Microsoft's GitHub shifts to metered AI billing amid cost crisis

The Register — Apr 28, 02:31 ★★★★★

Microsoft is ending the unlimited AI buffet on GitHub Copilot because the unit economics of selling compute-heavy models at flat rates doesn't work.

GitHub Copilot is shifting from unlimited access to metered billing; Microsoft previously offered all-you-can-eat AI as a bundled feature. The billing model now charges per inference token or per time unit, passing the variable cost of LLM inference directly to end users instead of absorbing it in a subscription.

Oliver's take: All-you-can-eat mode ends. GitHub users wanted free compute; Microsoft wanted margins. Metering wins. Every AI product that started with generous free tiers is heading here. The pretense is over.

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#Code generation #Microsoft #Enterprise #Inference

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