On Wednesday, GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft, announced that it will offer a free version of its popular tool called Copilot. This tool helps programmers by automatically completing code and acting like a virtual programming partner. Previously, most developers had to pay a monthly fee of at least $10 to use Copilot, while only certain groups like verified students, teachers, and people maintaining open-source projects could access it for free.
In addition to this announcement, GitHub shared that it now has 150 million developers using its platform, a significant increase from 100 million just earlier this year.
In an exclusive interview, GitHub’s CEO, Thomas Dohmke, reflected on the company’s journey, mentioning that his first project when he joined GitHub in 2018 was to create free private repositories, which became available in early 2019. Since then, they have introduced various free features, including free private organizations and free GitHub Actions. He expressed that it felt natural to finally offer a completely free version of Copilot, not just for students and open-source maintainers.
However, there are some limitations with the free version of Copilot. It is designed for occasional users rather than those working on large projects. For example, users on the free plan will only receive 2,000 code completions per month. Each suggestion made by Copilot counts against this limit, even if the user does not accept the suggestion. Additionally, while paid users have access to a wider range of AI models for coding suggestions, free users are limited to just two: Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI’s GPT-4o.
For Copilot Chat, which allows users to have conversations with the AI, the free version limits users to 50 messages, but otherwise, there are no major restrictions. Free users still have access to all the features and skills that Copilot offers.
Dohmke mentioned that the team analyzed how people used Copilot over the past few years to determine the difference between casual users and professional developers. The goal is to make it easy for anyone to start coding with Copilot right away.
The free version of Copilot will be available in several coding environments, including Visual Studio Code (VS Code), Visual Studio, JetBrains, and directly on GitHub.com.
Since Copilot was launched in 2021, it has become a leading tool for AI-assisted coding, but the market has become more competitive with other companies like Tabnine and Qodo (formerly Codium) offering similar services, often with their own free plans. By making Copilot free and integrating it with VS Code, GitHub aims to reach more users.
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Dohmke explained that one of GitHub’s missions is to enable one billion people around the world to become developers. He noted that in many countries, the cost of $10 can be significant relative to local incomes, and offering a free version of Copilot could help more people pursue their ambitions in software development.
He also expects that more students will start using Copilot now that it is freely available, as they previously had to go through a process to verify their student status to access the free version.
Dohmke concluded by stating that with the introduction of Copilot Free, GitHub is returning to its roots of offering free services, paving the way for a future where everyone can experience the joy of creating software without barriers. He emphasized that even after being acquired by Microsoft six years ago, GitHub remains committed to its mission and vision.
