GitHub has introduced the ability for enterprise admins to establish per-user AI credit budgets tied to specific cost centers. This approach ensures that every member within a cost center operates under the same spending limit, and the budget assignment adjusts dynamically as team rosters shift. When users join a cost center—either directly or via an enterprise team—they inherit its per-user budget. Similarly, departing members lose coverage under that budget. The feature eliminates the administrative burden of manually updating budgets whenever organizational changes occur or staff transitions between teams.

The capability provides administrators with finer control over how they allocate resources across departments with varying AI usage patterns. For instance, a platform engineering team could operate under a $250-per-user budget within its own cost center, while all other staff members remain subject to a $40 universal budget—all without requiring individual budget assignments for each person.

A cost center user-level budget tracks all AI credits consumed by members, encompassing both the included usage pool and any supplementary usage if that option is enabled. Because the budget monitors included usage, it can prevent spending before the pool is depleted and before any metered charges accrue. This differs from a standard cost center budget, which restricts only additional usage after the included pool runs out.

Budget precedence follows a hierarchy from most to least specific. An individual user-level budget supersedes a cost center user-level budget, which in turn supersedes the universal budget. As of June 30th, the REST API is the sole method for creating a cost center user-level budget. The GitHub billing interface will gain this functionality in the coming months.

Key details

  • Add enterprise teams or individual users to a cost center, then create a per-user budget scoped to that cost center via the REST API.
  • Membership stays in sync. As people join or leave the cost center or its enterprise team, budget coverage updates automatically.
  • Give different cost centers different per-user budgets to match how each team uses GitHub Copilot.
  • A cost center user-level budget overrides the universal budget for its members. An individual user-level budget override takes precedence over both.

Source: GitHub Blog