GitHub Copilot, which is available as a free version, will also take its place in the VS Code editor.
Github Copilot, Microsoft-owned GitHub’s AI-powered code completion and programming tool, first appeared in 2021. Github Copilot, which gained GPT-4 support in 2023, has gained multi-model support in recent months. GitHub Copilot is now available in a free version. Copilot will also take its place in the VS Code editor.
Until now, developers had to pay a monthly fee starting at $10 to use GitHub Copilot. Only verified students and teachers could use the tool for free. The free version changes that.
What does the free GitHub Copilot offer?
Developers on the free plan will have access to 2,000 code completions per month. This includes every Copilot code suggestion, not just accepted suggestions. GitHub, which recently introduced the ability to switch between different base models as part of multi-model support, limits users on the free plan to Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI’s GPT-4o. Paid plans also include Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI’s o1-preview and o1-mini.
In addition, the number of chat messages for Copilot Chat is limited to 50. Apart from these, there are no significant limitations in the free service. Developers have access to all Copilot Extensions and skills. The free Copilot SKU will work in a number of editors, including VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains and GitHub.com.
GitHub’s developer base
GitHub also announced that the number of developers has now reached 150 million, up from 100 million in early 2023. According to GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke, the company plans to reach 1 billion developers. The free version of GitHub is part of that plan. Dohmke says that with Copilot Free, they’re going back to their freemium roots and that AI is the best way to enable a GitHub with a billion developers.
