How does upgrading affect the billing process?

When you upgrade the subscription for your personal account or organization, changes are applied immediately. When you downgrade your subscription, changes are applied at the end of your current billing cycle.

Changes to the subscription for your personal account or organization do not affect subscriptions or payments for other paid features such as Git Large File Storage or paid apps purchased in GitHub Marketplace.

For more information, see “GitHub’s billing plans” and “About billing on GitHub.”

Example of canceling a paid subscription for a personal account or organization

Kumiko pays for a monthly subscription on the 5th of every month. If Kumiko downgrades from the paid subscription to free on October 10th, her paid subscription will remain in effect until the end of her current billing cycle on November 4th. On November 5th, her account will move to free.

Example of changing from a yearly to a monthly subscription for a personal account or organization

Ravi pays for a yearly subscription on October 5th every year. If Ravi switches from a yearly to monthly billing on December 10th, his account remains on the yearly subscription until the end of its current billing cycle on October 4th the next year. On October 5th of the next year, Ravi will be charged for a month of service. His next billing date will be November 5th.

Example of adding paid seats to your organization

Mada’s organization pays for 25 seats on the 15th of every month. If Mada adds ten paid seats on June 4th, her organization is immediately charged a prorated amount for ten additional seats for the time between June 4th and June 14th, and the seats are available to use immediately. On June 15th, Mada’s organization will pay for 35 seats.

Example of removing paid seats from your organization

Stefan’s organization pays for 50 seats every year on May 20th. If Stefan removes 20 seats and downgrades to a new total of 30 paid seats on September 30, his organization can still access its 50 paid seats until the end of its current billing cycle on May 19th. On May 20th, the downgrade will take effect – Stefan’s organization will pay for 30 seats and will have access to 30 paid seats.

Further reading

• “Managing billing for your GitHub account”
• “Managing billing for GitHub Marketplace apps”
• “Managing billing for Git Large File Storage”
• “About per-user pricing”

 Photo by Jeff Sheldon on Unsplash