GitHub
The world's most widely adopted AI-powered developer platform
GitHub is a comprehensive development platform where millions of developers and businesses build software together. It combines AI-powered coding assistance through GitHub Copilot with code hosting, collaboration tools, CI/CD automation, and security features. Trusted by major enterprises like Mercedes-Benz, Duolingo, and Spotify, GitHub enables teams to write code faster, automate workflows, and ship secure software at scale.
How we scored it
A weighted average of the 6 dimensions below, each judged 0–10 from published pricing, vendor documentation and independent user feedback. We do not run hands-on tests, and no vendor has any say in a score.
What it actually costs
Intro pricing shown — see the renewal note for what you'll pay after the introductory term. We don't hide the second-act price.
Free
Listed as $0 per month forever (Free plan features listed on pricing page).
Pro
Vendor states GitHub Pro has a monthly price of $4 (personal account subscription).
Team
Shown as $4 USD per user/month for the first 12 months (introductory first-12-months wording appears on pricing page).
Enterprise
Shown as starting at $21 USD per user/month for the first 12 months (pricing page shows 'Starting at' and first-12-months wording).
What to check before you commit to GitHub
A tool is judged on what it costs once it is adopted, not what it costs to try. These are the four things that change that number.
The price once it is adopted
At $4 a seat, five people is $20 a month ($240 a year) and ten is $40 ($480 a year). Tools are bought one seat at a time and paid for by the dozen.
Where the usage ceiling sits
Credits, generations, exports and API calls are the lines that run out mid-month. Find what happens when you hit the cap — hard stop, throttle, or an overage rate you have not budgeted for.
What the free tier is really for
A free tier is an evaluation, not a plan. Check which limit you would hit first in real use, because that is the one that decides when you start paying.
Getting your work back out
Export formats decide how reversible this decision is. A tool that only exports to its own format costs more to leave than its price suggests.
These are the checks we apply across developer tools, in the same order, so two pages can be compared line for line.
How much does GitHub really cost?
Our calculation from the vendor's published prices — not a figure the vendor advertises.
The headline price is for one person. Adding people multiplies it, so a team of ten pays ten times the advertised figure. Free is a flat $0 tier; paid plans (Pro, Team, Enterprise) are charged per user and scale linearly with headcount; Team and Enterprise show introductory per-user monthly rates for the first 12 months.
| Team size | Per month | Per year | Over 3 years | How it is charged |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | $4 | $48 | $144 | $4 per seat per month |
| 5 people | $20 | $240 | $720 | $4 per seat per month |
| 10 people | $40 | $480 | $1,440 | $4 per seat per month |
| 50 people | $200 | $2,400 | $7,200 | $4 per seat per month |
Based on the Pro plan at $4 a month. Three years at the current monthly price. The vendor does not publish a renewal rate, so no increase is assumed.
- The vendor does not publish a renewal price, so three-year totals assume today's price holds.
- No annual price recorded, so annual figures are twelve times the monthly price.
Work out your own cost
- $4 per seat per month.
- No renewal increase is published, so today's price is held flat.
Features at a glance
Every meaningful capability, listed plainly. ✓ included, ✕ not included, or a specific value where it matters.
capability
technical
pricing
GitHub against the field
The highest-scoring alternatives in the same category, compared on the figures we hold for all of them.
| GitHubThis page | Supabase | Sentry | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ReviewCost score | 8.6/10 | 8.8/10 | 8.3/10 |
| Cheapest plan | Free | — | — |
| From | — | — | — |
| Renews at | Not published | Not published | Not published |
| Biggest strength | GitHub Copilot demonstrably accelerates development — customers like Duolingo report 25% speed gains and Mercado Libre cuts coding time by 50% | Postgres foundation means you're not locked into a proprietary database — you can self-host or migrate if needed | Mature, language-agnostic SDKs across PHP, JavaScript, Python, and 100+ frameworks with five-minute setup |
| Biggest drawback | Pricing can become punitive at scale — enterprise features and Copilot seats add up quickly for larger teams, making alternatives like GitLab worth evaluating | Dashboard can be overwhelming for developers new to Postgres — the SQL editor and migration tools assume some database literacy | Usage-based pricing model scales unpredictably; replay sessions count per browser tab, inflating costs 2-3x beyond estimates |
Prices are the published figures at the time of writing and change often. Renewal pricing is shown where the vendor publishes it. See how we review.
What people ask about GitHub
Straight answers to what buyers actually ask, drawn from the documentation and published user reports.
Is GitHub Copilot worth the extra cost?
Can I actually use GitHub as my only DevOps platform?
How hard is it to migrate away from GitHub later?
Is the free tier sufficient for small teams?
How does GitHub compare to GitLab or Bitbucket?
Page history
- Published
- 21 May 2026
- Last updated
- 1 October 2026
- Pricing checked against vendor
- 1 October 2026
Sources & verification
Pricing on this page was taken from the vendor's published pricing page on 1 October 2026.
- FAQ about changes to GitHub's plansOfficial documentation · GitHub Docs · read 1 October 2026
- Product usage included with each plan - GitHub DocsOfficial documentation · GitHub Docs · read 1 October 2026
- Pricing · Plans for every developer · GitHubOfficial pricing page · GitHub · read 1 October 2026