GitHub Previews Copilot Billing and Chat Data Retention Changes Across Three Dates

On August 28, 2026, GitHub previewed three separate changes to Copilot policies and billing. Business and Enterprise seats will require upfront payment, and chat data retention moves from 28 days to the life of the account as Copilot Chat and the cloud agent converge.

GitHub-Copilot GitHub coding pricing privacy

On August 28, 2026, GitHub previewed “three separate, upcoming changes” to Copilot policies and billing¹.

Billing (from September 1): as sign-ups reopen for new Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise customers paying by credit card or PayPal, all new seat assignments will require payment for each seat before users gain Copilot access. Upfront charges reach existing customers on the same payment methods starting October 1, and GitHub states that prices are not changing¹
Chat convergence (no earlier than September 28): Copilot Chat on github.com, Copilot Chat in GitHub Mobile, and the Copilot cloud agent merge into a single experience. Copilot on github.com moves to the agent sessions experience, and chat data will be retained for the life of the account instead of 28 days. Opting out means losing Copilot on github.com and GitHub Mobile¹
Code review (from September 28): the default effort level for Copilot code review changes from Lite to Balanced, and keeping Lite requires selecting it explicitly beforehand¹

GitHub asks administrators to review the retention policy before September 28¹. For organizations managing Copilot, the effective dates are split across September 1, September 28, and October 1, so seat prepayment, chat data retention, and the review default each come with their own deadline to check.

Sources

Upcoming changes to GitHub Copilot policies and billing - GitHub official changelog (August 28, 2026)