Pricing Overview

GitHub charges on a per seat, per product basis for GHE, GHAS and CoPilot. You can purchase credits upfront for consumption products. GitHub will apply bundled discounts when additional products and/or growth is baked in at time of purchase. GitHub is extremely strict with discounting and operates on an annual discounting review cycle.

• GitHub Enterprise (GHE): $252/User/Year, $250/User/Year for GHE Cloud. Low end discounting is 5-8%, high end discounting is 10-25%.  
  • Seats added mid-term are prorated from the negotiated annual seat price. Mid-term additions can be purchased in bundles of 10 seats.
• GitHub Advanced Security (GHAS): $588/User/Year. Low end discounting is 5-8%, high end discounting is 10-25%.
  • Seats added mid-term are prorated from the negotiated annual seat price. Mid-term additions can be purchased in bundles of 5 seats.
• CoPilot: $19/User/Month.
  • This product is currently offered on a Self-Serve model and GitHub does not have the ability to discount seats. Billing for CoPilot seats can be done through monthly invoices based on usage or funds can be pulled from the pre-paid metered billing pool. Discounting can be achieved through unlocking discounts on prepaid consumption minutes.
• Pre-Paid Metered Billing: For consumption-based products.
  • Customer can commit any amount upfront, but to unlock discounts GitHub sets spend thresholds: $25,000+, $100,000+, and $250,000+ is eligible for discounts of 3%, 5%, and 10%, respectively.
  • Spend for CoPilot and Actions can be pulled from this pool of funds. GitHub does not rollover unused credits from the pre-purchased allotment.

General Strategy

GitHub is extremely strict with discounting and operates on an annual discounting review cycle. Customer should expect GitHub to waive or reduce discounting at renewal as YoY discounting is not automatically honored. You should always push to maintain prior discounting and leverage any growth/product expansion to improve the discounting by 5-10% points.

• Evaluate Usage: Regularly review and adjust your license count based on actual usage to avoid overpaying.
  • Request usage reports from GitHub or use internal tools to determine the actual number of active users.
  • Consider rightsizing (reducing the number of licenses) if the current count exceeds the need, but be aware that this might affect your ability to negotiate discounts unless tactfully handled.
• Focus on Growth: GitHub responds positively to user growth and feature expansion. When negotiating, emphasize any increase in users or the addition of new features like GitHub Advanced Security or Co-Pilot.
  • During renewals, maintain or increase user counts to leverage previous discount levels or push for new ones. Plan to leverage growth based on your 1-4 month forecast to avoid paying for unused seats. If high growth is expected 4-9 months out, push GitHub to include pre-negotiated volume tiers.
    • GitHub does not recognize true-ups at renewal as growth that is eligible for additional incentives. Set the expectation that you plan to remove these users unless GitHub agrees to higher discounting.
  • For new purchases, assertively negotiate for discounts, aiming for 5-10% more than offered leveraging budget and the need to start the partnership on a good note.
    • If forecasting high growth 4-9 months out, push to include pre-determined volume discounting tiers.
• Strategic Product Upgrades and Bundling: Reps are incentivized with growth and product expansion. Upgrading tiers (e.g., from Teams to Enterprise) and bundling additional services can unlock significant discounts.
  • When upgrading, push for the highest possible discount, 25-30%; initial offers can often be increased with prompt agreement to terms.
  • Consider bundling services like GitHub Advanced Security with your main purchase to negotiate additional discounts on both services.
• Leverage your existing relationship with GitHub and budgetary pressures to secure better terms:
  • In scenarios without user growth or product expansion, push for a final discount as sales reps often have the authority to approve modest discounts without further approvals.
  • Use strategic relationships to maintain or increase discounts even when reducing license counts, emphasizing long-term partnership value over immediate cost savings.
• Capitalize on Timing and Prepayments: GitHub's willingness to offer discounts can be influenced by the timing of the deal and financial commitments.
  • Negotiate aggressively ahead of GitHub's fiscal quarter ends, particularly in Q4, to take advantage of their eagerness to close deals.
  • Offering to prepay for services can also lead to additional discounts. Discuss upfront payment for annual consumables to secure better rates.
• Threaten Use Case Reductions:
  • If GitHub does not respond to any negotiation attempts, you can lean into reevaluating the use case. Suggest you've been directed to perform an audit and will vastly reduce your GitHub footprint if they can't be flexible on pricing.
• Term Length:
  • GitHub will not present multiyear agreements as they prefer to maintain the ability to reevaluate discounting every year. If a strong discount is secured on a 12 month term, share that leadership's requirement is to proceed on a 2 year term. If denied, escalate to a legal or finance POC and/or leverage competitors in the space. This will lock in discounting and protect you from the yearly discount review.

Custom Strategies

Custom Strategy 1: Flat Renewal

Step 1: Evaluate Usage

• Always verify active usage to confirm if seat count is accurate or if any growth or reduction can be leveraged. Sometimes it makes more financial sense to reduce users and go back to list price than maintain seat count with a discount reduction.
• Evaluate if there is an opportunity to expand to GitHub Advanced Security or CoPilot. Reps can incentivize unit rates on a flat renewal if there is product expansion.

Step 2: Set Firm Budget Expectations

• Once seat count is firmly set and if no product expansion is available, anchor negotiations on a strict renewal budget, at least ~10% below list price X confirmed user count.
• Expect a few rounds of negotiating and create theater around budget pressure. It could be advantageous to loop in a member from finance to reiterate this message after 1-2 escalations.

Step 3: Threaten Use Case Reductions

• If GitHub does not respond to any negotiation attempts, you can lean into reevaluating the use case. Suggest you've been directed to perform an audit and will vastly reduce your GitHub footprint if they can't be flexible on pricing.

Step 4: Leverage Your Existing Relationship and Tie in a Signature Timeline

• If GitHub is not willing to honor previous discounts and seat rates are bumped back to list price, offer a quick time to signature to push for discounts. For flat renewals, a good discount threshold to aim for is typically between 3-8% depending on seat count. If prior discount levels were closer to 10-20%, tie the signature timeline to the high end discount.

Custom Strategy 2: Renewal with Growth

Step 1: Evaluate Usage

• Always verify active usage to confirm if seat count is accurate or if any growth or reduction can be leveraged.
• Request an initial renewal quote with the same seat count to confirm where GitHub’s starting offer will come in. Reps are incentivized by net new growth so be mindful that GitHub does not recognize account true-ups as real growth.

Step 2: Leverage Growth

• Understate growth plans when leveraging upfront seat additions and if GitHub pushes back on account true-ups, lean into budget.
• Evaluate if there is an opportunity to expand to GitHub Advanced Security or CoPilot. Reps can incentivize more when products are bundled at renewal.

Step 3: Set Firm Budget Expectations

• Once seat count is firmly set internally, anchor negotiations on a strict renewal budget. If no set budget, calculate the existing seats plus seat growth on a 15-20% seat discount rate.
• Expect a few rounds of negotiating and create theater around budget pressure. It could be advantageous to loop in a member from finance to reiterate this message after 1-2 escalations.

Step 4: Threaten Use Case Reductions:

• If GitHub does not respond to any negotiation attempts, you can lean into reevaluating the use case. Suggest you've been directed to perform an audit and will vastly reduce your GitHub footprint if they can't be flexible on pricing.

Step 5: Leverage Your Existing Relationship and Tie in a Signature Timeline

• If GitHub is not willing to increase discount levels with growth, offer a quick time to signature to push for high end discounting. Depending on the amount of growth offered upfront, look to increase GitHub’s offer by 5%.

Custom Strategy 3: New Purchase

Step 1: Confirm Scope and Understate Growth Plans

• Understate usage plans during scoping conversations and leverage a higher upfront user commitment during commercials conversations to increase discounting.
• Evaluate if there is an interest in GitHub’s additional service offerings such as Advanced Security, CoPilot or PrePaid Metered Billing. GitHub operates on a bundled pricing model so they will incentivize each product with discounts if included at time of purchase.  

Step 2: Set Firm Budget Expectations

• Once GitHub provides a first round discounting offer, leverage a strict budget to increase the overall discount by 5-10%.
• GitHub reevaluates discounting on an annual cycle so securing a strong initial discount will provide future leverage at time of renewal.

Step 3: Time to Signature

• Negotiate aggressively ahead of GitHub's fiscal quarter ends, particularly in Q4, to take advantage of their eagerness to close deals.
• Offer a quick time to signature to push for high end discounting. Depending on the amount of growth offered upfront, look to increase GitHub’s offer by 5%.

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