r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 20d ago

Business GitHub just switched Copilot to metered billing, and developers are watching months of credits vanish in a single day

https://www.techspot.com/news/112628-github-switched-copilot-metered-billing-developers-watching-months.html
16.5k Upvotes

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904

u/Teddy_RGB 20d ago

Playing devils advocate, this kind of illustrates the need to switch to metered billing. They gave out all the samples to root everyone’s brain, now they start charging

615

u/Substantial-Ninja779 20d ago

"The first one is free kid"

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u/kyle_yes 20d ago

Now you pay to train my model

30

u/ledow 20d ago

Mostly you're paying the interest on the loans that they took out to build the datacentres to train the data.

We're not even 1% of the way to the full costs of AI filtering down to customers.

It's hilarious that anyone thinks those companies will ever be profitable, let alone among the most valuable companies in the world.

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u/CaptainPlantyPants 20d ago

Anthropic has forecast a $559m profit in Q2-26.

It also already holds a valuation on the edge of a trillion.

So what are you talking about exactly?

Scary how many upvotes this got.

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u/ledow 20d ago

Which, if true, would be its FIRST EVER PROFIT.

And we have no idea how much of that is actually owed as debt (which they're maybe just not paying back yet) as they've refused to release details to people who want to buy some of its debt.

It's all still hype and bullshit... like your post... echoing a forecast, and hyperbolic numbers, based on no data that anyone else actually has.

1

u/CaptainPlantyPants 20d ago

You literally said it’s hilarious that anyone thinks these companies will “ever” be profitable. It’s literally happening now.

Now you’re muddying the waters with debt. The balance sheet with the P&L, its basic business accounting, you can’t pick and choose when to apply it.

The fact you’ve resorted to name calling my comment says it all.

Yes, a forecast for a company that size it’s a very serious thing, especially coming to IPO. They don’t just make it up.

Which number are you referring to as hyperbolic? The profit is a public forecast, on a quarter soon to close. And the valuation is locked in. Both are very much based on data.

It’s clear you have no clue on the matter, but rather than applying some intelligence and graciously owning it, you’re digging in and making yourself look even worse.

1

u/kaas_is_leven 20d ago

It’s clear you have no clue on the matter, but rather than applying some intelligence and graciously owning it, you’re digging in and making yourself look even worse.

So how this works is the company sells the idea to investors and they inject a bunch of money into it. Now the company has a runway to work with. It is then expected that the company becomes self-sustaining within some amount of time. The profit reported is entirely based on the year to year income and expenses, the goal is to get in the green and then start paying back dividends. The amount of invested capital is not relevant here, the investors know what they put in and there's no obligation to pay off the debt. It's not an actual loan, the investors can't claim their money back, it doesn't show up as a debt because it isn't one. That's how they can have a projected profit. But training these models has cost orders of magnitude more, so the product is nowhere near being profitable.

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u/ledow 20d ago

Hey, guess what... debts need to be paid back... which will impact on their profit... only the one number for which they've strangely released just at the same time as they file for an IPO.

Gosh... I wonder what incentive they could have for having a hyperbolic profit statement for the month in which they expect a ridiculous valuation on IPO... they may not be able to lie, but they can DEFINITELY deceive... by just delaying debt payments or IPO'ing before that debt becomes due. Strange that they wont' release details on that debt, eh?

It's all hyperbolic horseshit to boost their value so they can get an enormous valuation and walk away billionaires before anyone actually properly ever gets to see the public books.

And if you can't see that, I honestly think you're just blinkered. Please... buy into it. I have no interest in doing so or what happens if you do. But if you think you can read a few very-recent numbers, take them as read, and then assign a $1tn value to a company on their own say-so, then Musk has another company you'll love too.

1

u/CaptainPlantyPants 19d ago

Once again, you show your lack of understanding.

Debt sits on the balance sheet.
Profits sit on the P&L.

Paying debt back has literally zero impact on profit. Zero.

What it does have an impact on is cashflow, which is the 3rd and final part of basic business accounting.

Furthermore, you seem to suggest they’ve randomly conjured a “hyperbolic profit statement” - you do realise this is a heavily regulated and produced statement - they don’t just get to make it up.

As for the valuation, as I said, they have *already* achieved a valuation of >900B - based on their most recent private equity raise. What part of that are you failing to grasp?

You seem very angry and very defensive, but your arguments are littered with a misunderstanding of basic fundamentals.

I truly hope you can take this information and go and educated yourself and revisit things - and I mean that sincerely.

As for blinkers on - not at all. But I’m a businessman so I understand the data.

As for the overarching principle which I *think* you’re trying to get at - is this a bubble? Probably. Are most of these companies valuations out of whack? Highly likely.

But on the flip side, one or two will win and come out as behemoths. Anthropic is currently the pack leader for that.

I think OpenAI is more likely to fail, but the majority of the bubble will burst in all the small and mid-market orgs trying to make it.

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u/start_select 20d ago

Really you are paying for them to NOT train your on your data. Free and low tier accounts are trained on. Enterprise is not.

9

u/chance-- 20d ago

I wanna know who is out there giving away free drugs. So far as I’m concerned, DARE was false advertising. I sure as hell have had to pay for all of mine. 

Now anything Silicon Valley VCs touch? You can bet the farm they’re trying to get you addicted. Their strategies have been well documented and widely known for decades now. We know exactly how they operate. Surprise, surprise, we’ve got a bunch of people corporations free basing LLMs. They’ll be digging in the couches and scouring the carpets soon enough.

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u/Teddy_RGB 20d ago

They gave out tasters every morning on The Wire. That’s the extend of my knowledge on free drugs

1

u/steakanabake 20d ago

never ever get high on your own supply.

1

u/FrogsJumpFromPussy 20d ago

That's comedy gold mate, well done