A GitHub charge on your credit card is a payment to GitHub, the Microsoft-owned software development platform, and it usually traces to one of five things: a paid GitHub plan, a GitHub Copilot subscription, metered usage of services like Actions or Codespaces, a third-party app bought through the GitHub Marketplace, or a temporary authorization hold that has not yet cleared. The charge posts under the name “GitHub,” and the exact amount, date, and transaction ID are visible in the Billing & Licensing section of the account the payment method is attached to.1GitHub Docs. Troubleshooting a Declined Credit Card Charge
What the Charge Is Most Likely For
GitHub bills in three buckets: fixed-price plans, product subscriptions, and metered services. Matching the dollar amount on your statement to one of these is usually enough to identify the source.
A Paid Plan
The Team plan is $4 per user per month, and the Enterprise plan starts at $21 per user per month. The Free plan costs nothing.2GitHub. Pricing A charge that is a clean multiple of $4 or $21 typically points here.
GitHub Copilot
Copilot, GitHub’s AI coding assistant, has its own subscriptions. Copilot Pro is $10 per month and Copilot Pro+ is $39 per month for individuals.3GitHub. Copilot Plans Business is $19 per user per month and Enterprise is $39 per user per month. As of June 1, 2026, all Copilot plans use a usage-based model measured in GitHub AI Credits, where one credit equals $0.01 and each plan’s monthly fee includes a matching dollar amount in credits. Code completions and next-edit suggestions do not consume credits, but chat, agentic workflows, and code review do.4GitHub Blog. GitHub Copilot Is Moving to Usage-Based Billing If you set a pay-as-you-go budget after exhausting your included credits, additional charges within that budget can appear on top of the base subscription.5GitHub Docs. Usage-Based Billing for Individuals
Metered Usage
Several products bill on consumption after the free monthly allotment included with your plan runs out. GitHub Actions charges per compute minute, with free-tier accounts getting 2,000 minutes per month, Pro and Team 3,000, and Enterprise 50,000; overage rates vary by runner operating system.6GitHub Docs. About Billing for GitHub Actions GitHub Packages bills for data transfer and storage beyond the included quota.7GitHub Docs. GitHub Packages Billing Git Large File Storage bills for storage and bandwidth over included limits.8GitHub Blog. New Enterprise Accounts Have Metered Billing for Git LFS Codespaces, GitHub’s cloud development environments, run $0.18 per hour for compute and $0.07 per GB per month for storage.2GitHub. Pricing Metered charges are unpredictable by nature and are the most common reason for a GitHub amount that doesn’t match any subscription price.
Security Add-Ons
GitHub Secret Protection is $19 per active committer per month and GitHub Code Security is $30 per active committer per month, both available to Team subscribers since April 2025.9GitHub. Security Plans10GitHub Blog. Introducing GitHub Secret Protection and GitHub Code Security
A Marketplace App
Third-party apps bought through the GitHub Marketplace bill through GitHub’s own payment system, share the payment method on file, and appear on the same consolidated receipt as everything else.11GitHub Docs. GitHub Marketplace Apps Marketplace apps use free, flat-rate, or per-unit pricing, and paid plans include a 14-day free trial that auto-enrolls the account into the paid plan if not canceled.12GitHub Docs. Pricing Plans for GitHub Marketplace Apps An unfamiliar charge right after a trial ended is often a Marketplace app you forgot to cancel.
If the Charge Is Small or Pending
A tiny or unfamiliar amount that shows as pending may be a temporary authorization hold rather than a real payment. GitHub places these holds when a user starts a new subscription or trial, or after accruing metered usage of Actions, Packages, or Codespaces.13GitHub Blog. Temporary Authorization Holds on Metered Products The hold reverses once the bank authorizes the amount. If it persists longer than 10 business days, GitHub’s documentation directs you to contact your bank.14GitHub Docs. How Billing Works
How to Verify the Charge
Sign in to the GitHub account tied to that payment method and open the Billing & Licensing page. It shows the amount, billing date, transaction ID, and payment method for each charge.1GitHub Docs. Troubleshooting a Declined Credit Card Charge Past receipts and invoices download from the Payment History section.15GitHub Docs. Managing Your Payment and Billing Information The receipt itemizes which product or products the total covers, which is the fastest way to tell a Copilot fee from an Actions overage from a Marketplace subscription.
If more than one person in your household or company uses GitHub, the account behind the charge is not always obvious. GitHub accepts credit cards, PayPal, and Azure subscriptions, but not prepaid credit or debit cards.16GitHub Docs. Supported Payment Methods Check with anyone who might have used your card to set up an account, a Copilot trial, or a Marketplace app.
If You Don’t Recognize the Account at All
If no one you know has a GitHub account attached to the card, treat the charge as you would any other unrecognized transaction and contact your card issuer to dispute it. On the GitHub side, once you locate the account, removing the payment method while on a paid plan automatically cancels the subscription at the next renewal date.15GitHub Docs. Managing Your Payment and Billing Information
Preventing Future Surprise Charges
GitHub has a budgets and alerts system built specifically to stop unexpected metered charges. You can set a dollar-amount budget for any metered product, including Actions, Copilot AI credits, and Codespaces, and choose to have usage automatically stopped once the budget is reached. Email notifications go out at 75%, 90%, and 100% of the threshold, and separate alerts fire when a plan’s included free usage reaches 90% and 100%.17GitHub Docs. Budgets and Alerts Budgets can be scoped to an entire account, an organization, a specific repository, or an individual user.18GitHub Docs. Set Up Budgets For Copilot specifically, a preview bill feature launched in May 2026 lets subscribers project costs before they accrue.4GitHub Blog. GitHub Copilot Is Moving to Usage-Based Billing