Claude Sonnet 4.6 is so much better than GPT-5 mini that I figured I'd look up how much it'd cost to swap. Right now, for $10 a month, GitHub Copilot will let you use GPT-5 mini forever, no limit. Sonnet, however, was sucking down my monthly allocation of "premium requests" so fast (it's the end of the month, so I usually splurge on the model) I was scared to look at what it'd cost.

Well be even more scared. Come June 1st, everyone gets to pay no matter which model you use. No more infinite GPT mini. And Sonnet's multiplier is jumping from 1x to 9x!!

Look, there's also something on the page about going "from request-based billing to usage-based billing". I don't think this model multiplier multiplier [sic] is effected by that distinction, however. Maybe? I think it's the same charges as now, just 9x as quick. Looks like I get 300 credits now and could get five times as many for $40. That's still not much, and I just use Copilot to pair program sometimes. Well, daily, but not agentic. Five times more and nine times as fast equals lots more than $40 a month.

I'd predicted prices for AI assisted coding would go waaaaay up soon. Well, I was right, though now, wondering how long this page about charges changing has existed, I might should've know a month ago it wasn't really a prediction.

Starting April 20, 2026, new sign-ups for Copilot Pro, Copilot Pro+, and student plans are temporarily paused.

Oh. Oh wow. We're in trouble.

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