Okay, check this out, fellow source-addicts.<br> <br> So, GitHub just flipped the script on Copilot pricing, moving from some old request-based system to this whole usage-based credit thing. The reaction from the users is pure shock. People are reporting that they are blowing through their monthly AI credits way faster than expected—some even said they used up a whole month's quota in a single day!<br> <br> The big shift here is that instead of a fixed number of requests, you get credits, and one credit is basically a tiny $0.01 of usage. The tiers are set: the $10 Pro gets 1,500 credits, the $39 Pro+ gets 7,000, and the $100 Max gets a whopping 20,000.<br> <br> The kicker is that the cost is super variable depending on which LLM the system pulls for the job. The article points out that a simple query can cost pennies, but if Copilot defaults to a high-end model like GPT-5.5, those costs balloon. Apparently, re-running a simple "build a Minesweeper game" prompt burned through 94 credits. That's the kind of granular tracking that makes everyone sweat when they start automating their coding lives.<br> <br> Honestly, this is the classic "free tier is nice, but the real power users pay the real price" scenario. It forces users to be hyper-aware of *which* model Copilot chooses, which is a huge win for control but a nightmare for budget planning. Time to start optimizing those prompts!<br> <br> Source: https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/06/ai-costs-how-much-github-copilot-users-react-to-new-usage-based-pricing-system/