Cheap alternative to GitHub Copilot without limits

GitHub Copilot operates on a subscription model rather than a usage-based one. The base rates are Copilot Pro at $10/month and Copilot Business at $19/month per seat. For a team of ten people, this is already $190 a month as a fixed expense that does not depend on actual workload.

The main limitation is not the subscription fee itself, but the access structure to the models. Copilot gives unlimited basic code completion, but requests to premium models (powerful versions of GPT and Claude, reasoning modes, agentic scenarios) are billed separately and limited by a monthly pool. When the premium request pool is exhausted, there are two options: wait for a reset at the beginning of the next month or pay extra for each additional request over the limit. For a developer who actively uses AI throughout the workday, such a ceiling is reached by the middle of the month.

The problem is exacerbated in agentic scenarios. When the assistant does not just complete a line, but reads several files, executes commands, and iteratively edits code, one such pass consumes dozens of times more requests than regular autocompletion. It is precisely the modes that provide the most value that hit the limit the fastest.

The subscription model is convenient for a predictable budget but hides the real cost: you pay a fixed amount without knowing in advance if the premium limit will last until the end of the month. Pay-as-you-go flips the logic—you pay exactly for what you used, and there is simply no ceiling on the number of requests. Read more about the prices of different providers in our overview of the cheapest AI API.

Instead of a subscription, you can use your own key for a decentralized AI compute network. Gonka is a network of over 4,500 GPUs running on PoUW consensus, where every computation simultaneously validates a block and performs a real AI task. The project has raised approximately $80M in investments and was security audited by CertiK.

JoinGonka Gateway is a gateway layer on top of the network that provides a standard API key and accepts requests in a familiar format. Key parameters:

• Price: $0.0032 per million input tokens and $0.0097 per million output tokens—prompt and completion are priced separately.
• Payment model: pay-as-you-go. You pay only for tokens sent, with no monthly subscription and no limits on the number of premium requests.
• Getting started: 10 million free tokens immediately upon registration—enough to test on real tasks before your first top-up.
• Key: jg- format, generated in your personal dashboard in a minute.
• Top-up: via GNK cryptocurrency with 0% commission or in USDT with a 5% commission.

Three frontier open-weights models are available, all at the same price of $0.0032 per million tokens:

• Kimi K2.6 — Moonshot AI's long-context model, performing well in agentic scenarios.
• MiniMax M2.7 — another option for code and long context.
• DeepSeek V4 Flash — the longest context in the network (380K tokens), cost-effective for large prompts.

The main difference from Copilot is that these are open-source models accessed directly via your key, rather than through an intermediary with a request pool. There is no artificial limit on "premium requests per month": as long as there are tokens on your balance, the assistant works at full capacity.

Let's compare direct costs for typical usage volumes. Consider an active developer using an AI assistant throughout the workday: autocompletion, code chat, refactoring, and agentic edits. Such a profile easily consumes 30–50 million tokens per month, or more in agentic scenarios. For context, proprietary model direct API prices are high: GPT-5.5 costs $5 per million input and $30 per million output tokens, Claude Opus 4.8 — $5 and $25 respectively. This is exactly why Copilot imposes limits on premium requests—each such request is genuinely expensive for the service itself.

Pay-as-you-go figures are calculated directly: 50 million tokens at an average rate of ~$0.0066 per million is about 48 cents. Even if the usage profile grows tenfold to hundreds of millions of tokens per month, the bill will remain within just a few dollars. A subscription has a fixed fee, which is only the floor: to that, one must add either extra charges for premium requests beyond the limit or the loss of quality when the pool is exhausted.

Important caveat: the models are different. Copilot provides access to proprietary GPT and Claude models, while Gonka provides access to open-source models like Kimi K2.6, MiniMax M2.7, and DeepSeek V4 Flash. For most daily coding tasks, frontier-level open-source models deliver comparable results, but if a specific proprietary model is critical for your task, that should be taken into account. The advantage of pay-as-you-go is not just the price, but the absence of a ceiling: you aren't left without a powerful model in the middle of the month.

Switching does not require changing your workflow — it uses the same editors and extensions, just connecting your key instead of a Copilot subscription. First, get a key, then configure the client.

Step 1. Get a key. Register at gate.joingonka.ai/register, get 10 million free tokens, and create a jg- key in your personal dashboard.

Step 2. Connect your editor. Most clients support either the OpenAI-compatible or Anthropic-compatible format — the Gateway supports both:

• OpenAI-compatible: base URL https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1, key jg-, model MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.7.
• Anthropic-compatible: environment variable ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://gate.joingonka.ai and the same jg- key.

Cursor. Open Settings → Models, enable OpenAI API Key, enter https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1 in the Override Base URL field, paste your jg- key, and add the MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.7 model. Detailed breakdown in the article about Cursor with Gonka.

Continue.dev. An open-source extension for VS Code and JetBrains, a direct competitor to Copilot. In the configuration, specify the openai provider, apiBase as https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1, and your jg- key. Step-by-step setup in the Continue.dev guide.

Cline. An AI agent for VS Code that edits files autonomously. In settings, select the OpenAI Compatible provider, base URL https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1, jg- key, and Kimi K2.6 model. Details in the article about Cline.

Step 3. Verify. Give the assistant a simple task — for example, writing a function or explaining a code snippet. If the response arrives, the switch is complete: you can cancel your Copilot subscription and continue working without limits.

2026 Update: you don't have to leave Copilot at all. GitHub added BYOK (bring your own key): since January 2026, any OpenAI-compatible provider can be connected; since June, it's available in the Copilot application itself (public preview for all paid plans); and since July, in the JetBrains version as well. Setup: Settings → Model Providers → add endpoint https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1 and jg-… key — network models will appear in the selector alongside the built-in ones, and usage will be billed at Gonka prices without consuming Copilot premium limits.

Pay-as-you-go is not always advantageous or suitable for everyone — the choice depends on how exactly you use AI in your workflow.

It is worth switching to your own API key if you:

• actively use AI throughout the workday and regularly hit the monthly limit for premium requests;
• want predictable costs that grow strictly in proportion to your usage, rather than a fixed fee with the risk of additional charges;
• frequently work in agent modes (autonomous editing, multi-step tasks) that consume the premium limit the fastest;
• are satisfied with frontier open-weight models like Kimi K2.6, MiniMax M2.7, and DeepSeek V4 Flash;
• value the fact that one key works across multiple clients — Cursor, Continue.dev, Cline — and you don't need to change it when switching editors.

It makes sense to stay with Copilot if you:

• write code occasionally and rarely approach the limits — then a $10 subscription is more than enough;
• are tied to a specific proprietary model like GPT or Claude for specialized tasks where that specific model is essential;
• value the deep native integration of Copilot with the GitHub ecosystem and do not want to configure anything manually.

A sensible scenario is a hybrid approach: keep the base subscription for native integration, while offloading heavy agent tasks and experiments that burn through tokens to your jg- key. This way, you don't hit limits in the middle of the month and only pay cents for the actual volume used. To estimate the numbers for your profile, start with the free 10 million tokens and check your actual usage over a week.