Look, I’m genuinely disappointed right now.
For those who might be new to this: VS Code is Microsoft’s free, massively popular code editor that millions of developers use every day. GitHub Copilot is the AI coding sidekick that lives inside it — it autocompletes code, answers questions in chat, runs agents, reviews pull requests, and basically feels like pair-programming with a super-smart (but sometimes expensive) robot.
I’ve been a die-hard VS Code + GitHub Copilot user for years. The main reason — honestly the only reason — I never jumped ship to anything else was the generous Premium Request Units (PRUs) on the $10/month Copilot Pro plan. I could hammer out scripts, automations, and weekend vibe coding projects without constantly watching the meter. That “set it and forget it” feeling was worth every penny.
Well, that generosity is officially dead.
As of April we already lost Claude Opus and GPT-5.5 on the regular Pro plan (they’re now locked behind the Copilot Pro+ plan at $39/month). And starting June 1, 2026, GitHub is ditching the whole PRU system for usage-based AI Credits. I’m a sysadmin who spends my days writing Bash, Python, PowerShell, Terraform, and Ansible stuff, plus weekend vibe coding projects. Here’s exactly what this double-whammy means for someone like me — and, honestly, for a lot of other developers too.
My Real-World April Usage (This Is Why I’m Grumpy)
Here’s what my breakdown looked like last month:
- ~389 premium requests (way over the old 300 limit)
- Heavy Auto mode usage (I leave it on 24/7 for the extra context on “my building”)
- Biggest consumers: GPT-5.3-Codex and Claude Sonnet 4.6
- Still squeezed in 9 requests on Claude Opus 4.6 before they yanked it
- Paid an extra ~$4.41 in overages
That extra spend came straight from the kind of work I actually do: debugging gnarly backup scripts, refactoring 400-line monsters, generating monitoring automations, and feeding entire repos into long agent sessions. The generous limits let me do that without thinking twice. Now? Not so much.
What’s Changing — And Why It Feels Like a Betrayal
| What I Care About | Old Pro (Until May 31) | New Pro (June 1 Onward) | How It Hits Me as a SysAdmin |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly price | $10 | Still $10 | No change — but the value dropped hard |
| Inline completions | Unlimited | Still unlimited (zero credits) | My daily bread-and-butter is safe |
| Auto mode | 10% discount + smart context | Smart context only — no discount | Same sessions now cost more |
| Premium models | Had Opus (used it) | Opus & GPT-5.5 gone — Pro-only list only | Noticeable quality drop on hard problems |
| Chat / Agents / CLI | 300 PRUs + soft overage | $10 AI Credits (token-based, no fallback) | I’ll hit the wall on long debugging sessions |
| Code review | PRUs | Credits + Actions minutes | Extra friction on weekend PRs |
The unlimited inline suggestions are still there (thank goodness), but everything that actually thinks — the Chat, the agents, the heavy lifting I rely on for real automations — now burns real tokens against a hard $10 credit bucket. No more generous buffer. Auto mode stays smart, but that sweet 10% discount I was getting? Gone.
What This Really Means for My Workflow (and Yours)
Daily scripting and automations I leave Auto on because it pulls in my full repo context and picks the right model. That used to feel generous. Now those same iterative “fix this error, add logging, make it idempotent” sessions will chew through credits faster. I can already see myself hitting the limit mid-month during a big migration or monitoring rollout.
Weekend vibe coding projects This is where it stings the most. My weekend vibe coding sessions — those chill, no-pressure personal projects where I just flow and build whatever I’m in the mood for — turn into long, exploratory agent sessions. Under the old system I could just keep going for hours. Now? Once those 1,000 credits are toast, Chat and agents just… stop. No more Sunday night “one more tweak” while I’m in the zone.
And it’s not just sysadmins like me. Web developers grinding on full-stack apps will feel it when their long refactoring chats run dry. Data scientists feeding notebooks into agents will hit the wall faster on complex analysis prompts. Even casual weekend hobbyists who used Copilot to learn or experiment will suddenly have to babysit a meter that never existed before.
You’re Not Alone — What Other Developers Are Saying
I’m clearly not alone in this frustration — and reading what everyone else is posting hits way too close to home. The backlash has been loud across Reddit, Hacker News, X, and GitHub discussions. A ton of power users, scripters, and weekend coders are echoing exactly what I’ve been feeling:
- “10$ in credits is litterally nothing compared to former 10$ subscription.” → Reddit comment in r/GithubCopilot
- “Honestly, Copilot was good mainly because of its business model…. Many users stayed with GitHub Copilot because it felt simple, predictable, and worth the price…. But if it moves strongly toward usage-based billing, then for sure many of us may need to look for alternatives.” → Reddit comment in r/GithubCopilot
- “You will get less, but pay the same price.” → Visual Studio Magazine article (widely quoted across discussions)
- “Something is hilariously off here: Why should I pay $10 and be forced to use it by the end of the month, while I can pay $10 and have it last as long as I want?” → Hacker News comment
- “The SaaS seat is dying. GitHub just filed the death certificate.” → X post by @XataAndCo
These comments hit me hard because they’re basically my own thoughts typed out by strangers. The generous request limits were the only reason a lot of us stayed loyal. Now it feels like GitHub looked at the heavy users and decided it was time to squeeze.
Final Thoughts: Time to Decide
Bottom line: the generous Copilot I signed up for is gone. For a sysadmin (and plenty of other devs) who relied on those unlimited-feeling advanced features, this change makes Pro feel noticeably smaller and more restrictive.
So what now?
- Stick with Pro and get disciplined about heavy sessions (watch the usage dashboard like a hawk).
- Upgrade to Pro+ ($39) if you want the premium models and credits back.
- Or start testing real alternatives like Cursor, Continue.dev, or even Claude + VS Code extensions to see if something else gives that old “set it and forget it” magic again.
June 1 is right around the corner. I’ll be watching for my early-May preview bill and will update here with the exact numbers.
If your days look like mine — constant infra scripts, the occasional overage, Auto as your default, and those precious weekend vibe coding sessions — you’re probably feeling the same frustration. Drop your usage numbers or what kind of work you do in the comments. I’ll share my preview bill numbers once they drop and we can commiserate (or rage) together.
The generous Copilot I signed up for? It’s not coming back. Time to decide if the new version still fits how I actually work.
— Erich, sysadmin who just wants to ship scripts and vibe-code without watching the meter
