GitHub Copilot
Code completion in the editor, with a free tier that is genuinely usable
github.com Free tier Checked 30 August 2026
- Price
- From $10 per user per month
- Not priced in pounds
- Trains on your data
- Vendor does not publish it
- Where data is processed
- Not published
- Data processing agreement
- Not published
- Setup
- Minutes
- Skill needed
- Technical
What is GitHub Copilot?
Suggests code as you type and answers questions about your codebase, inside the editors developers already use. The default AI coding tool by adoption, and the free tier is enough for occasional work.
The productivity claim is real and routinely overstated. It is excellent at the code you could have written but did not want to, and unreliable on the parts that needed thinking about — which is also the ordering in which people notice the difference.
For a business with proprietary code, the question worth asking is what leaves your machine and under which plan. That answer differs between the individual and business tiers.
What does GitHub Copilot cost in the UK?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month. |
| Pro | $10/month | Unlimited completions, $15/month of AI credits, code review, agent mode. |
| Pro+ | $39/month | $70/month of AI credits. |
| Max | $100/month | $200/month of AI credits. |
What the free tier actually gets you
Free plan gives 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month. Real work, not a demo.
What to watch on the price
Pro is $10 a month, Pro+ $39, Max $100. Business and Enterprise plans require contacting sales. Priced in US dollars. Read 29 August 2026.
Does GitHub Copilot train AI models on your data?
Vendor does not publish it
Read GitHub's Copilot Chat application card on 30 August 2026. It describes what the foundation models were trained on rather than whether your code is used to train them. The answer differs between the individual and business plans and is the thing to establish before pointing it at proprietary code.
The rest of the data position
- Where data is processed: Not published
- Data processing agreement: Not published
What do people use GitHub Copilot for?
- Write boilerplate without writing boilerplate
- Understand an unfamiliar codebase by asking it questions
- Get a first draft of tests for existing code
What does GitHub Copilot connect to?
- VS Code
- Visual Studio
- JetBrains
- Neovim
- GitHub
Where does GitHub Copilot fall short?
- Suggestions need review — accepted uncritically it introduces plausible bugs faster than you can write them
- Free tier limits are monthly and are reached quickly in daily use
- Priced in US dollars
Who is GitHub Copilot for?
A good fit for
- Development teams
- Solo developers
- Businesses with a technical founder
Not for
- Anyone who will not read the suggestions — it introduces plausible bugs faster than you can write them
- Businesses with no developers, which is most of the audience for this directory
The Torus verdict on GitHub Copilot
The default choice for a development team, and the free tier is worth switching on for anyone who codes occasionally.
What are the alternatives to GitHub Copilot?
Others in development, with what each one is for.