Is Copilot free? What each Copilot costs as of October 2026

Is Copilot free? It depends on which Copilot you mean. Microsoft's Copilot app has a free tier, Microsoft 365 Copilot is a paid add-on for work, though a free Copilot Chat comes with eligible work accounts, and GitHub Copilot has a Free plan capped at 2,000 inline suggestions a month. Prices below are as of October 28, 2026, from Microsoft and GitHub's plans page.

Three products share the name, and they bill separately. Paying for one does not cover the others.

Microsoft Copilot app: free, with paid plans for more usage

Microsoft's consumer Copilot page implies a free tier, because its paid plans offer "higher usage than free" for chat, image creation and audio. It does not list the free limits, so this article does not state any. Usage limits apply on every plan.

The paid options are Microsoft 365 subscriptions that include Copilot, as of October 28, 2026 (US prices):

Personal, Family and Premium list a one-month free trial. Family covers up to 6 people, but the AI features are only for the owner and cannot be shared.

Microsoft 365 Copilot: paid for work, with free Copilot Chat

For organizations, Microsoft sells Copilot as an add-on to an eligible Microsoft 365 license, or as part of Microsoft 365 E7, according to Microsoft Learn. Its pricing page lists Copilot for Business at $23.50 per user per month, paid yearly, and Enterprise at $30.00 per user per month, paid yearly. Microsoft's licensing page says the Business add-on is for organizations with up to 300 users and needs an annual commitment.

Copilot Chat is the free part. Microsoft's overview says it does not need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license. It covers web-grounded chat, file uploads, image generation and enterprise data protection. It gets standard access only, so it depends on service capacity, and it has no priority access.

What the paid license adds, per Microsoft: broader reasoning across your emails, meetings, files and chats, priority access, and advanced agents. Copilot Chat in Outlook can read supported mail and calendar content without a license, but with less reach.

GitHub Copilot Free: 2,000 suggestions a month

GitHub Copilot is the coding assistant, and it is a separate product from both of the above. Its Free plan costs $0. According to GitHub's plans page, it includes 2,000 inline suggestions per month and limited chat and agent usage. GitHub gives no figure for the chat limit.

Business and Enterprise have no listed price on the page, and Enterprise says to contact sales. Chat and agent usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits, where one credit equals $0.01. Pro includes $15 of credits ($10 base plus a $5 variable allotment), Pro+ $70 and Max $200. Free has no flex allotment or purchasable extra credits. See also how GitHub bills Copilot by the token.

One wrinkle: the page's FAQ says Free gets "entry level models," while its model list shows the same 35 models for every plan. The page does not reconcile the two.

What to check before you rely on it

Plans, limits and names change often. Check the pages above on the day you sign up, and confirm prices for your country.