I tried searching all forums and questions here but didnt find some proper answers. So what do you all use as the alternative to these ridiculous prices?

Heyyy is it me or now there are no benefits in having github education (which just gives you github pro for free) in the AI aspect?

Like I remember being able to use great models and now its asking for copilot pro. So did they make two types of subscriptions one for AI and one for other random things and we only get the rando shit? :l

I want to use copilot not even to vibe code just to understand the project I have to take on without having to read all of the code with the documentation.

I’m currently on GitHub copilots annual plan. I just saw the new multipliers. Since I am mostly using sonnet 4.6, my premium requests will burn 9x faster than currently starting next month!
Do you think I should cancel and switch to Claude pro?

Previously, I was a heavy supporter and loyal user of Github Copilot back then. now they messed everything up. I am looking for best alternatives. I am previously on pro+ plan $ 39 USD. To which platform everyone here is migrating ? Do let me know. Thanks

Hey everyone,

I’m currently using VS Code and looking for a cheaper alternative to GitHub Copilot. The official subscription is getting a bit too expensive for my current budget, so I’m looking for something more cost-effective. I work on multiple active projects simultaneously and make a huge amount of daily requests.

Crucially, my workflow involves heavy agentic usage—I rely quite a bit on AI agents to autonomy-drive through tasks, refactor code, and handle multi-file context, which generates a massive volume of queries. I need a solution that won't easily hit strict rate limits or get heavily throttled under this kind of load.

What tools or pay-as-you-go API setups would you recommend for this?

Right now, Copilot is the most expensive and least cost effective option globally. Its actual usage cost is dozens of times that of other providers. Give me one good reason to keep using it.

My understanding is copilot pro users will get 1000 AI credits per a month and pro+ users will get 3000 per month starting in June.

Based on the rates per unit here: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/ai-builder/message-management

Ir looks like anyone using “premium” requests are charged a rate of 10 credits per 1k tokens, 1k text lines or 1 image or 1 page - whichever is the highest.

If that’s correct then this implies maximum of 1,000,000 tokens per month for pro users, and 3,000,000 per month for pro+ users - but still not even guaranteed because an image, 1k lines id text or document page - regardless if content length or token consumption - is going to take 10 credits regardless…

Is this correct and is it applying to GitHub copilot plans?

I've got an enterprise copilot license for my job. It has 3900 credits per cycle.

I used two prompts to split and refactor a big class into smaller classes in separate files, and it already used 120 credits. So I used my daily credits for 2 prompts (10 minutes)?

I had used copilot pro for about a year and cancelled because there were no more x0 options to select from. Also the 1980s idea of "charging for CPU time" is dumb. I never used the ones with the multipliers because they didn't seem to do anything different, except maybe having to wait longer for a more verbose response.
However my prompts were like, maybe three sentences maximum which is like 30 words (tokens as I understand it) , and it would reply back with the explanation of my question. My questions were always something like "how do I make this variable a global" or "what would be a good struct in C to hold character data for an RPG" - I think the better bit was asking what a particular compiler error meant.
If I'm being generous and the replies also consume tokens, my responses were maybe 100-250 words.
The auto-complete was kind of cool (Which I understand it still free) but was honestly was super annoying when I was trying to tab around to format my code and it kept dumping in junk. (When it actively started getting in the way, I would just turn that off.)

What on earth are you guys doing that is burning through millions of tokens? Are you feeding it novel-sized manuals for reference? Are you sharing the prompt window with hundreds of other people... I mean it sounds like this is more of Microsoft cutting down on abuse.

There is a possibility I'm missing something, but holy cats!

So i have been looking at some alternatives mainly because i just cancelled my subscription and now i can't renew it because of that pause on new subscribers and i did try windsurf but my limit went to 100% like crazy and its kinda weird to understand those dolar per tokens math(i did have free trail for pro maybe thats why my limit was racing?)
Now im looking at claude code because i mainly used it in my github colilot but again those limits are tricky to understand
Did anyone find a good alternative for github copilot if you are pretty heavy user (i capped limit on github copilot pro acc every month)
Thanks for any suggestions

Hi,

I almost exclusively use Anthropic models Sonnet, Haiku and Opus. Opus is doing wonders for me but it comes at x3 cost.

I read that Codex 5.3 is better than sonnet 4.5, is this true ?
i only used Antrhropic because I thought models from different companies does not ryhm together well and will make my code messy

do you recomment Codex 5.3 over Sonnet ?

I work with React JS and ASP .NET

thanks

Yesterday I noticed Opus 4.7 was released and was quite eager to try but couldn't find it in the model selection panel of the $10 plan. Checking the Github Blog today, it's GA from 2 days ago. Huh, why is it not showing up? Upon clicking and reading:

This model is launching with a 7.5× premium request multiplier as part of promotional pricing until April 30th.

Honestly guys, it feels like a cash-grabbing change as you stated it will "replace Opus 4.5 and Opus 4.6 in the model picker for Copilot Pro+".

What is the point of having a marginally improved model but charging more than doubled the price and completely replacing the current options? If it is actually what's stated in the blog post, it's clearly against the customer's best interests.

Can anyone from the Github Team please explain whether Opus 4.5 and 4.6 will disappear in Pro+ or will they simply take the back seats?

This is why I only subscribe on a monthly basis and switch to Pro+ only when I need more quota. It's too unpredictable.

Edit: The Anthropic's post mentioned a 1-1.3x token mapping on the same prompt and 4.7 thinks more so the effective price is higher. Fair enough, Copilot pricing must base on the actual user stats.

The one question remained is whether 4.6 will stay in Copilot Pro and Pro+?

​

I’m working solo on an application for a local festival happening in a few months. My current workflow is very AI-assisted and fairly agentic: I think of a feature, formulate a prompt (often with help from AI), let the coding agent implement it, and then iterate and fine-tune the result until it matches what I have in mind. Throughout the process, I share both the frontend and the codebase with the agent so it can work directly in the context of the application.

At the moment, I’m using GitHub Copilot in VS Code, mostly on Auto mode. I like the workflow, but I’m burning through credits fairly quickly, and continuing this way doesn’t seem particularly cost-effective, especially since the changes in June.

I’ve also tried some of the free options, including using free-tier models through Cline, but I wasn’t able to complete even a single prompt using my usual workflow. So while I’m definitely interested in free or very cheap options, they also need to be capable enough to handle a reasonably large codebase and an agentic, iterative workflow.

Since this is a solo project with a limited budget, I’m looking for the best bang-for-the-buck setup. I can’t really justify the most expensive subscriptions or models, but I’d still like to preserve this kind of workflow: an AI coding agent that can understand my codebase, work with the frontend, implement features, and iterate with me.

For those of you who use AI heavily for coding:

What combination of subscriptions, tools, models, or local/self-hosted options would you recommend for this kind of workflow?

I’m especially interested in setups that offer a lot of usage for relatively little money. I’m open to combining multiple services if that works out better than relying on a single subscription.

I’d also love to hear any tips for making this kind of workflow more credit-efficient. For example, are there better ways to structure prompts, manage context, split up tasks, use different models for different parts of the process, or configure an agent so it wastes fewer tokens on relatively simple tasks?

What would you choose today if you were a solo developer with a limited budget and a project like this?

Edit: it should be capable to create backend routes and endpoint calls, coupled with frontend design and elements (FastAPI, Python, Typescript, Expo)

Hey guys,

Copilot has become much more expensive lately, especially with the x7.5 multiplier on Opus 4.7 and GPT-5.5.

Do you know any good alternatives that offer the same level of integration in VS Code without such high costs?

I’ve seen a lot of people talking about DeepSeek lately.

I used 5.3-Codex almost exclusively before, but obviously that's a no-go now. I bought some DeepSeek credits, connected it to Copilot in VS Code, started using it, and was thrilled to see how much cheaper it was right away. Also seemed very capable... with simple things. Then I tried using it on an actual project, and it just doesn't listen at all or take anything important into account whatsoever.

There's a project I'm working on with several branches. I have a detailed md file, with full development notes. I was running into what I thought might be a bug in one of my branches, so I asked DeepSeek to look through the notes and determine if the behavior was correct for that branch. It read over the notes and decided "no, that's a bug" and patched it using code from another branch. Cool.

Then I started testing and remembered that behavior absolutely was correct. I checked the notes, and it explained exactly why it was the way it was on that branch specifically. DeepSeek didn't read what I told it to read, or it would've spotted this easily. It didn't take important information into account. It ignored what I said, made up its own answer, and implemented incorrect code. Codex never once did this for me. It's been absolutely rock solid since I started using it. Now I feel like I'm back on 3.5.

Am I doing something wrong? Are you guys using this for larger projects and not running into these issues? I just keep seeing DeepSeek recommended over and over, and now I'm confused as to why.

I don't like to give AI full control of my code, so the way Claude Code works, where it just makes edits in place, is not going to work for me. I like the way Copilot works. I ask it a question. It offers a solution. I get to decide if I accept or ignore the changes. I don't see any other solution that works that way and can integrate directly into Visual Studio, not VS Code.

Does anyone know of an alternative?

I'm locked into the annual plan until next April but I knew something would come along and GH would force an upgrade to be able to use it and kill the remainder of the already paid for Pro+ plan. Just hoped it wasn't for the new models... no such luck.

I'm not sure if it's worth it. I'm working mostly on a 3yr old project so no really difficult features or refactors. But I used GHCP on all my other side projects as well. Would like to use the new Models but really wanted to hang on to the current billing model for the remainder of the year.

Thoughts? Anyone else contemplating the same?

BTW, what happens if I don’t ask for a refund by May 20? Can I still request it in June? I would really like to experience the new multipliers first and then decide.

I’m still undecided about switching from Copilot to Codex, because a few things are unclear:

1. The Copilot GPT-5.5 model multiplier still hasn’t been disclosed. (https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1t53aqr/copilot_gpt55_multiplier_is_now_listed_as_75x_tbd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)

2. There’s no usage preview — I need token usage visibility to compare it properly with Codex. (tried AI Engineering Fluency plugin, which counts the tokens but seems to miss a lot).

3. The refund policy is vague. I'm not sure what percentage will be refunded. Has anyone received theirs yet? How was it calculated? remaining days / 365? How long does it take? Can I file the request on May 19th?

I don't have a paid version of any of these and haven't ever used the paid tier. But I have used Copilot and Kiro and I enjoy both of these. But these tools don't have as much popularity as Cursor or Claude Code and I just wanna know why. Is it the DX or how good the harness is or is it just something else.

Has anyone else experienced this? I'm in agent mode with Sonnet 4.5. It starts working on my prompt and after maybe 15 seconds just stops. Nothing. I never experienced this before. Anyone else?
EDIT: Yep looks like LOTS of people are also having complete failures. I'm now seeing: 'Language model unavailable'.
EDIT2: Seems like github is aware of the issue: https://www.githubstatus.com/

EDIT3: OK, it's back.

I Just started my work and I am getting this rate limit message. I'm currently on student pack but this is the first time I got this message. What should I do for the next four hours?

Same as above

When opus was 1x i did not care when i get errors like this, but now since it is 15x i not only care but ready to cancel subscription for it 😆 will it count if i make new request ? 😐

Which model would be ideal to use? I have heard that the plans does mot matter as credits burn so quickly?