GitHub Copilot has six plans in October 2026: Free, Pro at $10 a month, Pro+ at $39, Max at $100, Business at $19 per seat and Enterprise at $39 per seat. Since June 2026, chat and agent usage is metered in AI credits worth one cent each, while code completions on paid plans stay unlimited. Claude Code comes with Claude Pro at $20 a month, so whether it is cheaper depends on what you already pay for and how much agent work you do.
What does each Copilot plan cost?
| Plan | Price | AI credits included per month |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited allowance |
| Pro | $10/mo | 1,500 (1,000 base + 500 flex) |
| Pro+ | $39/mo | 7,000 (3,900 base + 3,100 flex) |
| Max | $100/mo | 20,000 (10,000 base + 10,000 flex) |
| Business | $19 per seat/mo | 1,900 per user |
| Enterprise | $39 per seat/mo | 3,900 per user |
Source: GitHub's Copilot plans documentation, checked October 2026. One credit is $0.01, so a $10 budget buys 1,000 extra credits. GitHub says the flex part of each allotment may change over time, and code completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits on paid plans.
Who gets Copilot for free?
- Students: Copilot Student is free for verified students.
- Teachers and open source maintainers: verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects may be eligible for free Copilot Pro.
- Everyone else: Copilot Free, with a limited allowance of chat and agent usage.
How do you cancel Copilot?
- Click your profile photo on GitHub, then Settings.
- Open Billing and licensing, then Licensing.
- In the GitHub Copilot section, open Manage subscription and choose Cancel subscription.
You keep paid features until the end of the billing cycle, then drop to Copilot Free. If your seat comes from an organisation, you cannot cancel it yourself; an organisation owner removes it. Free access granted to students, teachers or maintainers cannot be cancelled this way either.
What does Claude Code cost?
Claude Code is not sold separately for individuals. It is included in Claude Pro ($20 a month, or $17 a month billed yearly) and Claude Max (from $100 a month), and in Team seats ($25 per seat monthly, $20 billed yearly, for the standard seat), according to Claude's pricing page in October 2026. Teams can also run it on the API and pay per token.
The missing first week: how Claude Code reads a repository, a complete CLAUDE.md example to copy, and twelve workflows with the exact text to send, from unfamiliar code and debugging to tests, refactors, migrations and a failing CI build.
Get the Starter Pack →When is Claude Code cheaper, and when is Copilot?
- You mainly want autocomplete in your editor: Copilot Pro at $10 is the cheapest paid option, and completions do not use credits.
- You already pay for Claude Pro for chat or writing: Claude Code is included at no extra cost. Adding Copilot Pro+ at $39 for agent work you could run in Claude Code may be money you do not need to spend.
- You run agents for hours every day: both sides push you to a $100+ tier (Copilot Max or Claude Max). Compare on your own workload for a week rather than on list price.
- Your company buys seats: Copilot Business at $19 per seat versus a Claude Team seat is usually decided by which tools the rest of the company already uses, not by a few dollars.
The fairest test is a week of your real work. Pick five typical tasks, run them in both, and note what you would have paid. To estimate API-based usage in tokens before you start, our AI token cost calculator does the arithmetic.
How do you get more done per credit or per session?
Whatever tool you choose, cost comes from wasted turns: the agent reads the wrong files, misunderstands the task and tries again. Two habits cut that:
And keep a short project instructions file (CLAUDE.md for Claude Code, or a repository custom instructions file for Copilot) with the build command, test command and the rules you repeat every session. Our Claude Code skills guide shows how skills add reusable workflows on top.
Need more than one specialist?
Coding work spans review, tests, architecture and docs, each with its own specialist. Library puts every skill, prompt pack and agent in the catalog (2,500+) inside Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor through one connector: you ask for a specialist by name and it loads. It is $9 a month or $59 a year, with a free trial, no card needed. Why a subscription beats buying files · See plans
How do you add skills to Claude Code?
Claude Code reads skills from a .claude/skills folder in your project or your home directory: each skill is a folder with a SKILL.md inside. A file like the Starter Pack below is different: it is a guide and a CLAUDE.md template you read and copy into your project. With Library, you can also connect KissMySkills once and ask for a coding specialist by name inside Claude Code, Codex or Cursor.
In summary:
Copilot: Free, Pro $10, Pro+ $39, Max $100, Business $19 and Enterprise $39 per seat, with AI credits at $0.01 since June 2026. Claude Code comes with Claude Pro at $20. If you already pay for Claude, try Claude Code on a week of real tasks before adding Pro+. To get productive in that first week, the Claude Code Starter Pack ($19); more in Claude Code skills.
Claude Code Starter Pack
How Claude Code reads a repo, a CLAUDE.md you can copy, and twelve workflows with the exact text to send. One file, kept beside your terminal.
Or every skill for $9/mo: try Library free, no card needed.
KissMySkills is a marketplace of 2,000+ AI skills, 100+ agents, 300+ prompt packs & free tools for Claude, ChatGPT & any AI chat. 30-day money-back guarantee.
