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GitHub Copilot for Business: Licensing, Pricing, and Enterprise Controls

GitHub Copilot for Business Licensing, Pricing, and Enterprise Controls

GitHub Copilot for Business: Licensing

GitHub Copilot for Business is an AI pair-programming service tailored for enterprises, licensed at a flat $19 per user per month.

It provides development teams with AI-generated code suggestions while also offering CIOs and CTOs the administrative controls and security assurances necessary for corporate use.

This article examines the licensing model, enterprise features, pricing examples, and best practices for adopting GitHub Copilot for Business in a large organization.

Read Microsoft AI Licensing for Copilot and Azure OpenAI.

What is GitHub Copilot for Business?

GitHub Copilot for Business offers an AI-powered coding assistant with enterprise-ready licensing and controls. The Business plan allows companies to leverage AI suggestions across their development teams while maintaining administrative governance.

This offering extends the capabilities of the popular GitHub Copilot tool, aligning it with organizational needs for security, compliance, and centralized management.

GitHub Copilot for Business is essentially an enterprise-grade version of GitHub Copilot, the AI-powered coding assistant. It integrates into developers’ IDEs (e.g., VS Code, Visual Studio) and the command line, autocompleting code and offering suggestions using OpenAI models.

Unlike the individual Copilot ($10/month for personal use), the Business plan is designed for organizations, enabling centralized license management, organization-wide policy settings, and assurances around code privacy.

Launched in late 2022, Copilot for Business has seen rapid adoption by tens of thousands of organizations, indicating strong interest in AI developer tools among enterprises.

CIOs and CTOs view it as a way to boost developer productivity and innovation, while also addressing the governance and legal aspects of AI-generated code in a corporate setting.

Read Azure OpenAI GPT-4 Cost Strategy for CIOs.

GitHub Copilot Licensing Model and Pricing

GitHub Copilot for Business uses a simple per-user, per-month licensing model.

Every developer who uses Copilot needs a paid seat license, billed at USD 19 per user per month (billed monthly, with no long-term commitment by default).

This flat rate gives each user unlimited AI code completions and ongoing access to all Copilot features under the Business plan.

Billing is usage-based on seats: if a user is assigned a Copilot seat for any part of a month, the organization is charged $19 for that month.

Seats can be reallocated or removed at any time, providing flexibility to scale usage up or down as needed. Many enterprises tie Copilot licensing into their existing GitHub Enterprise agreements or Azure billing for convenience.

Copilot for Business is available to organizations on GitHub Enterprise Cloud (as an add-on) and can also be enabled for teams on GitHub’s lower-tier plans (GitHub Team or even Free) if they upgrade to Copilot.

Notably, suppose your company already uses GitHub Enterprise (which costs approximately $21 per user per month for the platform).

In that case, Copilot is an additional $19 on top, bringing the total cost to about $40 per developer per month for code hosting and AI assistance.

For a real-world pricing example, a team of 100 developers would cost $1,900 per month for Copilot for Business (about $22,800 per year) at list price. Enterprises often evaluate this cost against productivity gains (e.g., faster development cycles or reduced outsourcing).

Some large customers negotiate volume discounts or multi-year commitments through Microsoft or GitHub, especially when bundling Copilot seats into a broader Enterprise Agreement.

As an advisory note: treat the $19/user figure as a starting point – with high volumes, there may be room for negotiation on pricing or additional support.

Read Microsoft 365 Copilot Licensing Strategy for Enterprises.

Table 1 below outlines the Copilot licensing options available:

Copilot PlanCost (USD)Target AudienceKey Features
Copilot Individual$10 per user/monthSolo devs, individualsAI code completion in IDEs and editor. (No admin controls; personal use only)
Copilot for Business$19 per user/monthTeams & EnterprisesAll Individual features, plus enterprise license management, org-wide policy controls (e.g. block public code suggestions), privacy guarantees, support for corporate proxies/VPNs, and IP/legal indemnification.
Copilot Enterprise$39 per user/monthLarge Enterprises needing advanced AI featuresAll Business features, plus Copilot Chat with enterprise knowledgebase integration, documentation search, pull request summaries, advanced security controls, and custom model options. (Requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription.)

Table 1: GitHub Copilot Licensing Plans and Pricing (per user).

In most cases, Copilot for Business (the $19 plan) will be the preferred choice for organizations seeking the core Copilot capabilities with essential enterprise controls.

The higher Copilot Enterprise tier doubles the price but adds features like AI chat assistants tailored to your codebase – something to consider if those advanced capabilities align with your strategy.

For CIOs planning budgets, it’s essential to account for the costs of the GitHub platform and Copilot per developer. Additionally, anticipate that AI tooling may expand. GitHub is continually improving Copilot (e.g., the Copilot X initiative), so future enhancements could be introduced at a higher tier or as add-ons.

Enterprise Features and Controls

One of the primary reasons to choose Copilot for Business is the administrative and security controls it provides, in addition to its AI coding features.

In an enterprise environment, you need to manage who can use the tool, how it’s used, and ensure it doesn’t introduce compliance problems.

GitHub Copilot for Business offers several key enterprise-grade features:

  • Centralized License Management: Administrators can assign or revoke Copilot seats to developers via the GitHub Enterprise interface. This means you can purchase a pool of licenses and distribute them across teams, and manage all billing centrally. It simplifies tracking which users have access and allows you to easily reassign unused licenses to new team members.
  • Organization-Wide Policy Controls: Copilot for Business allows you to set policies at the organization or enterprise level. Most importantly, admins can enforce the “Public Code Filter” for all users. This filter blocks Copilot from suggesting any code that matches a known public repository snippet (above a certain length). Enforcing this ensures that developers don’t unknowingly receive suggestions lifted from open-source code that might carry license obligations. In the individual Copilot, a user could toggle this filter; in Business, the company can mandate it globally to reduce legal risk.
  • Privacy and Data Protection: GitHub has committed that with Copilot for Business, your code is not retained or used to train the AI model. All code snippets that Copilot sees from your developers’ IDE stay ephemeral – they won’t be stored by GitHub or shared. This addresses a major concern about cloud AI services (exposing proprietary code). The service does collect some telemetry (e.g., which suggestions are accepted or rejected) for product improvement, but this is usage metadata, not your actual code. Additionally, enterprise customers can opt to exclude certain repositories or files from Copilot’s access entirely if they contain highly sensitive code. Such content exclusion settings let you define boundaries on what Copilot can see.
  • Network & Access Controls: Copilot for Business is designed to operate seamlessly within corporate network environments. It supports use behind proxies or VPNs and can be configured to respect enterprise firewall rules. This “VPN support” ensures that developers connected to secure corporate networks can still use Copilot without issues. Access to Copilot can also be tied into your single sign-on, since it uses your GitHub Enterprise identities. If an employee leaves and their GitHub account is removed, their Copilot access is also automatically revoked.
  • Compliance and Auditability: All actions (like enabling/disabling Copilot for a user or policy changes) are logged via GitHub’s enterprise audit logs, helping you maintain compliance. While the Copilot suggestions themselves aren’t logged for privacy reasons, admins do have insight into license usage and can monitor overall adoption. Moreover, GitHub offers IP indemnification for Copilot for Business customers. In the product terms, GitHub will defend your company (up to $500,000) against legal claims if Copilot outputs infringing code, provided you follow the recommended settings (e.g., enabling the public code filter). This is a noteworthy benefit for risk-averse enterprises.

In summary, the Business plan balances giving developers powerful AI assistance with giving IT leaders control. You can control who uses it, what it can do (via filtering), and be assured your proprietary code stays in-house.

These controls make Copilot viable for companies in regulated or sensitive industries that could not tolerate a “black box” tool without oversight.

Always review the Copilot Product Terms and documentation to understand all available settings – for example, ensure your developers have the latest Copilot plugins and are authenticating with enterprise accounts to enforce these policies.

Benefits for Development Teams and Business

From a CIO/CTO perspective, the decision to invest in GitHub Copilot for Business will hinge on the value it delivers. Copilot aims to significantly improve developer productivity and code quality.

Potential benefits include:

  • Faster Development Cycles: Copilot can generate code suggestions instantly, which speeds up coding tasks. Developers spend less time writing boilerplate or googling syntax. Internal studies and early adopters have reported that Copilot can help write a substantial portion of code (some reports say 20-40% of code) and potentially cut development time by up to 50% on certain tasks. This means faster feature delivery and quicker project turnarounds.
  • Improved Developer Productivity & Focus: By handling repetitive code patterns and providing on-demand help, Copilot frees developers to focus on higher-level problem-solving. It reduces the “mental load” for programmers, enabling them to stay in a state of flow. This can lead to more innovative solutions, as engineers have more bandwidth to consider architecture and edge cases rather than boilerplate. Over weeks and months, these small efficiency gains add up to noticeable productivity improvements across the team.
  • Knowledge Sharing and Onboarding: Copilot has been described as an “AI pair programmer” – it leverages knowledge from numerous open-source repositories. For less experienced team members, it’s like having an expert at their side suggesting best practices. This can flatten the learning curve when adopting new languages or frameworks. New hires can ramp up faster by relying on Copilot’s suggestions, which often encode common patterns and standards. In effect, Copilot spreads knowledge of industry-wide coding idioms and your organization’s typical approaches (especially if it’s tuned to your codebase in the Enterprise version).
  • Consistency and Code Quality: When used properly, Copilot can help enforce consistent coding styles. It often suggests code that follows common conventions. Teams can integrate custom coding guidelines into Copilot’s training (in Copilot Enterprise, you can supply a knowledge base or guidelines). Even in the Business tier, since Copilot draws from a vast corpus, it usually adheres to widely accepted style patterns, which can complement your internal standards. The result can be more uniform code across different developers. Additionally, Copilot might suggest unit tests or edge-case handling that a developer might overlook, thereby improving robustness.
  • Developer Satisfaction and Innovation: Developers generally enjoy using Copilot – it’s a novel tool that makes coding feel faster and sometimes “magical.” Providing modern AI tools can boost morale and show that the company is investing in a cutting-edge developer experience. This can aid in retention and recruitment (top talent often seeks employers who provide the best tools). Furthermore, by automating mundane tasks, your engineers can spend more time on creative work, which may drive innovation in your products.

It’s important to set the right expectations: Copilot won’t replace developers, but it can make them more effective.

Think of it as augmenting your team’s capabilities. Over time, measuring key metrics (like commit throughput, lead time for changes, defect rates, etc.) before and after Copilot adoption can help quantify the ROI.

Many organizations report positive ROI when these productivity gains translate to faster product releases or lower engineering costs (e.g., being able to do more with the same number of developers).

Security, Compliance, and Risk Considerations

Adopting an AI code assistant in the enterprise does come with risks that must be managed.

Being a Microsoft licensing expert, I advise evaluating the following areas carefully and using Copilot’s features to mitigate them:

  • Intellectual Property (IP) and Open-Source License Risk: Copilot’s suggestions might sometimes resemble code from open-source projects (because the AI was trained on public code). This raises concern: could a developer inadvertently accept a GPL-licensed code snippet, for example, creating a compliance issue? GitHub addresses this issue via the Public Code Matching filter – by turning it on (and enforcing it in Business), you significantly reduce the likelihood of non-original code appearing in suggestions. Additionally, GitHub’s indemnification for Business users provides some legal protection in the event of a copyright claim. The best practice is to always enable the filter and have developers review any large snippet suggestions for originality. Treat Copilot’s output as you would any third-party code: with proper review and attribution if needed.
  • Code Quality and Security: Copilot can suggest insecure or suboptimal code because it doesn’t truly understand the intention – it’s pattern-based. Without care, a developer might introduce a vulnerability by blindly accepting a suggestion. Enterprises should mitigate this by enforcing code reviews for any AI-generated code. It may also help to pair Copilot with security scanning tools (like GitHub Advanced Security or static analysis) to catch issues in AI-written code. In training sessions, emphasize to developers that Copilot is a helper, not an authority – they must apply judgment. Some organizations create an internal “Copilot usage policy” with guidelines (e.g., “no Copilot-suggested code goes unreviewed” or “sensitive logic (crypto, auth) should not rely on AI suggestions”). By maintaining human oversight, you can enjoy productivity gains without compromising quality.
  • Data Privacy and Confidentiality: Since Copilot operates via the cloud, there’s an inherent concern about sensitive code leaving the developer’s environment. As noted, Copilot for Business promises not to store or reuse your code. Nonetheless, companies handling extremely sensitive data (e.g., proprietary algorithms or customer data in code) should double-check what information developers are feeding into prompts. For instance, if a dev writes a comment like “// connect to <password>” and Copilot gets that context, the password shouldn’t be in code in the first place. Encourage safe coding practices and, if necessary, limit Copilot usage in ultra-sensitive repositories. GitHub’s content exclusion feature allows you to mark certain code or files so that they are never sent to Copilot. Use these controls if required (for example, exclude a folder containing secrets or client code that shouldn’t even transiently be processed by an external service).
  • Regulatory Compliance: If you’re in a heavily regulated industry (finance, healthcare, government), consider any regulations around software development and data handling. Currently, AI coding assistants are relatively new, and regulations are sparse; however, general principles apply (e.g., ensuring software is secure, maintaining audit trails of changes, etc.). Copilot doesn’t produce audit logs of the code it suggests, so the traceability of why a particular piece of code was written might be reduced. Mitigate this by keeping good code review comments or commit messages when Copilot is used (“Implemented via Copilot suggestion, reviewed by X”). Ensure that using Copilot doesn’t violate any compliance rules regarding code provenance. Thus far, no major prohibitions exist, but transparency and oversight are key.

To summarize these points, Table 2 highlights common concerns and how GitHub Copilot for Business helps mitigate them:

Potential RiskMitigation with Copilot for Business
Unlicensed or copied code suggestions (legal/IP risk)Enforce Public Code Filter to block suggestions that match public source code. Review AI-generated code for originality. GitHub provides legal indemnification up to $500k for Copilot Business users, adding a safety net.
Insecure or poor-quality code (security risk)Maintain mandatory code reviews for Copilot contributions. Use automated security scanners on new code. Provide training so developers use Copilot carefully, especially for critical code.
Exposure of proprietary code (privacy risk)Rely on Copilot Business’s no-code-retention policy – your code isn’t stored by the service. Limit Copilot usage on highly sensitive code areas if needed. Use organization settings to exclude sensitive content from being sent to Copilot.
Compliance and audit (process risk)Leverage GitHub’s audit logs for admin actions. Implement internal guidelines for using AI assistance. Keep documentation of changes and ensure human accountability for all code commits.

Table 2: Key enterprise risks of AI coding tools and Copilot’s controls/mitigations.

The bottom line is that GitHub Copilot for Business can be used responsibly in an enterprise environment, provided that these risks are proactively addressed.

In practice, companies have reported manageable or minimal issues when they combine Copilot with strong engineering practices (code review, testing, compliance checks).

Engaging your legal and security teams early to establish boundaries will enable you to deploy Copilot with confidence.

Cost Management and Contract Considerations

As with any enterprise software, CIOs and CTOs should approach Copilot for Business from a total cost and contract strategy perspective.

Here are some considerations and tips:

  • Budgeting & License Utilization: Monitor the usage of your purchased Copilot seats to ensure they are being utilized effectively. GitHub Enterprise has features to identify inactive users (e.g., you can see which developers haven’t used Copilot recently). Reclaiming or reallocating those seats can optimize spend. Since billing is monthly, you have flexibility – you’re not stuck paying for a full year for a user who stops coding after a few months. Make it a practice to review license assignments on a quarterly basis.
  • Enterprise Agreement (EA) Integration: GitHub is owned by Microsoft, and Copilot can often be included in your Microsoft Enterprise Agreement as an add-on. If you’re already in licensing negotiations with Microsoft (for Office 365, Azure, GitHub Enterprise, etc.), bring Copilot into the discussion. Customers have achieved success in obtaining bundle discounts by committing to Copilot, along with other services. For example, if you plan to roll out Copilot to 500 or more developers, Microsoft may offer incentive pricing or additional support and training hours. Work with your procurement team and Microsoft account rep to explore an EA amendment that includes Copilot for Business – this can simplify vendor management and potentially yield cost savings.
  • Trial and Scale Approach: Before signing a big contract, consider a pilot program. GitHub offers a free 30-day trial for enterprise plans (which can include Copilot). You might start with a smaller group of, say, 20 developers for one or two months to gather data on how Copilot impacts their work. Use those results to build a business case. This phased approach not only validates the ROI but also gives you leverage when negotiating the full deployment (you’ll have internal success metrics to justify any volume commitment).
  • Contract Terms to Watch: If you do sign up for Copilot for Business in an enterprise contract, review terms around true-ups, renewals, and price locks. Ensure the price per user is locked for the term of the agreement to avoid surprises. Clarify how adding more users mid-term is handled (usually, you pay prorated amounts, as per standard GitHub billing). Also, confirm you have the right to reduce seats if needed at renewal. As AI tools continue to evolve, it is advisable to avoid overly long agreements that lack flexibility. A 1-year commitment with an option to extend might be safer than locking in 3 years upfront, unless significant discounts are offered.
  • Support and SLAs: Currently, Copilot is a cloud service and doesn’t come with a specific uptime SLA beyond GitHub’s standard. However, enterprise customers can purchase Premium Support directly from GitHub or Microsoft. If Copilot is becoming mission-critical in your dev process, investing in a support plan might be worthwhile. During negotiations, inquire about support coverage for Copilot (e.g., is there a dedicated support contact for AI services, response times, etc.) to ensure a seamless experience. This ensures that if there’s an outage or issue, your team can get help quickly.
  • Future-Proofing the Contract: AI Capabilities Will Expand – Microsoft has hinted that Copilot-like features (e.g., Microsoft 365 Copilot for Office) will be priced separately. In the context of GitHub Copilot, keep an eye on new feature releases. For instance, GitHub now has Copilot Enterprise ($39) with more advanced features (like Chat). If you suspect your organization will eventually want those, you might consider negotiating a clause to upgrade later at a predetermined rate or obtain trial access to new Copilot features. Protect your ability to take advantage of innovation without a whole new contract negotiation each time.

By treating Copilot for Business as a strategic investment, you can manage its costs and maximize value.

Many organizations find that the productivity gains outweigh the subscription fees; however, due diligence on licensing terms will ensure that you capture those benefits financially.

Remember that pricing models may evolve in this fast-moving AI domain – keep in touch with your vendor reps for any changes or opportunities to optimize your licensing.

Recommendations

In conclusion, GitHub Copilot for Business can be a powerful tool for enterprises if implemented thoughtfully.

Here are key recommendations for CIOs and CTOs considering or managing this service:

  • Start with a Pilot: Begin with a controlled rollout (e.g., a small team or project) to gauge the impact on productivity and code quality. Use the pilot data to inform broader deployment and justify the investment.
  • Enforce Policy Controls from Day 1: Enable the public code filtering and any relevant organization policies before developers start using Copilot. Set clear guidelines (in writing) on how Copilot should be used to avoid compliance issues.
  • Train and Communicate: Provide training sessions for developers on best practices with Copilot. Emphasize that it’s an assistant – developers must still review and validate all AI-generated code. Share success stories and tips internally to encourage proper use.
  • Monitor Usage and Effectiveness: Utilize GitHub’s admin dashboards and team feedback to track how Copilot is being utilized. Track metrics such as suggestion acceptance rates and reductions in development time. This will help you measure ROI and adjust license counts.
  • Integrate with Dev Processes: Incorporate Copilot into your SDLC thoughtfully. For instance, update your code review checklists to include reviewing AI-generated code. If using DevSecOps pipelines, continue running security scans on all code. Ensure Copilot doesn’t bypass any existing quality gates.
  • Review Licensing Periodically: Regularly review your Copilot seat allocation against the number of active users. Remove or reassign unused seats to optimize cost. As your organization grows (or if project priorities change), adjust the number of licenses – avoid “shelfware” subscriptions.
  • Negotiate Enterprise Terms: When purchasing at scale, engage in licensing negotiations. Leverage any Microsoft/GitHub enterprise relationships for possible discounts or added value (like training, support). Aim for contract flexibility in case your needs change as AI tools evolve.
  • Stay Updated on Features: Keep an eye on new Copilot features or tiers. GitHub is rapidly enhancing the platform (e.g., Copilot X, Copilot Enterprise with chat, etc.). Some improvements may require an upgrade or configuration change – plan ahead so your teams can benefit without delay if a new capability becomes available.
  • Address Developer Concerns: Be mindful that some developers might be skeptical or concerned (about AI taking over jobs or producing bad code). Address these openly – position Copilot as a tool to remove drudgery and support engineers, not replace them. Encourage feedback and make adjustments to policies if legitimate concerns arise (for example, if Copilot isn’t useful for a certain programming language or project, it might be okay to not force it there).
  • Document and Govern: Treat Copilot usage as part of your software development governance. Maintain documentation on the guidelines in place, the methods for mitigating IP risks, and the contact information for addressing any issues that may arise. This will help during audits or when you need to demonstrate due diligence to stakeholders (e.g., board, regulators, customers) regarding your use of AI in development.

By following these recommendations, you can harness GitHub Copilot for Business effectively while minimizing risks and surprises. The goal is to boost your development velocity and innovation within the guardrails appropriate for an enterprise environment.

FAQ

Q1: Is GitHub Copilot for Business worth the $19 per user per month cost?
A: It can be, if used widely and effectively. The value comes from developers coding faster and with fewer rote tasks. Many companies report that Copilot can save significant developer hours, which, when translated into salary costs or faster project delivery, exceeds the approximately $228 annual fee per developer. However, ROI depends on adoption. If only a few suggestions are used or if engineers don’t find it helpful, the value diminishes. We recommend piloting the tool to measure productivity gains. If each developer saves even 1-2 hours a week thanks to Copilot, the cost is likely justified in an enterprise setting. Consider also the indirect benefits, such as improved developer satisfaction and potentially higher code quality. When calculating “worth,” include those qualitative factors. In summary, for most engineering teams, the time savings and development acceleration are well worth the cost; however, you should validate this in your specific environment.

Q2: What do enterprise admins need to do to manage Copilot for Business?
A: Administering Copilot for Business is relatively straightforward. First, an enterprise owner needs to enable the Copilot for Business plan on the enterprise or organization account (this is done through GitHub Enterprise settings). Then, you’ll assign Copilot seats to the users or teams who should have access. Ongoing management tasks include monitoring usage (GitHub provides metrics on Copilot seat usage and can even remind inactive users), enforcing policies (like ensuring the public code filter remains on for compliance), and handling billing (the monthly true-up of active users). It’s also wise to gather feedback from developers – are there any inappropriate suggestions or issues? As an admin, you might need to adjust settings or provide additional guidance. Overall, it’s comparable to managing any other cloud service licenses, with the added aspect of setting coding policies. GitHub’s documentation provides step-by-step guides for all these admin tasks.

Q3: How does Copilot for Business handle our code and data – is it secure?
A: GitHub Copilot for Business is designed with enterprise security in mind. When a developer uses Copilot, the code context from their editor is sent to the Copilot service (hosted by GitHub and Microsoft) to generate suggestions. However, GitHub does not retain that code beyond the immediate request and response. In the Business tier, they also do not use your code snippets to train the AI model. This is a crucial assurance – essentially, your proprietary code won’t end up in some public dataset. Additionally, all communication is encrypted. From a network perspective, you can run Copilot behind your firewall or VPN, so traffic to the Copilot service can be controlled like any other API call. As for the suggestions themselves, they are generated on the fly and not stored by GitHub. Internally, you should treat Copilot’s output as you treat code written by an engineer – keep it in your private repos, covered by your access controls and security scans. In short, the service is as secure as using any cloud developer tool: the key is that no lasting data footprints of your code remain on the vendor side. Of course, ensure your developers use SSO and secure authentication for their GitHub accounts. And if you have extremely sensitive code that simply should never be sent outside, you might choose not to use Copilot on those particular projects (or use the content exclusion feature). But for the vast majority of code, Copilot Business provides a secure and private experience.

Q4: Do we need GitHub Enterprise to use Copilot for Business, or can we buy it standalone?
A: You can purchase Copilot for Business for your GitHub organizations without a full GitHub Enterprise license, but it’s often used in conjunction with GitHub Enterprise Cloud. Technically, Copilot for Business can be enabled on organizations even under the GitHub Team plan (and GitHub’s site indicates it can work for GitHub Free orgs too). That said, large companies typically already use GitHub Enterprise for advanced repository and security features; in those cases, Copilot is an add-on to that platform. If you are not on Enterprise Cloud, you can simply pay $19 per user through your GitHub billing. If you are on Enterprise Cloud, you’ll pay $19 per user in addition to the Enterprise user fee. For practical purposes, if you want the full range of enterprise capabilities (SSO, audit logs, GitHub Advanced Security, etc.), you’ll want GitHub Enterprise Cloud as your base, and then Copilot Business on top. There is also a higher tier called Copilot Enterprise at $39/user, which requires Enterprise Cloud and offers extra features (like AI chat based on your internal code). In summary, Copilot for Business itself doesn’t require the Enterprise plan for GitHub, but most mid-to-large companies will already be on the Enterprise Cloud for their source code hosting, and Copilot will seamlessly integrate into that environment.

Q5: What are some best practices to ensure Copilot is used responsibly in our dev teams?
A: To use Copilot responsibly, consider these best practices: (1) Educate your developers: Make sure everyone understands that Copilot’s suggestions may not always be perfect or compliant. Provide training on how to invoke Copilot, accept or reject suggestions, and double-check AI-written code. (2) Enable filters and settings: As mentioned, turn on the public code filter at the org level so that obvious license-bound code is filtered out. Also, encourage developers to use the “self vs. public” setting appropriately (Copilot can prioritize a user’s context more effectively). (3) Review code thoroughly: Maintain your normal peer review process (or even ramp it up for AI-suggested code). Perhaps tag PRs that have a lot of Copilot-generated code for an extra careful review. (4) Combine with testing: Require that any code written with Copilot still passes all tests and ideally includes new unit tests. Copilot can even help write tests – encourage devs to use it for that! (5) Monitor outcomes: Keep track of any incidents – e.g., if Copilot introduced a bug or a weird snippet, document it and share lessons learned. (6) Solicit feedback: Let developers share tips or concerns, maybe in an internal chat channel dedicated to Copilot users. This helps surface any misuse or areas where guidelines need to be tightened. (7) Stay updated on policy: As AI governance evolves, adjust your internal policies. Microsoft/GitHub occasionally updates their terms or adds new safety features – integrate those updates as they become available. By following these practices, you create a culture where Copilot is a boost to productivity, rather than a Wild West. Developers remain accountable for code quality, and the organization stays compliant while reaping the benefits of AI assistance.

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  • Fredrik Filipsson has 20 years of experience in Oracle license management, including nine years working at Oracle and 11 years as a consultant, assisting major global clients with complex Oracle licensing issues. Before his work in Oracle licensing, he gained valuable expertise in IBM, SAP, and Salesforce licensing through his time at IBM. In addition, Fredrik has played a leading role in AI initiatives and is a successful entrepreneur, co-founding Redress Compliance and several other companies.

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