GitHub free for open source — what you get and how to apply

Free GitHub Copilot Pro subscription (the paid individual tier) for maintainers of popular open source repositories.

Eligibility: for the maintainer; public repo required; Must be a maintainer of a "popular" open source repository as determined by GitHub; no public threshold is published. Eligibility is re-evaluated by GitHub every month.

How to apply: No application form: check eligibility under profile menu > Copilot settings; access is granted automatically if you qualify.

last verified 2026-07-07

GitHub Actions, Packages and paid-tier features on public repositories

GitHub Actions CI/CD minutes and Packages storage are free for public repositories on all plans (private-repo quotas like 2,000 minutes/500MB on Free do not apply), and paid-tier features such as repository rules, code owners, draft pull requests, and multiple pull request assignees are available free on public repositories.

Eligibility: for the project; public repo required

How to apply: No application; benefits apply automatically to public repositories.

last verified 2026-07-06