GitHub Copilot - Understanding Budgets [AMER/EMEA]

This session helps customers confidently adopt usage-based billing in GitHub by showing how to plan, govern, and control spend using built-in budget capabilities. We walk through how usage-based billing translates into AI credit consumption, then connect that to a layered budget model spanning enterprise, cost center, and user-level controls. By the end, participants will understand how to set the right guardrails, monitor usage, and prevent runaway costs while still enabling teams to scale AI-powered workflows effectively. This session is appropriate for GitHub Copilot Administrators and development leaders. Models and pricing for GitHub Copilot - https://aka.ms/GHCP/models-pricing Chapters: 00:00 – Welcome & Session Overview Introduction to GitHub Copilot budgets and the session objectives. 00:14 – About the Host Meet Anna, Microsoft Reactor event producer from Redmond. 00:21 – Quick Housekeeping & Code of Conduct Community guidelines and engagement best practices. 00:48 – On-Demand Access Info Where to watch this session later. 01:04 – Meet the Speaker: Todd Toller Senior Cloud Solution Architect kicks off the discussion. 01:12 – Why Usage-Based Billing Matters How GitHub’s billing shift impacts budgeting and cost management. 02:04 – Session Agenda & Key Topics Budget planning, governance, and monitoring spend. 03:43 – The Move to Usage-Based Billing Background, key reasons for the change, and implications. 04:59 – What’s NOT Changing Pricing stability and core Copilot features that remain free. 06:22 – Big Change: AI Credits Explained What are AI credits, and how token-based billing works. 07:43 – Why Copilot Code Review Uses GitHub Actions Understanding co-pilot workflows and cost implications. 08:38 – Billing Timeline & Preview Window Deadlines, previews, and what goes live on June 1. 09:09 – Token Types Explained (Input, Output, Cache) How token categories impact billing and cost optimization. 10:15 – Most Expensive Tokens (And Why) Why output tokens matter most for your budget. 11:03 – Cache Tokens and Efficiency Gains How caching improves performance and reduces spend. 11:44 – Why Billing Shift Was Necessary Aligning cost with actual compute usage and flexibility for new AI features. 13:16 – Key Budgeting Considerations Setting enterprise, cost center, and user guardrails. 15:07 – Factors Driving Token Consumption Model choice, prompt size, response size, and context reuse. 18:19 – Agentic Workflows and Token Impact When AI agents increase spend and how to plan for it. 19:29 – Governance Framework Overview Why budgets are your guardrails in Copilot billing. 20:52 – AI Credit Pooling Explained How pooled entitlements work across teams. 22:53 – Enterprise-Level Budgets Setting global ceilings for additional spend. 23:36 – User Level Budgets (ULBs) Universal defaults vs. power-user overrides. 24:55 – Individual ULBs for Heavy Users Managing team outliers with custom limits. 26:25 – Budget Hierarchy in Action Enterprise, Cost Centers, Users explained. 28:02 – Budget Scenarios & Real-World Examples Practical applications for different organizations. 31:04 – Monitoring Usage & Spend What to check before June 1 and ongoing practices. 32:41 – Transition to New Billing UI How AI credits will show up in dashboards. 35:07 – Setting User-Level Budgets in Practice How to add guardrails for individuals. 36:36 – What Happens When a Budget Is Hit Warnings, blocking behavior, and admin overrides. 38:14 – Next Steps & Best Practices How to prepare for and optimize usage-based billing. 40:50 – Continuous Management Tips Why monitoring is not “set and forget.” 41:14 – Closing Summary & Questions Key takeaways before Q&A. 42:21 – Live Q&A Session Budgeting frameworks and real implementation questions. 54:42 – Final Remarks & What’s Next Join our next session on agent quality and token optimization. 55:08 – Feedback and Wrap-Up Survey link and closing thanks. #MSFTReactor #learnconnectbuild [eventID:27227]