Github Enterprise Cloud / Github Copilot Enterprise

[murilo-gama-pc]

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Good morning,

I am part of the technology development department of an agricultural machinery company. In order to optimize our productivity, we are considering subscribing to the Copilot Enterprise plan; however, we have a question regarding the licensing system. We understand that to use Copilot Enterprise it is also necessary to have a GitHub Enterprise license. What we would like to know is whether we need to purchase one GitHub Enterprise license for each Copilot Enterprise license, or if it is possible to purchase a single GitHub Enterprise license for the department manager and multiple Copilot Enterprise licenses under that same GitHub Enterprise account.

[realsunil]

Hi @murilo-gama-pc 👋

Yes — GitHub Copilot Enterprise requires GitHub Enterprise Cloud, and licensing is per user.

✅ This means:

• Every person who will use Copilot Enterprise must also have a GitHub Enterprise Cloud seat
• So it’s 1 GitHub Enterprise seat + 1 Copilot Enterprise seat per user

❌ Not possible:

• You cannot buy only 1 GitHub Enterprise license for the manager and then assign multiple Copilot Enterprise licenses under that single Enterprise seat/account.

✅ Correct setup example (for a department):
If 15 developers want Copilot Enterprise:

• 15× GitHub Enterprise Cloud seats
• 15× Copilot Enterprise seats

📌 Extra note:
Copilot is managed at the organization/enterprise level, but usage still requires each user to have their own seat/license.

Hope this helps! 👍

[saitejabandaru-in]

For GitHub Copilot Enterprise, you do need to have a GitHub Enterprise Cloud organization — but the licensing for Copilot Enterprise is independent of the number of GitHub Enterprise Cloud seats you buy.

Here’s the structure:

1. GitHub Enterprise Cloud License
   • This is an org-level subscription that enables you to manage enterprise features (SAML SSO, SCIM provisioning, audit logs, compliance, etc.)
   • It is not tied 1:1 with Copilot Enterprise licenses.

2. Copilot Enterprise Licenses
   • These are assigned per user.
   • You only need Copilot Enterprise licenses for the users who will actually use Copilot features.
   • You do not need one Copilot seat for every Enterprise Cloud seat.

So:

✔ You can purchase 1 GitHub Enterprise Cloud subscription for your organization
✔ Then assign as many Copilot Enterprise seats as needed — only for your developers, not for every Enterprise Cloud user.

In short:

Copilot Enterprise seats are licensed independently of GitHub Enterprise Cloud seats.
This lets you scale Copilot usage without having to license GitHub Enterprise for all users.

If your company uses GitHub Enterprise Cloud for security and governance, you can still just enable Copilot for a subset of users.