-up-copilot/enable-copilot/set-up-for-students).\n* Copilot Pro is free for verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects. See [Access Copilot Pro for free as a teacher or open source maintainer](/en/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/set-up-copilot/enable-copilot/set-up-for-teachers-and-os-maintainers).\n\n## How usage of Copilot licenses is measured\n\nUsage of Copilot licenses is measured by the number of seats used.\n\n### Personal accounts\n\n* Upgrades take effect immediately, with proration applied for the remainder of the current billing cycle.\n* Downgrades take effect at the start of the next billing cycle and are generally not prorated.\n* Canceling a monthly plan keeps access until the end of the current billing cycle, with no proration.\n\nFor details on billing and proration, see [Usage-based billing for individuals](/en/copilot/concepts/billing/usage-based-billing-for-individuals).\n\n### Organizations and enterprises\n\n* A seat is a license for one user.\n* Organizations and enterprises are billed for the number of assigned seats at the end of each monthly billing cycle.\n* If a user has seats in multiple organizations within the same enterprise, the enterprise is only billed once per cycle.\n* If both a Copilot Business and a Copilot Enterprise seat are assigned, only the enterprise seat is billed.\n\nFor more information about seat assignment, see [GitHub Copilot seat assignment](/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/seat-assignment).\n\n## Using more than your plan's included seats\n\nIndividual plans are tied to a single account and can’t include additional seats. To license multiple users, upgrade to an organizational plan.\n\nFor **organizations and enterprises**:\n\n* You can assign additional Copilot seats at any time.\n* Additional seats are billed immediately on a prorated basis for the rest of the current billing cycle.\n* Assigned users gain access to Copilot features right away.\n\nFor details about how added seats are billed, see [Making changes to your GitHub Copilot license](/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/license-changes).\n\n## Paying for Copilot licenses\n\nYou pay for additional licenses using the payment method set up for your GitHub account. See [Managing your payment and billing information](/en/billing/how-tos/set-up-payment/manage-payment-info).\n\n## Managing your budget for Copilot licenses\n\nTo help manage your budget for Copilot licenses, consider the following strategies.\n\n### Personal accounts\n\n* You can set budgets for your personal account to receive email alerts at 75%, 90%, and 100% of the budget.\n* Budgets help you monitor spending but do not stop license charges.\n\n> \\[!NOTE] Additional usage may be capped. If you use all AI credits available on your plan, we recommend upgrading to a higher plan.\n\nFor more information about using budgets to control spending, see [Setting up budgets to control spending on metered products](/en/billing/how-tos/set-up-budgets).\n\n### Organizations and enterprises\n\nOwners and billing managers can set budgets at the user, organization, cost center, and enterprise level to monitor and control AI credits consumption. See [Getting started with budget controls](/en/copilot/tutorials/budgets/getting-started-with-budget-controls)."}