# How GitHub billing works

Learn what you'll be charged for, when charges occur, and how to track your usage on GitHub to avoid billing surprises.

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Audience: All users
JTBD: When I decide I want to pay for increased access, I need to understand what and how GitHub will charge me, so that I feel confident that I have been billed correctly and don't get any surprises. -->

## What GitHub charges for

You can use GitHub without incurring any costs. If you choose a paid plan, subscribe to a paid product, or use more than the allowance included in your plan for a billed product, then you will need to pay GitHub for your usage.

* **GitHub plans**: A fixed monthly cost for a paid GitHub account (for example: GitHub Pro or GitHub Team) or Copilot plan.
* **Subscriptions**: Fixed monthly costs for any additional products you subscribe to (for example: GitHub Secret Protection)
* **Metered usage**: Variable costs that depend on how much you use certain features above the amounts included with your GitHub plan (for example: GitHub Actions). For more information see, [Product usage included with each plan](/en/billing/reference/product-usage-included) and [Budgets and alerts](/en/billing/concepts/budgets-and-alerts).

> \[!TIP]
> GitHub has discounted plans for verified students and academic faculties, and for non-profit organizations. For more information, see [Discounted plans for GitHub accounts](/en/billing/managing-the-plan-for-your-github-account/discounted-plans-for-github-accounts).

## How does billing work?

GitHub bills you separately for each account you own (personal, organization, or enterprise). Each account has a separate:

* Billing date
* Billing period for GitHub plans
* Payment method of credit card, PayPal, or a connected Azure subscription
* Receipt

If required, GitHub Enterprise Cloud accounts can request a purchase order by contacting their account manager in [GitHub's Sales team](https://github.com/enterprise/contact).

## When will I be charged?

Each account has a **billing date** and a **billing cycle**.

For **personal and organization accounts** set up for credit card and PayPal payments, the **billing date** is typically the day you started a paid plan (not necessarily when the account was created). For example, if you started a paid plan on the 15th of a month, you will be billed on the 15th of each subsequent month. For payments using an Azure subscription ID, the billing date is available in the Azure commerce portal.

For **enterprise accounts**, your **billing date** will vary. See [Billing cycles](/en/billing/concepts/billing-cycles).

Most users pay for GitHub using metered billing. The **billing cycle** for all metered products is a fixed period from the first day to the last day of the month.

### Authorization holds

You may see an authorization hold on your provided payment method upon initiating a subscription or trial. Depending on your bank or card issuer, this may result in the appearance of a transaction or charge.

Authorization holds are temporary and released as quickly as possible. If the authorization hold persists for longer than 10 business days, we suggest reaching out to your bank or card issuer.

If the authorization is unsuccessful, the chosen service will not be activated and the account may be locked. For more more information, see [Unlocking a locked account](/en/billing/how-tos/troubleshooting/locked-account#unlocking-an-accounts-features-due-to-a-failed-authorization-hold).

## How do I see what I'm billed for?

You can see the billing and usage information for your account at anytime in the "Billing and licensing" pages of your account or using the REST API. For more information, see [Viewing your usage of metered products and licenses](/en/billing/how-tos/products/view-product-use).

## Next steps

* [Types of GitHub accounts](/en/get-started/learning-about-github/types-of-github-accounts)
* [Managing your payment and billing information](/en/billing/managing-your-billing/managing-your-payment-and-billing-information)
* [Setting up budgets to control spending on metered products](/en/billing/tutorials/set-up-budgets)
* [Adding a sales tax certificate](/en/billing/how-tos/set-up-payment/add-sales-tax-certificate)