How to Sign Up for GitHub Copilot (from Australia)
Status: 🟩 COMPLETE 🟦 LIVING Section: how-to Tags: github-copilot, developer, ai-coding, signup, walkthrough
What you’re doing
This guide walks you through signing up for GitHub Copilot — the AI code completion tool originally pioneered by GitHub and Microsoft. Copilot is the easiest entry point to AI-assisted coding for most developers, with strong integration into VS Code and JetBrains IDEs.
Special bonus: Free for verified students, teachers, and open-source maintainers.
Time: 10 minutes.
What you need
- A GitHub account (free if you don’t have one)
- VS Code, JetBrains IDE, Neovim, or Visual Studio installed
- Credit card or PayPal for paid plan (free if you qualify for free access)
Step-by-step
Step 1 — Check if you qualify for FREE GitHub Copilot
Free access is available for:
Verified students:
- Active student at a school/college/university
- Apply via GitHub Student Developer Pack: https://education.github.com/pack
- Requires school email or proof of enrolment
Verified teachers:
- Active teacher at a school/college/university
- Apply via GitHub Teacher Toolbox: https://education.github.com/teachers
- Requires teaching credentials verification
Open-source maintainers:
- Maintainer of a popular open-source project
- Apply via GitHub: https://docs.github.com/copilot/managing-paid-copilot-billing/about-billing-for-github-copilot
- Generally needs to be a regularly-active maintainer of a project with significant community
Free Copilot tier:
- GitHub now offers a free tier with limited usage (~50 chat messages, 2,000 code completions/month)
- Available without verification — just sign up
If you qualify for free access via student/teacher status: get verified first, then come back.
Step 2 — Sign in to GitHub
Open https://github.com → sign in (or create account).
Step 3 — Subscribe to Copilot
Go to https://github.com/features/copilot → Get Copilot.
Choose plan:
- Free — generous limits for casual use
- Pro — $10 USD/month — unlimited completions; better models
- Pro+ — $39 USD/month — even higher limits; premium features
- Business — $19 USD/user/month — for organisations
- Enterprise — $39 USD/user/month — full enterprise
For personal use: start with Free, upgrade to Pro if you hit limits.
Step 4 — Install in your editor
VS Code (most common)
- Open VS Code
- Extensions tab (Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+X)
- Search “GitHub Copilot”
- Install GitHub Copilot extension
- Also install GitHub Copilot Chat extension
- Sign in when prompted (uses your GitHub account)
JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, etc.)
- Settings/Preferences → Plugins
- Search “GitHub Copilot”
- Install
- Restart IDE
- Sign in via Settings → Tools → GitHub Copilot
Neovim
- Install via plugin manager (Packer, vim-plug, etc.)
- Plugin:
github/copilot.vim - Run
:Copilot setupand follow auth flow
Visual Studio (Microsoft, not VS Code)
- Extensions → Manage Extensions
- Search Copilot
- Install and restart
Step 5 — Try it
Create or open a code file. Start typing:
def calculate_average(numbers):Press Enter or pause; Copilot suggests a completion in light grey text. Press Tab to accept; Esc to dismiss.
You can also press Ctrl+Enter (or your IDE’s shortcut) to see multiple suggestions.
Copilot’s main features
Code completion (the original feature)
As you type, Copilot suggests completions:
- Whole lines
- Whole functions
- Entire blocks
- Test cases
- Documentation
Copilot Chat
Sidebar chat interface:
- Ask questions about your code
- Get explanations
- Request refactors
- Generate boilerplate
- Debug help
Copilot Edits (multi-file editing)
- Describe changes spanning multiple files
- Copilot proposes edits
- Review and accept changes
Copilot Workspace (paid tiers)
- Higher-level task planning
- AI agent for specific tasks
- Plan-then-execute workflow
@-mentions in chat
@workspace— questions about your whole codebase@vscode— VS Code-specific help@terminal— terminal command help- Each provider has slight variations
What it costs
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Students/teachers (verified); open-source maintainers; light users |
| Pro | $10 USD/month | Most active developers |
| Pro+ | $39 USD/month | Heavy users; access to premium models |
| Business | $19 USD/user/month | Teams; admin features |
| Enterprise | $39 USD/user/month | Large orgs; data privacy guarantees |
For Australian developers in USD: ~$15.50 AUD/month for Pro.
How GitHub Copilot compares to alternatives
| Tool | Best for | Free? |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | VS Code integration; broad IDE support; familiarity | Free if eligible |
| Cursor | Best AI-IDE experience; multi-file editing | Free tier; Pro $20 |
| Claude Code | Terminal-based; powerful agent mode | Via Claude Pro |
| Windsurf | IDE alternative to Cursor | Free tier; Pro $15 |
| Cline | Open-source; bring your own model | Free; you pay model API |
| Tabnine | Privacy-focused; on-prem option | Limited free |
| Codeium | Free for individuals | âś… Free |
| Amazon Q Developer | AWS integration | Free tier |
For most developers wanting to start: GitHub Copilot or Cursor are the obvious choices.
When to use Copilot vs Cursor
Choose Copilot if:
- You’re staying in VS Code (don’t want a new editor)
- You use JetBrains IDEs
- You’re a student/teacher (free!)
- You’re on a tight budget
- You want maximum ecosystem support
Choose Cursor if:
- You want the strongest AI features
- You’re OK switching editors (Cursor is VS Code-based but separate)
- You want best multi-file editing
- You want to choose your AI model
Many developers use both — Copilot for completions in their primary IDE; Cursor for AI-heavy refactoring sessions.
See cursor-vs-claude-code-vs-windsurf.
Configuration tips
Enable/disable Copilot per language
Settings: control which file types Copilot is active for
Public code matching
Important for compliance:
- Settings → Copilot → “Suggestions matching public code”
- Choose: block, allow, or warn
- For commercial work: typically block to avoid potential licence issues
Telemetry
- Decide what data Copilot shares
- Business/Enterprise plans have stronger privacy guarantees
Code completion vs Chat
- Both are useful for different things
- Tab completion for “I know what I want; just type it faster”
- Chat for “I need to understand or plan something”
Australian-specific notes
- Currency: Priced in USD
- GST: Charged on Australian customers
- Tax deduction: Generally deductible for developer income
- No data residency guarantees in standard plans; Enterprise has more options
- Australian Privacy Act: for business use processing personal info, review terms
Privacy considerations
What Copilot processes:
- Your code (context around where you’re typing)
- Your prompts in chat
- Possibly your IDE state
What happens to your code:
- Free/Pro: May be used for service improvement (check current terms)
- Business: Stronger guarantees; not used to train models
- Enterprise: Strongest guarantees; data residency options
For sensitive code:
- Use Business or Enterprise tier
- Or use Cursor with Privacy Mode
- Or use local AI (Continue.dev + Ollama)
- Or simply don’t paste sensitive code into AI tools
Common gotchas
- Tab completion can conflict with other extensions. Disable conflicting completions for AI to work well.
- Suggestions can be wrong. Always review code before accepting; AI confidence ≠correctness.
- Public code matching can be slow. Trade-off between safety and speed.
- Repository-specific patterns: Copilot may not match your project’s conventions. Provide examples in chat.
- Chat context window can fill up in long conversations. Start a new chat when context shifts.
- Free tier limits hit fast for active developers. Pro pays for itself quickly.
A note on AI-generated code in commercial projects
Several considerations:
Licensing
- Code AI generates is generally yours to use
- Some companies forbid AI-assisted code in proprietary projects (rare; check your employer)
- Open-source projects may have AI use policies
IP attribution
- Code Copilot generates may resemble public code in its training data
- Public code matching helps mitigate this
- For high-stakes IP work, additional review may be needed
Quality
- AI code requires testing same as human code
- Don’t assume AI-generated code is correct
- Code review still applies
Setting up for productivity
After initial setup, optimisations:
Keybindings
- Tab — accept full suggestion
- Esc — dismiss
- Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter) — see multiple suggestions
- Custom shortcut for Copilot Chat
VS Code workspace setup
- Open your project folder
- Let Copilot index for context-aware suggestions
- Use Copilot Chat with
@workspacefor codebase questions
Custom rules (Pro+ and similar)
- Add
.github/copilot-instructions.mdto your project - Provides project-specific context to Copilot
- Like custom instructions but for one repo
What to do next
- Verify free eligibility if applicable
- Sign up
- Install in your primary IDE
- Use for a week
- Evaluate value vs cost (or check if free is enough)
- Compare with Cursor or Claude Code if curious
See also
- github-copilot — full overview
- cursor — main alternative
- set-up-cursor — Cursor setup guide
- cursor-vs-claude-code-vs-windsurf — choosing
- set-up-claude-code — Claude Code setup
- get-an-anthropic-api-key — for alternative tools
Sources
- GitHub Copilot signup flow (tested June 2026)
- GitHub Education program
- GitHub Copilot Documentation: docs.github.com/copilot
- Pricing: github.com/features/copilot