copilot-spend

Find out what your Copilot habit actually costs.

A small Python CLI that reads your GitHub Copilot quota and prints your current-period billing mode, quota bucket, and reset date. Works against both github.com and GitHub Enterprise hosts.

How it works

flowchart TD
    Start([copilot-spend ...]) --> Cmd{subcommand?}

    Cmd -- login --> Host[prompt: github.com or GHE host]
    Host --> DeviceCode[POST /login/device/code]
    DeviceCode --> ShowCode[show user code + verification URL]
    ShowCode --> Poll[poll /login/oauth/access_token]
    Poll -- access_denied / expired --> LoginFail[/exit 2: login failed/]
    Poll -- ghu_ token --> Verify[verify token works<br/>GET /copilot_internal/user]
    Verify -- fail --> LoginFail
    Verify -- ok --> WriteAuth[write auth.json 0o600]
    WriteAuth --> LoginDone[/exit 0/]

    Cmd -- logout --> DeleteFiles[delete auth.json]
    DeleteFiles --> LogoutDone[/exit 0/]

    Cmd -- bare --> Native{native<br/>~/.config/copilot-spend/auth.json?}
    Native -- yes --> NativeBearer[bearer = ghu_ token]
    Native -- no --> Opencode{opencode<br/>~/.local/share/opencode/auth.json?}
    Opencode -- yes --> OpencodeBearer[bearer = gho_ token]
    Opencode -- no --> NoCreds[/exit 2: run copilot-spend login/]
    NativeBearer --> Quota[GET /copilot_internal/user with Bearer]
    OpencodeBearer --> Quota
    Quota -- 200 --> Print[/print spend + reset date<br/>exit 0/]
    Quota -- 401 / 403 --> AuthErr[/exit 2: re-authenticate/]
    Quota -- 404 --> NoSub[/exit 4: no Copilot quota/]
    Quota -- 5xx / timeout --> ApiErr[/exit 3: API error/]

The bare copilot-spend invocation, expanded as numbered steps:

1. Resolves a GitHub Copilot token from the first source that exists, in this order:
   1. Native: ~/.config/copilot-spend/auth.json, created by running copilot-spend login.
   2. Opencode fallback: ~/.local/share/opencode/auth.json (keys github-copilot.access and github-copilot.enterpriseUrl), if opencode is installed.
2. Uses the resolved token directly as the Bearer for the next step. Both source kinds work the same way: native gives a ghu_… GitHub App user-to-server token, opencode gives a gho_… OAuth App token, and /copilot_internal/user accepts either one directly.
3. Calls GET /api/v3/copilot_internal/user on your GHE host, or GET https://api.github.com/copilot_internal/user if no enterprise host is configured.
4. Reads the billing mode. For legacy premium-request billing, computes the billable PRU overage. For token-based billing, reports the premium_interactions quota bucket as AI credits at $0.01 per credit.
5. Prints a plain-text summary on stdout.

No background daemon. No history. No session-token cache. One HTTP request per run.

Requirements

• Python 3.10 or newer
• macOS or Linux
• A GitHub Copilot token, obtained by either:
  • running copilot-spend login, or
  • having opencode installed and authenticated already

Install

# Option A: pipx (persistent, isolated)
pipx install copilot-spend

# Option B: pip (into your active environment or --user)
pip install copilot-spend

# Option C: uv tool (persistent, isolated)
uv tool install copilot-spend

# Option D: one-off run, no install
uvx copilot-spend
pipx run copilot-spend

Install from source

git clone https://github.com/nkootstra/copilot-spend.git
cd copilot-spend

pipx install .
# or:
uv tool install --from . copilot-spend
# or one-off:
uvx --from . copilot-spend

Usage

copilot-spend          # print current-period quota
copilot-spend --json   # same data as JSON (stable schema, jq-friendly)
copilot-spend whoami   # print active login, host, source, plan, and billing mode
copilot-spend login    # authenticate via GitHub OAuth device flow
copilot-spend logout   # remove copilot-spend's stored credentials

copilot-spend login prompts for github.com or a GHE host, shows a device code with a URL to visit, then polls until you complete the flow in your browser. The new token is verified against /copilot_internal/user before anything gets persisted. Credentials land in ~/.config/copilot-spend/auth.json (mode 0o600). If you already have opencode authenticated, the bare copilot-spend command continues to work without login.

Example output (under your allowance):

GitHub Copilot - your-login (business)
  Used:      221 PRUs
  Allowance: $12.00  (300 PRUs included)
  Remaining: $3.16  (79 PRUs of free allowance left)
  Resets:    May 31, 2026 (in 15 days)

Example output (token-based billing):

GitHub Copilot - your-login (business)
  Billing:   token-based
  Used:      154 AI credits
  Budget:    $50.00  (5000 AI credits)
  Remaining: $48.46  (4846 AI credits left)
  Resets:    Jul 01, 2026 (in 30 days)

Example output (token-based billing with unlimited legacy quota):

GitHub Copilot - your-login (enterprise)
  Billing:   token-based
  Used:      0 AI credits
  Budget:    unlimited
  Remaining: unlimited
  Overage:   enabled
  Resets:    Jul 01, 2026 (in 30 days)

Example output (over your allowance — billable overage):

GitHub Copilot - your-login (business)
  Used:      4073 PRUs
  Allowance: $12.00  (300 PRUs included)
  Billable:  $150.92  (3773 PRUs over allowance at $0.04/PRU)
  Resets:    Jun 01, 2026 (in 16 days)

Flags: --help, --version, --json. Subcommands: login, logout, whoami.

JSON output (stable schema, null fields included):

{
  "ai_credit_monthly_spend_available": null,
  "ai_credit_price_usd": null,
  "billable_ai_credits": null,
  "billable_prus": 3773,
  "billing_model": "premium_requests",
  "consumed_prus": 4073,
  "dollars_entitlement": 12.0,
  "dollars_free_remaining": 0.0,
  "dollars_owed": 150.92,
  "entitlement_prus": 300,
  "free_remaining_prus": 0,
  "included_ai_credits": null,
  "legacy_consumed_premium_interactions": null,
  "legacy_entitlement_premium_interactions": null,
  "legacy_has_quota": null,
  "legacy_overage_permitted": null,
  "legacy_overage_premium_interactions": null,
  "legacy_remaining_premium_interactions": null,
  "legacy_unlimited": null,
  "login": "your-login",
  "plan": "business",
  "pru_price_usd": 0.04,
  "remaining_ai_credits": null,
  "reset": "2026-06-01T00:00:00+00:00",
  "token_based_billing": false,
  "used_ai_credits": null
}

Environment variables

Exit codes

Switch to your own GitHub App

copilot-spend login runs the GitHub OAuth device flow against Microsoft's well-known VS Code Copilot GitHub App (Iv1.b507a08c87ecfe98). This is the same client ID used by every working third-party Copilot tool — copilot.vim, avante.nvim, LiteLLM, and others — because GitHub's session-token exchange endpoint (/copilot_internal/v2/token) only accepts tokens issued by a GitHub App, not by an OAuth App.

The trade-off: the GitHub consent screen during login says "GitHub for VS Code" rather than "copilot-spend", and you depend on Microsoft not rotating that app. To remove both, register your own GitHub App and swap the constant:

1. Visit https://github.com/settings/apps and click New GitHub App. This must be a GitHub App, not an OAuth App — OAuth Apps issue gho_… tokens that the Copilot exchange endpoint rejects with 404.
2. Set Homepage URL and Callback URL to anything (the device flow does not use them).
3. Enable Device flow under "Identifying and authorizing users".
4. Account permissions: none required beyond user identification. The read:user OAuth scope is enough.
5. Note the resulting Client ID (starts with Iv23 or Iv1.).
6. Replace the CLIENT_ID constant in src/copilot_spend/login.py with your new client ID.
7. Rebuild/reinstall (pipx install --force . or uv tool install --force --from . copilot-spend).

After the swap, the consent screen shows your app's name and your copilot-spend install no longer breaks if Microsoft rotates Iv1.b507a08c87ecfe98.

Caveats

• On token-based Copilot billing, GitHub still returns a legacy premium_interactions quota bucket from /copilot_internal/user. copilot-spend reports that bucket as AI credits and prices it at $0.01 per credit.
• GitHub's published token-based model bills additional usage in AI credits at per-token model rates. One AI credit is $0.01 USD; code completions and next edit suggestions are included and do not consume AI credits.
• Detailed monthly AI-credit usage breakdown is not available from /copilot_internal/user. GitHub's public enhanced-billing APIs may expose that data for some github.com org/user/enterprise scopes, but GitHub Enterprise hosts can return 404 for those endpoints. This CLI currently uses the internal endpoint so it continues to work against GHE.
• For legacy premium-request billing, the PRU price is hardcoded at $0.04 (correct as of 2026-05). Update the constant in src/copilot_spend/quota.py if GitHub changes it.
• v1 ships with VS Code's GitHub App ID Iv1.b507a08c87ecfe98 for the device flow. See "Switch to your own GitHub App" above to remove the dependency. The archived microsoft/vscode-copilot-chat repository has moved into microsoft/vscode under extensions/copilot.
• The legacy billing model assumed: the first entitlement PRUs each period are included with your plan, and anything beyond that is billable at $0.04 per PRU. This matches observed behavior on a business plan. Org-level caps or contracts may change what you actually pay — treat the Billable figure as a personal estimate, not an invoice.
• The reset-date field name in the Copilot API response is best-effort: copilot-spend tries the field names observed on a real response, plus a few defensive fallbacks, and prints next reset: unknown if none match. Adjust RESET_FIELD_CANDIDATES in quota.py if your response uses a different name.
• The /copilot_internal/user endpoint is not a public, documented API. GitHub may change its shape at any time.

Development

python -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install -e ".[dev]"
.venv/bin/pytest