GitHub Copilot Just Changed the Deal. Here’s What That Means for Your Team.

If you woke up on June 1st to a very different GitHub Copilot bill, you’re not alone. GitHub officially switched its Copilot subscribers to usage-based “GitHub AI Credits” billing with a predictable reaction from the community.

The outrage is understandable and opens up a conversation worth having. If you’re reconsidering your AI tooling, what should you actually be looking for? We think the answer is GitLab Duo and we’ll tell you why.

What did GitHub Change? Why are Developers Furious?

For the past year, GitHub Copilot operated on a simple model of pay a flat monthly rate, get a set number of “premium requests,” use a free base model when those ran out. It was predictable, easy to budget, and easy to justify to leadership.

As of June 1st, every Copilot chat, agent mode, code review, and CLI burns through GitHub AI Credits, which are priced per token based on the model you use. Free fallback models have been eliminated entirely, unused credits do not roll over (but can pool across an organization), and in a particularly pointed move, annual plan renewals are being retired in favor of a new monthly subscription.

Here’s what the new individual plans look like (as of publishing):

• Pro: $10/month — includes $10 in base credits + $5 flex allotment ($15 total)
• Pro+: $39/month — includes $39 in base credits + $31 flex allotment ($70 total)
• Max: $100/month — includes $100 in base credits + $100 flex allotment ($200 total)

On paper, that looks reasonable. In practice, the community is reporting something very different. On GitHub’s own community discussion thread Pro+ subscribers described burning through 8% of their monthly allotment in two hours of regular development work. One user reported a single agentic task consuming 54% of their monthly quota. Another calculated that at their normal pace, their $39/month would last less than 48 hours. Obviously, the more your workflow relies on Copilot, the faster you burn through your credits. It seems though, that even moderate users are feeling a pinch.

The core complaint also includes predictability. Developers and engineering managers built workflows and budgets around a flat-rate model. Token-based billing turns every interaction into an unknown variable. One well-scoped agent run on a large codebase can wipe out a month’s allotment. That’s not a tool you can confidently depend on for production workflows.

Why GitLab Duo over GitHub Copilot?

GitLab Duo takes a different approach. The core tiers are flat-rate per user, per month:

• Duo Core: Included free with GitLab Premium and Ultimate (18.0+)
• Duo Pro: $19/user/month — IDE + GitLab UI AI features
• Duo Enterprise: $39/user/month — full SDLC coverage including security, CI/CD, and advanced agentic features

For teams that want agentic AI for things like multi-step autonomous workflows, custom flows, and integrations with external tools via MCP, the Duo Agent Platform is available as a usage-based add-on at $1 per GitLab Credit, with monthly credits included for Premium (12/user) and Ultimate (24/user) subscribers for a limited time. The key difference is that the core subscription features don’t change with usage. You know what you’re paying.

Compare that to GitHub, where even a code review now consumes both GitHub AI Credits and GitHub Actions minutes simultaneously.

The Difference isn’t just About Pricing

GitHub Copilot is primarily a coding assistant. It works in your editor, suggests code, and now supports some agentic workflows in the repository. It doesn’t know your epics. It doesn’t know your issue backlog. It can’t summarize the discussion thread on the feature your team spent three days debating.

GitLab Duo lives where your work lives. Issue Description Generation, Discussion Summary, Root Cause Analysis for broken pipelines, Vulnerability Explanation and automated remediation are at your fingertips. They’re built into the same platform where your team plans, builds, reviews, and deploys. GitLab’s own research found that roughly 80% of developer time is spent on tasks other than writing code. Copilot addresses the other 20%. Duo is designed for the whole picture.

That’s a big deal for engineering managers. AI that makes individual developers faster is useful. AI that reduces coordination overhead, shortens time to remediation on security findings, and helps teams stay aligned on what they’re building is a force multiplier.

What to Do If You’re Reevaluating Right Now

If you’re a GitHub Copilot subscriber staring at a changed bill or a changed product, a few things are worth knowing:

New Copilot Pro, Pro+, and Max sign-ups are currently paused (as of publishing). If you’re evaluating alternatives now, you may have more room to move than you think.

GitLab Duo Pro at $19/user/month is cheaper than Copilot Pro+ at $39/user/month, and covers significantly more of the development lifecycle. For teams already on GitLab, the onboarding path is straightforward. At GitSimple, we’ve helped organizations implement Duo from initial assessment through full rollout, and we’ve developed a proven methodology for doing it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm the team.

The GitHub Copilot pricing change is frustrating, but it’s also a useful forcing function to ask a better question: are you getting the AI layer your team actually needs, or just the one that was easiest to buy?

If you’re interested in exploring GitLab Duo for your team? Contact us today and we’ll be happy to walk you through what the transition looks like.