# About GitHub Copilot

Understand how GitHub Copilot helps you ship software faster, how it works, and how to get access.

GitHub Copilot is an AI assistant that helps you write, understand, and ship software. It suggests code as you type, answers questions about a codebase, reviews your changes, and works on tasks you assign it.

Because Copilot is built into GitHub, it works within the development workflow you already use:

* Your code and its history.
* The issues and pull requests you already use to track work.
* The automations you run in your repository.

A change can start as an issue, be picked up by an agent, return as a pull request, get reviewed for quality and security, and be merged.

You and Copilot work on it in the same place, with the same context, instead of moving code into separate tools and back again.

## How Copilot works

Copilot's capabilities and supporting features fall into four categories:

**Assistive.** Copilot responds while you work, suggesting code, answering questions, or explaining code. You review and apply each suggestion.

**Agentic.** You describe a goal, and Copilot can work through multiple steps. It researches a repository, proposes a plan, edits files, reviews pull requests, runs tools, and prepares tasks for your review. You remain responsible for reviewing and approving.

**Customizations.** You customize Copilot's responses with instructions, reusable prompts, repository context, external tools, agent skills, and custom agents. When Copilot understands your project's structure, conventions, and tooling, it gives you better responses.

**External AI agents, models, and tools.** Coding agents, models, and tools, including MCP servers from other providers, work alongside Copilot. Third-party coding agents work asynchronously on development tasks and can make changes and open or update pull requests for your review. They are subject to the same security protections, mitigations, and limitations as Copilot.

## What you can do with Copilot

Copilot helps you throughout the software development lifecycle. For example:

* **Understand code** by asking questions about files, repositories, and development concepts.
* **Plan and implement tasks** with an agent that can research a repository, make changes, and prepare a pull request for your review.
* **Customize responses** with instructions, reusable prompts, repository context, tools, and specialized agents.
* **Write code** with inline suggestions and natural-language prompts.
* **Build applications** from natural-language descriptions.
* **Change code** by asking Copilot to edit, refactor, or fix code.
* **Review code** and pull requests, including summaries and suggestions for potential improvements.

The capabilities available to you depend on your Copilot plan, the client you use, and your organization's policies.

## Get access

You can start using Copilot in several ways, depending on your role and needs.

### Individuals

* **Try Copilot for free.** Use [Copilot Free](https://github.com/copilot?ref_product=copilot\&ref_plan=free\&ref_style=text\&ref_type=engagement) to explore core features with no paid plan required.
* **Subscribe to a paid plan.** Upgrade to a paid plan for access to premium features, increased access to models, and a higher monthly allowance of AI credits. See [开始使用GitHub Copilot计划](/zh/copilot/how-tos/manage-your-account/get-started-with-a-copilot-plan) for more information.
* **Get free access if you're eligible.** Students, teachers, and open source maintainers may qualify for access to premium features at no cost. See [以学生身份免费访问GitHub Copilot](/zh/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/set-up-copilot/enable-copilot/set-up-for-students) and [作为教师或开源维护者免费访问Copilot Pro](/zh/copilot/how-tos/copilot-on-github/set-up-copilot/enable-copilot/set-up-for-teachers-and-os-maintainers).

### Members of an organization

* **Request access from your organization.** If your organization or enterprise has a GitHub Copilot plan, go to <https://github.com/settings/copilot> and request access under "Get Copilot from an organization."

### Organization and enterprise owners

\*\*
GitHub Free 或 GitHub Team 上的组织\*\*所有者可以为其组织购买Copilot Business。
[
Copilot Business订阅](https://github.com/github-copilot/purchase?ref_product=copilot\&ref_type=purchase\&ref_style=button\&ref_plan=business) 。

如果组织归具有 Copilot 订阅的企业所有，可以要求企业所有者为组织启用 Copilot 。 请转到<https://github.com/settings/copilot>，在“从组织获取Copilot”下请求访问权限。

**企业所有者**可为其企业设置Copilot Business或Copilot Enterprise。

* 如果要通过信用卡或PayPal付款， [请在此处订阅](https://github.com/github-copilot/purchase?ref_product=copilot\&ref_type=purchase\&ref_style=button)。

  > \[!NOTE] 如果你当前正在试用 GitHub Enterprise Cloud，则必须转换为付费企业，然后才能购买 GitHub Copilot。

* 对于其他付款方式， [请联系 GitHub销售团队](https://github.com/enterprise/contact?ref_product=copilot\&ref_type=engagement\&ref_style=text)。

## Control for organizations and enterprises

If you use Copilot through an organization or enterprise, administrators decide how it can be used. They control which members have access, set policies for which features are available, exclude files that Copilot shouldn't see, and review usage data and audit logs to understand how it's being used.

These settings help administrators manage Copilot across the environments and features available to their organization or enterprise. Some settings and controls depend on the Copilot plan and the client where Copilot is used. See [为你的团队管理 GitHub Copilot](/zh/copilot/how-tos/administer-copilot).

## Next steps

* Start using Copilot. See [设置 GitHub Copilot](/zh/copilot/how-tos/set-up).
* View the Copilot features available to you by navigating to your Copilot settings at [https://github.com/settings/copilot/features](https://github.com/settings/copilot/features?ref_product=copilot\&ref_type=engagement\&ref_style=text).