How do GitHub Copilot and Claude Code bill AI usage?

GitHub Copilot: free tier; dollar allowance, then overage. Claude Code: flat price, unpublished quota; plan + API-priced usage.

Which models can I use?

GitHub Copilot: anthropic, openai, google, x-ai, moonshotai. Claude Code: anthropic. (Provider families from each vendor's published model list.)

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GitHub Copilot vs Claude Code: what each really costs

GitHub Copilot: $0–$100/month (cheapest paid: Pro $10). Claude Code: $20–$100/month (cheapest paid: Pro $20). GitHub Copilot has the lower entry price. Which one is cheaper for you depends on your usage and preferred model; use the calculator below.

At a glance

	GitHub Copilot	Claude Code
Price range / month	$0–$100	$20–$100
Cheapest paid plan	Pro ($10)	Pro ($20)
How usage is billed	free tier · dollar allowance, then overage	flat price, unpublished quota · plan + API-priced usage
Model families	anthropic, openai, google, x-ai, moonshotai	anthropic
Category	IDE extension + agents	Terminal agent

Verdicts

GitHub Copilot

Copilot is now the most transparent mainstream option: every plan includes a dollar-denominated AI Credit allowance (1 credit = $0.01) and completions stay unlimited on paid plans. Pro at $10 includes $15 of credits, which makes it the cheapest way to sample many frontier models.

Claude Code

Claude Code comes with any paid Claude plan and shares one usage pool with chat. For steady daily agent work on Claude models, a flat Max plan is usually easier to budget than paying per token, but the limits are published only as multiples of Pro, not as token counts.

Estimate both for your usage

What will my AI coding cost per month?

Coding sessions per week

Hours per session

Preferred model

How you work

Agent-heavy (multi-file tasks) Mixed chat + agent Mostly autocomplete + quick chat

Include team / business plans

Assumptions (editable)

Model requests per hour

Input tokens per request

Output tokens per request

Share of input served from cache (%)

Presets are rough editorial assumptions, not vendor data: agent-heavy = 20 requests/h × 40k input (70% cached) × 1.5k output; mixed = 12/h × 15k (50% cached) × 800; light = 6/h × 4k (20% cached) × 500. Autocomplete is free on most paid plans and isn't counted. A month is 52/12 weeks.

Enable JavaScript to run the calculator. All prices are on the tool pages.

Tool · plan	List price	Est. monthly cost	How we estimate

Estimates only. Quota-based plans (Claude, Codex, Windsurf) don't publish limits in tokens, so we can't tell whether your usage fits; we show the flat price and say so. Prices come from the snapshot dated 2026-10-21; each row links its source.

GitHub Copilot plans

Plan	Price / month	Key limits	Models	Source
Free	$0	2,000 completions + 50 chat requests; limited agent	Broad multi-vendor list (Claude 4.x-5.5, GPT-5.x-6.1, Gemini 3.7-4, Grok 4.5-4.7, Kimi K3, MAI-Code)	github.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Pro	$10	$15/mo total AI credits ($10 base + $5 flex); 1 credit=$0.01; completions unlimited	Same list	github.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Pro+	$39	$70/mo total AI credits ($39 base + $31 flex)	Same list	github.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Max	$100	$200/mo total AI credits ($100 base)	Same list	github.com checked Oct 21, 2026

Claude Code plans

Plan	Price / month	Key limits	Models	Source
Pro	$20	$17/mo billed annually ($200/yr); ≥5x Free per 5-hour session + weekly limits; Claude Code included	Sonnet, Opus, Haiku; Fable via usage credits	claude.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Max 5x page says 'From $100'	$100	5x Pro per 5-hour session; $100/mo API credits; Fable 50% of weekly limits	Fable, Opus, Sonnet, Haiku	claude.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Max 20x price not explicitly shown on page fetched; third-party sites report $200	Not published	20x Pro per session; $200/mo API credits	Fable, Opus, Sonnet, Haiku	claude.com checked Oct 21, 2026
Enterprise	$20 per user / from	per seat/month + usage at API rates, annual	All	claude.com checked Oct 21, 2026

FAQ

Is GitHub Copilot cheaper than Claude Code?: GitHub Copilot: $0–$100/month (cheapest paid: Pro $10). Claude Code: $20–$100/month (cheapest paid: Pro $20). GitHub Copilot has the lower entry price. Which one is cheaper for you depends on your usage and preferred model; use the calculator below.
How do GitHub Copilot and Claude Code bill AI usage?: GitHub Copilot: free tier; dollar allowance, then overage. Claude Code: flat price, unpublished quota; plan + API-priced usage.
Which models can I use?: GitHub Copilot: anthropic, openai, google, x-ai, moonshotai. Claude Code: anthropic. (Provider families from each vendor's published model list.)