M$ is changing the billing model and /r/GithubCopilot isn't very happy about it.
This post is https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1tbfkui/ill_just_leave_this_here/ but there are a lot like it.
this post was submitted on 02 Jun 2026
127 points (99.2% liked)
technology
24389 readers
332 users here now
On the road to fully automated luxury gay space communism.
Spreading Linux propaganda since 2020
- Ways to run Microsoft/Adobe and more on Linux
- The Ultimate FOSS Guide For Android
- Great libre software on Windows
- Hey you, the lib still using Chrome. Read this post!
Rules:
- 1. Obviously abide by the sitewide code of conduct. Bigotry will be met with an immediate ban
- 2. This community is about technology. Offtopic is permitted as long as it is kept in the comment sections
- 3. Although this is not /c/libre, FOSS related posting is tolerated, and even welcome in the case of effort posts
- 4. We believe technology should be liberating. As such, avoid promoting proprietary and/or bourgeois technology
- 5. Explanatory posts to correct the potential mistakes a comrade made in a post of their own are allowed, as long as they remain respectful
- 6. No crypto (Bitcoin, NFT, etc.) speculation, unless it is purely informative and not too cringe
- 7. Absolutely no tech bro shit. If you have a good opinion of Silicon Valley billionaires please manifest yourself so we can ban you.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah it's often a hybrid of pay per use and monthly subscription.
The tokens often correspond to some kind of linguistic unit similar to but not quite a word. Copilot appearantly bills in credits not tokens so it's even more obscure.
Gotcha, okay. Yeah, the obscurity is the thing that was most immediate to me. Obfuscation of the costs is part of the business model I’m sure.
These costs are far less obfuscating. AI companies have been trying to hard to hide the true costs of computation for a long time, but the need to pay for what they're doing is catching up to them. They have been massively subsidizing all of their users by charging a flat fee and not making them pay for the actual computation costs.
Here's a great article about what's going on: https://www.wheresyoured.at/ais-economics-dont-make-sense/
Yeah, that’s kind of what I’m gathering is happening. The adoption phase of the business model is long gone and they are now trying to recoup and keep the whole thing afloat in spite of the how unsustainable it is.
I bookmarked that article, Ed is one of the writers I’m always meaning to check out.
And they are perfectly capable at charging fractions of cents for cloud compute so that excuse doesn't cut it. Definitely ment to obfuscate pricing.