GitHub is arguably the largest platform for programmers to sync, share, and collaborate on code. Microsoft acquired the web-based platform in 2018 and has revolutionized it with nifty features designed to enhance its functionality, including the integration of Copilot.
GitHub Copilot has gained popularity among developers due to its unique user experience, which includes code suggestions, support for programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript, and autocompleting code. To that end, GitHub Copilot was previously limited to paid users, which can cost up to $39/month.
Microsoft recently introduced a new free tier for the service dubbed GitHub Copilot Free. The free plan offers more functionality to occasional users who might not need to leverage the service's capabilities regularly.
It's worth noting that the service's capabilities are fairly limited. For instance, the free plan (integrated into VS Code) allows access to 2,000 completions/month, 50 messages/month, Copilot Chat in GitHub, and Block suggestions matching public code. However, you need a GitHub account to access the free plan.
The free tier ships with access to Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet or OpenAI’s GPT-4o model, which can explain code or identify bugs. According to Microsoft:
"You can execute edits across multiple files. And you can access Copilot’s third-party agents or build your own extension."
Following the launch of the new free plan, Microsoft has indicated that the free access to unlimited Copilot Pro accounts for students, educators, and open-source maintainers will continue running as usual and will remain unaffected. Elsewhere, Microsoft announced that GitHub recently hit over 150 million developers.
