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Compare New GitHub Copilot Free Plan for Visual Studio/VS Code to Paid Plans
The original AI-powered code completion tool stemming from early OpenAI technology, GitHub Copilot, now comes in a free tier for the Visual Studio IDE and Visual Studio Code, along with other editors.
Microsoft-owned GitHub today, citing its history of offering free products and services to developers, announced the new offering, called GitHub Copilot Free, joining other plans called Pro, Business and Enterprise.
[Click on image for larger view.] Copilot Plans (source: GitHub).
"We're excited to bring these benefits to the entire Visual Studio family," said Microsoft's Rhea Patel in a Dec. 18 post. "With Copilot Free, you'll have AI-powered tools right at your fingertips -- smarter debugging, AI generated commit messages, AI-breakpoint placement, and of course, direct access to Completions, Chat, and much more. Developers have seen a 25% speed increase with Copilot -- and now you can experience that boost firsthand in Visual Studio."
The new Free plan has some restrictions. Here's a breakdown of the different plans:
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Free Tier
- Code Completions: Up to 2,000 completions per month.
- Chat Requests: Up to 50 chat requests per month.
- Models: Access to Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI's GPT-4o models.
- Usage: Suitable for occasional users and small projects.
- Availability: Integrated into VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, and GitHub.com.
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Copilot Pro: $10 USD per month or $100 USD per year.
- Unlimited Code Completions: No limit on the number of completions.
- Unlimited Chat Requests: No limit on the number of chat requests.
- Additional Models: Access to Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's o1-preview and -mini models.
- Usage: Suitable for professional developers and larger projects.
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Copilot Business: $19 USD per granted seat per month.
- Unlimited Code Completions: No limit on the number of completions.
- Unlimited Chat Requests: No limit on the number of chat requests.
- Additional Models: Access to Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's o1-preview and -mini models.
- Usage: Suitable for organizations with multiple developers.
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Copilot Enterprise: $39 USD per granted seat per month.
- Unlimited Code Completions: No limit on the number of completions.
- Unlimited Chat Requests: No limit on the number of chat requests.
- Additional Models: Access to Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's o1-preview and -mini models.
- Usage: Suitable for enterprises with extensive development needs.
Patel said devs will get clear indicators when hitting usage limits and be able to easily upgrade if needed.
Students, educators, and open source maintainers' free access to unlimited Copilot Pro accounts continues, unaffected.
Patel also provided a couple of recommendations for developers to get started:
- Try it now: Don't wait to experience the benefits. Give GitHub Copilot Free a spin in Visual Studio today. Just note that for now, you won't be notified when you hit your usage limit, but we've got you covered with updates coming in January.
- Stay Updated: Keep your Visual Studio installation current and subscribe to the preview channels. By staying on the cutting edge, you'll be among the first to enjoy the latest updates, ensuring you get the most out of Copilot Free as we roll out new features.
GitHub's Thomas Dohmke also took the occasion of his announcement to reveal that last week the company passed the mark of 150 million developers on GitHub, while reminding developers of other recent new capabilities.
"You can ask a coding question, explain existing code, or have it find a bug," he said. "You can execute edits across multiple files. And you can access Copilot's third-party agents or build your own extension."
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.