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GitHub Copilot Business and Enterprise: Upfront Seat Billing, Unified Policy and a New Review Default

From 1 October 2026, Copilot Business and Enterprise customers paying by card or PayPal are charged upfront for all assigned seats each billing cycle. GitHub also merged Copilot Chat on github.com, Mobile and the cloud agent under one policy (with lifetime chat retention) and switched code review's default effort from Lite to Balanced.

GitHub announced three changes for Copilot Business and Enterprise in late August that took effect at the end of September and on 1 October 2026. If you administer Copilot for a team, check each one.

1. Seats are billed upfront (card and PayPal customers)

  • 1 September: sign-ups reopened for new customers paying by card or PayPal, with stricter account vetting. Each seat must be paid before the user gets access.
  • 1 October: existing customers paying by card or PayPal are charged upfront for all assigned seats at the start of each billing cycle.

Prices didn't change. But note: revoking a seat isn't refunded pro rata, while seats added mid-cycle are still prorated. Usage beyond included allowances may need extra payment. Customers invoiced through sales aren't covered by this change.

What to do: audit assigned seats before your billing date and remove people who don't use Copilot — afterwards, you've paid for the month.

2. One Copilot experience and one policy

From 28 September (or later), Copilot Chat on github.com, Copilot Chat in GitHub Mobile, and the Copilot cloud agent merge into one experience with a single policy, enabled by default after launch. Two details matter:

  • The cloud agent moves to a sandbox for faster performance.
  • Chat data on github.com is kept for the life of the account, instead of 28 days.

Users who opt out lose Copilot on github.com and Mobile once the new experience launches. Admins should review the policy under Copilot settings — particularly if retention matters for your compliance requirements. (GDPR Basics for App Builders)

3. Code review defaults to "Balanced"

Since 28 September, Copilot code review's "Default" effort uses Balanced instead of Lite — more thorough reviews, more usage. To keep Lite, select it explicitly in repository or organisation settings. (Review AI-Generated Pull Requests)

GPT-5.5, GPT-5.4 and several other models leave Copilot on 19 October. (Copilot Model Deprecations)

The takeaway

AI tool costs are shifting from flat per-seat prices to a mix of seats and usage. Track who uses which tool and how much, and review settings whenever a vendor changes defaults. (Real Cost of Cloud Development Environments)

Source: GitHub Changelog: Upcoming changes to Copilot policies and billing

EasySpawn prices per server, not per seat: unlimited team members share each server, and everyone brings their own Claude plan with no markup. See pricing or join the waitlist.

Related: What Is GitHub Copilot? · Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot · Claude Pro vs Max vs API · Cursor vs GitHub Copilot

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