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GitHub Copilot Just Got Expensive: Here’s What Smart ISVs Are Switching To in 2026

paxon

July 3, 2026

GitHub Copilot’s Token-Based Billing Backlash: What ISVs Should Do Instead

If you manage a 10-to-100 person engineering team, token-based billing is the kind of change that wrecks a budget quietly, then all at once. One month your AI coding spend looks harmless. The next, a few heavy users, a couple of large refactors, and suddenly finance is asking why developer tooling now behaves like an unbounded cloud bill. That’s exactly why GitHub Copilot’s pricing shift has landed so badly this week across TechCrunch, Techmeme, and Hacker News.