On December 2, GitHub changes how older enterprise and team accounts handle GitHub Copilot premium requests. The auto‑created $0 budgets that previously stopped premium usage at the line will be removed for legacy accounts, and your overage policy will govern whether those requests are allowed and billed. If you haven’t reviewed your settings, a handful of power users can quietly rack up charges while the rest of the team stays unaware. Here’s how to fix that today.
What’s changing on December 2, 2025
For enterprise and team accounts created before August 22, 2025, GitHub previously auto‑created an account‑level budget of $0 for premium requests. Hitting that limit simply blocked usage. Beginning December 2, GitHub will remove those $0 budgets. After removal, your organization’s premium request paid usage policy determines behavior: allow paid usage beyond the included allowance or block it outright. Owners and billing managers receive an email when the budget is removed, but you shouldn’t wait for that message to act.
Two more facts you should anchor on:
- Each plan includes a monthly per‑user allowance of premium requests (reset on the 1st of each month): 300 on Copilot Business and 1,000 on Copilot Enterprise.
- Beyond the allowance, premium requests default to $0.04 per request, with multipliers for some premium models. If overage is enabled, charges accrue; if overage is disabled, premium requests are blocked when the allowance is exhausted.
Regular code completions and standard chat remain included in paid plans (subject to rate limits). Premium requests are the meter you need to watch.
What counts as a premium request?
Premium requests are used by advanced Copilot features and higher‑tier models. The biggest drivers we see in real teams:
- Copilot Code Review: PR reviews and review comments invoked by Copilot.
- Premium models you select in Copilot Chat or agent features.
- Specialized tools that explicitly draw on “premium request” capacity in the IDE or GitHub UI.
Tip: Developers often don’t realize that changing a model in their IDE can switch them from included to premium. Make the default model choice explicit in your rollout guidance.
How much does a premium request cost?
The baseline is $0.04 per request for billed overage. Some premium models apply a multiplier, which increases effective cost. That’s why top‑down control is your friend: you can allow limited overage globally but cap it tightly for specific teams that benefit most (e.g., code review on your busiest repos).
The 90‑minute playbook to be ready before Tuesday
You don’t need a task force. You need a focused hour and a half with an owner who has enterprise admin or billing rights. Here’s a precise sequence that works.
1) Confirm your current posture (10 minutes)
Open Copilot billing settings. If you see a legacy $0 premium budget, note that it will be removed on December 2. Find your premium request paid usage policy and verify the toggle: Enabled (allow charges) or Disabled (block beyond allowance). Document the current state.
2) Pull last‑month usage by user and by tool (15 minutes)
Export usage reports for the last full month and current month‑to‑date. Sort by users who hit their allowance or were frequently blocked. Flag teams using Copilot Code Review heavily; it’s the most common premium driver in mid‑to‑large repos.
3) Decide where overage is worth it (15 minutes)
Here’s the rule of thumb I use with clients: enable overage for teams where the value of one saved reviewer hour exceeds the cost of 200–500 extra premium requests in a month. For example, if a staff engineer’s blended cost is $140/hour and code review turns a day‑long pull request into a morning task, a small overage budget pays for itself quickly.
4) Create cost centers and map seats (15 minutes)
If you operate multiple orgs or business units, use cost centers to map premium spend. This eliminates the end‑of‑month hunt for “who used the budget.” Tie high‑value groups (core product, platform, SRE) to distinct centers and keep low‑ROI groups on included allowances.
5) Set sane caps and alerts (15 minutes)
Start with a modest account‑level cap that aligns with your risk tolerance—enough to cover priority teams, not enough to create a nasty surprise. Add per‑team or per‑org guardrails if your structure allows it. Configure email alerts at 50%, 75%, and 90% of the cap. Make one person accountable for reacting to the 75% alert the same day.
6) Move a handful of heavy users to Enterprise seats (10 minutes)
If your Business seats have power users who routinely blow past 300 premium requests, consider upgrading just those seats to Enterprise for the 1,000‑request allowance and knowledge base features. It’s cleaner than letting a single user consume half of a shared cap.
7) Normalize developer defaults (10 minutes)
Publish a short internal note: which model to use by default, when to switch to a premium model, and how to invoke Copilot Code Review responsibly. Include a one‑liner in your PR template reminding devs that premium review is a metered resource.
8) Revisit on December 3 (10 minutes)
After the removal goes live, confirm that your overage policy and caps behave as expected. Pull a fresh report and spot‑check your top users. If you see a spike tied to a single repo or model, fix it the same week; don’t wait for end‑of‑month.
GitHub Copilot premium requests: the quick math
Let’s ground the policy in numbers so finance and engineering can agree on a plan.
Scenario A: 60 developers on Copilot Business (300 included each). You enable overage and set a $250 monthly cap. Suppose 12 developers exceed their allowance by 500 requests each. That’s 6,000 extra requests. At $0.04, you’ve spent $240—under the cap, and you’ve likely saved dozens of human review cycles.
Scenario B: 120 developers split between Business and Enterprise. You upgrade 15 heavy reviewers to Enterprise (1,000 included each) and disable overage at the account level. For the remaining Business seats, you rely on the allowance only. Your cost is predictable, and premium usage stops on day 20 instead of day 8. That may be a good trade if your bottleneck is not PR review.
Scenario C: Multi‑org enterprise with shared users. Until you select a single billing entity for a user with seats in two orgs, premium requests can be rejected. Fix the billing entity mapping first, then decide caps. Otherwise you’ll chase phantom “Copilot is broken” tickets when the real issue is unassigned billing.
People also ask
Do code completions count as premium requests?
No. Code completions are included with paid plans, separate from premium request metering. Developers can keep coding without touching your premium budget.
Are Copilot chat and agent mode unlimited?
Paid plans include standard chat and agent usage, though rate limits apply. Premium chat models and some advanced tools can consume premium requests. Make the default model clear in your IDE guidance.
What if I do nothing on December 2?
When the $0 budget is removed, your org’s premium request policy takes over. If it allows overage, charges can begin as soon as users exceed their allowances. If it blocks overage, premium features will simply stop working when users hit their monthly limits.
How do I keep a lid on costs without slowing teams down?
Enable overage with a small cap, upgrade a few heavy users to Enterprise, and steer everyone else to defaults that avoid premium requests. Then revisit in a week with fresh usage reports.
A pragmatic governance model you can adopt tomorrow
We’ve rolled this out with multiple product teams without drama. It’s simple:
- Policy: Allow overage with a modest global cap.
- Seats: Promote your heaviest reviewers to Enterprise; keep the rest on Business.
- Defaults: Standard chat and included models by default; premium only for PRs 300+ lines or critical releases.
- Visibility: Weekly usage report to engineering leads; monthly roll‑up to finance.
- Guardrails: If 75% of the cap is hit before day 20, trigger a quick model/usage audit.
This model preserves velocity, contains cost, and avoids the whiplash of a hard block mid‑sprint.
Edge cases and gotchas
Model multipliers. Some premium models cost more per request. If you enable overage, prefer the most cost‑effective premium for your workflow and document that choice in your standards.
Multiple billing entities. If a developer has seats in two orgs or an org and an enterprise, you must define which entity is charged for their premium requests. Otherwise, requests may be rejected and show up as mysterious failures in IDEs.
No carryover. Allowances reset on the 1st of each month. Plan your release crunch accordingly; don’t burn through premium on day three of a long month.
Code Review drains faster than you think. A single big PR can create dozens of premium interactions. Teach reviewers to batch questions and avoid repetitive retries that chew through requests without improving signal.
Education beats enforcement. The cheapest way to cut premium consumption is a two‑paragraph policy in the repo docs plus a PR template note. Engineers respect clear budgets when they can see who pays.
Let’s get practical: copy‑paste rollout checklist
Use this exactly as written and you’ll be done in under two hours.
- In Copilot settings, note whether your org’s premium request paid usage policy is Enabled or Disabled. Set it to your desired state for December.
- Export last month’s usage by user and by tool. Highlight anyone over 200 premium requests (Business) or 700 (Enterprise).
- Create cost centers for Product, Platform, and SRE; assign seats accordingly.
- Set a global overage cap you can live with for one month (e.g., $250, $500, or $1,000 depending on company size).
- Upgrade the top 10–20% of premium consumers to Enterprise seats.
- Publish a one‑page internal doc: default model, when premium is justified, and how to request more budget.
- Turn on 50/75/90% cap alerts; nominate an on‑call owner for premium spikes.
- Calendar a 30‑minute review for December 3 to confirm the change behaved as expected.
Related playbooks and resources
If you want a deeper analysis of the policy shift itself, read our deep‑dive on the December 2 switch. If you’re aligning your broader AI stack and governance, our take on Google’s AI Mode after Gemini 3 offers a practical checklist that pairs well with this Copilot rollout. Need help implementing enterprise guardrails across tools? See our services or contact us for a rapid audit.
What to do next (today)
There’s still time to avoid bill shock. Do these five things before end of day:
- Decide your overage stance: allow with a cap, or block entirely.
- Upgrade a few heavy reviewers to Enterprise; keep others on Business.
- Set alerts and name an owner for budget spikes.
- Publish a two‑paragraph usage note in your main repos.
- Book a 30‑minute check‑in for December 3.
Here’s the thing: Copilot’s upside is real, especially in code review and large codebases. The premium request meter isn’t a reason to pull back; it’s the mechanism to direct investment to the work that benefits most. Use it deliberately, with clear defaults and small, visible caps, and your December invoice will look like a plan—not a surprise.
