GitHub pricing starts at $0 for Free, $4 per user/month for Team, and starts at $21 per user/month for Enterprise, while GitHub Copilot is priced on a separate line entirely — so engineering teams often weigh two parallel purchases at once. GitHub shows the Team and Enterprise figures as introductory rates it can change over time, so confirm current pricing with GitHub before budgeting. For engineering leads and software buyers, the practical question is not just which GitHub tier to choose, but which collaboration, compliance, and AI controls belong in the base platform versus an added Copilot seat.
What it is and who it’s for
GitHub offers Free, Team, and Enterprise plans for storing and collaborating on code. On GitHub’s pricing page, Free is positioned for individuals and organizations, Team is positioned for advanced collaboration for individuals and organizations, and Enterprise is positioned around security, compliance, and flexible deployment.
That positioning matters because GitHub distinguishes between account types and plan scope in its documentation. Some plans are available only to personal accounts, while others are available only to organization and enterprise accounts. For organization buyers, the relevant comparison is usually GitHub Free for organizations versus GitHub Team versus GitHub Enterprise, not the personal-account GitHub Pro plan.
Copilot sits alongside those core plans rather than inside them as a single bundled default. GitHub Copilot has its own lineup: Free, Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise. GitHub says the primary differences between individual and organization Copilot offerings are license management, policy management, and IP indemnity.
How it works
The core GitHub plans determine how a team manages repositories, pull requests, CI/CD usage, package storage, support, and enterprise controls. CI/CD here refers to continuous integration and continuous delivery workflows run through GitHub Actions, while package storage refers to storage capacity in GitHub Packages.
GitHub Free includes unlimited public and private repositories, Dependabot security and version updates, Issues & Projects, and Community support. For organizations, GitHub Free also includes team access controls for managing groups.
GitHub Team adds collaboration and governance features on top of Free. GitHub lists repository rules, multiple reviewers in pull requests, draft pull requests, code owners, required reviewers, Pages and Wikis, environment deployment branches and secrets, and web-based support on the Team plan. GitHub Docs also notes that GitHub Team includes advanced tools and insights in private repositories, team pull request reviewers, protected branches, scheduled reminders, security overview, repository insights graphs, and the option to enable or disable GitHub Codespaces for the organization’s private repositories.
GitHub Enterprise adds enterprise administration, security, and compliance controls. GitHub includes data residency, Enterprise Managed Users, user provisioning through SCIM, an enterprise account to centrally manage multiple organizations, environment protection rules, the Audit Log API, SAML single sign-on, GitHub Connect, and the option to host company data in a specific region on a unique subdomain. GitHub Docs also states that GitHub Enterprise includes internal repositories, GitHub Enterprise Support, audit log streaming, and IP allow list.
Copilot works as a separate AI layer across developer tools and GitHub properties. GitHub says all Copilot offerings include both code completion and chat assistance. Copilot is available as an extension in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Vim, Neovim, the JetBrains suite of IDEs, and Azure Data Studio, with inline suggestions available across those extensions. Copilot is also supported in terminals through GitHub CLI and as a chat integration in Windows Terminal Canary, and all plans are supported in GitHub Copilot in GitHub Mobile.
The organizational split inside Copilot is straightforward in GitHub’s own framing. Copilot Business primarily features Copilot in the IDE, CLI, and GitHub Mobile. Copilot Enterprise includes everything in Copilot Business, adds integration into GitHub.com as a chat interface, can index an organization’s codebase for more tailored suggestions, and offers access to fine-tuned custom, private models for inline suggestions.
Pricing and cost considerations
For the core GitHub pricing comparison relevant to teams, the standard plan matrix from GitHub’s pricing page is:
| Plan | Standard price | Billing unit | Notable included usage/capacity |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Free | $0 USD per month | N/A | 2,000 CI/CD minutes/month; 500MB of Packages storage |
| GitHub Team | $4 USD per user/month* | Per user | 3,000 CI/CD minutes/month; 2GB of Packages storage |
| GitHub Enterprise | Starts at $21 USD per user/month* | Per user | 50,000 CI/CD minutes/month; 50GB of Packages storage |
GitHub may periodically offer introductory pricing and promotions on the Team and Enterprise tiers (marked with an asterisk above), so confirm current rates directly with GitHub before modeling a multi-year budget. GitHub Docs explicitly says GitHub Team bills on a per-user basis. GitHub also states that GitHub Actions usage is free for standard GitHub-hosted runners in public repositories and for self-hosted runners, while private repositories draw from the included quota tied to the account’s plan.
That distinction is one of the main budgeting mechanics in GitHub pricing. A team that works mostly in public repositories will not model Actions costs the same way as a team running private repository workflows. Included usage also differs by plan, so the base subscription is only part of the operating cost.
Codespaces is another budget variable, but GitHub presents it unevenly across surfaces. GitHub’s pricing page says Team includes GitHub Codespaces access. GitHub Docs adds that Free for personal accounts includes 120 GitHub Codespaces core hours per month and 15 GB of GitHub Codespaces storage per month, while GitHub Pro includes 180 core hours and 20 GB of storage; for organizations, Team includes the option to enable or disable GitHub Codespaces for private repositories.
Copilot should be budgeted separately from the core GitHub plan. Every Copilot plan includes a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits, 1 AI credit equals $0.01 USD, and code completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits and remain unlimited with every paid plan. On Business and Enterprise, admins set usage limits and decide whether additional paid usage is allowed, and usage alerts are available at 75%, 90%, and 100% of any configured budget.
GitHub also advertises a single risk-free trial that includes GitHub Enterprise, Copilot, and Advanced Security, and the trial is free for 30 days.
How to choose
Start with the repository and governance model, not the AI add-on. GitHub’s per-seat-with-add-ons structure is one of the models compared in our SaaS pricing models guide. Teams that need basic hosting, unlimited repositories, Issues & Projects, and organization-level collaboration can begin by testing whether GitHub Free for organizations covers their workflow.
Move to GitHub Team when the purchasing trigger is collaboration control inside private repositories. This is the tier where GitHub adds the review and governance features many software teams use to formalize pull request process. For teams also evaluating work management tooling around development workflows, see our Linear vs Jira: Pricing, Limits, and Team Fit.
Choose GitHub Enterprise when the purchase is driven by centralized administration, identity integration, compliance posture, or deployment controls across multiple organizations. Those buyers are the ones who actually need the enterprise-account management, SAML/SCIM identity, audit, and data-residency controls listed in the section above, rather than just the collaboration features GitHub Team already covers.
Treat Copilot as a separate decision based on policy and knowledge access. If the buying requirement is managed rollout and policy control, that points to Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise rather than individual Copilot subscriptions. If the requirement also includes GitHub.com chat integration, organization codebase indexing, and access to fine-tuned custom, private models for inline suggestions, those are Copilot Enterprise capabilities.
Limitations and gotchas
GitHub pricing is not a single all-in-one matrix because core platform plans and Copilot plans are packaged separately. A buyer comparing “GitHub pricing” in general can miss that GitHub Enterprise and Copilot Enterprise are distinct purchases with different controls and usage mechanics.
Plan availability also depends on account type. GitHub Docs states that some plans are limited to personal accounts while others are limited to organization and enterprise accounts, so a feature listed on a personal plan page is not automatically the correct buying path for a team account.
Copilot eligibility has its own restrictions. GitHub says users assigned a Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise seat are not eligible for Copilot Free, while users with access to Copilot Pro through a paid subscription, trial, or existing verified OSS, student, faculty, or MVP account may elect to use Free instead.
Some Copilot behaviors can create admin and billing implications even for users without assigned seats. GitHub says organizations can enable Copilot code review on all pull requests on GitHub.com, including pull requests from users without a Copilot license, and usage from non-licensed users is billed directly to the organization as GitHub AI Credits.
GitHub notes that Copilot code review workflows also consume GitHub Actions minutes.
FAQ
How is GitHub Codespaces billed once a team turns it on? GitHub charges Codespaces on usage, with compute starting at $0.18 per hour and storage at $0.07 per GB per month, on top of the base plan.
Can a GitHub Team organization buy additional security products separately?
Yes. GitHub Docs says GitHub Team includes the option to purchase GitHub Advanced Security products, including GitHub Code Security and GitHub Secret Protection.
Is Git Large File Storage an extra cost? Yes. GitHub prices Git Large File Storage at $5 per month for 50 GB of bandwidth and 50 GB of storage, billed separately from the plan.
Is GitHub Copilot included in GitHub Team or Enterprise plans? No. GitHub Copilot is sold separately from GitHub Team and GitHub Enterprise. Organizations purchase Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise seats in addition to their core GitHub subscription.
