GitHub Copilot Premium Request Policy — when and how should I migrate?

Decide whether to explicitly disable paid overages or allow metered Copilot usage after GitHub removed legacy $0 premium-request budgets for organization and enterprise accounts.

Disable paid premium usage by default unless you have trusted usage reporting and a hard budget cap; only allow metered overages for teams where interruption costs more than spend risk.

Blockers

Who this is for

Candidates

Disable premium request paid usage and keep hard stop behavior

As of 2026-03-28, GitHub's removal of legacy account-level $0 Copilot premium-request budgets on December 2, 2025 has already occurred, so old default budget blocks are no longer the control mechanism. For Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise, the relevant control is now the "Premium request paid usage" policy. If you disable that policy, users cannot exceed their included allowance, which is 300 premium requests per Copilot Business seat per month or 1000 per Copilot Enterprise seat per month. Seat pricing remains $19 USD per Business seat per month and $39 USD per Enterprise seat per month, and overage pricing is otherwise $0.04 USD per premium request plus any model multiplier.

When to choose

Use this for cost-sensitive enterprise rollouts where finance requires zero surprise spend and service interruption is acceptable once included premium requests are exhausted. This is the safer default when you do not yet trust your usage reporting, model selection habits, or internal ownership for Copilot overages.

Tradeoffs

Strongest spend control and easiest policy to explain, but premium-request features stop when allowances run out. That can interrupt agent workflows, code review, or premium-model usage late in the billing cycle.

Cautions

Disabling paid usage does not change seat pricing or included allowances. If users have licenses from multiple enterprises or standalone organizations, they must choose a billing entity or premium requests are blocked regardless of policy.

Sources

Allow paid usage, but enforce a budget cap for controlled overages

GitHub's current post-removal model is policy plus budget, not legacy $0 account budgets. As of 2026-03-28, paid overages for organizations and enterprises are enabled through the "Premium request paid usage" policy, and spending can then be capped with either a bundled premium-requests budget or individual SKU budgets. Overages are billed at $0.04 USD per premium request, with additional model multipliers, while Copilot Business still includes 300 premium requests per user per month and Copilot Enterprise includes 1000. GitHub recommends bundled premium-request budgets for most users, and any exhausted applicable budget configured to stop usage will block further premium requests for the billing period.

When to choose

Use this when uninterrupted access matters, but you still need a hard financial ceiling. It fits enterprises that want metered usage for productivity-sensitive teams while keeping spend bounded at the enterprise, cost-center, or SKU level.

Tradeoffs

Balances developer continuity against cost control better than a blanket disable, but it adds budget design and monitoring work. Usage can still stop mid-cycle once the cap is hit, so this is not truly unlimited.

Cautions

Creating a new budget does not override an existing one, and any applicable exhausted budget with stop-usage enabled can still block requests. Enterprise-level budgets also act as a failsafe over cost-center budgets, so a top-level cap can shut off usage earlier than local owners expect.

Sources

Allow paid usage selectively and upgrade heavy users to Copilot Enterprise

GitHub documents a cost crossover for heavy premium-request users: Copilot Business users who make more than 800 premium requests per month would save money with a Copilot Enterprise license. As of 2026-03-28, Copilot Business costs $19 USD per seat per month with 300 premium requests per user per month, while Copilot Enterprise costs $39 USD per seat per month with 1000 premium requests per user per month. Overage pricing is $0.04 USD per premium request before model multipliers, so repeated Business overages can exceed the Enterprise seat delta. In practice, this option means enabling paid usage for continuity, but moving persistent high-usage cohorts onto Enterprise rather than funding recurring overages.

When to choose

Use this when only a subset of developers routinely exceed Business allowances, especially teams leaning on code review, coding agent workflows, or premium models. The decisive factor is sustained usage above the documented Business-to-Enterprise savings threshold.

Tradeoffs

Usually the best long-run economics for heavy users and reduces repeated overage management, but it increases seat cost and requires license segmentation by organization inside GitHub Enterprise Cloud. It is more complex than a single enterprise-wide rule.

Cautions

GitHub's documented upgrade path for mixed plans assumes Enterprise Cloud and organization-level plan assignment. If the goal is pure spend suppression rather than throughput, this option can over-license users who only spike occasionally.

Sources

Facts updated: 2026-03-28
Published: 2026-04-03

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