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 to a decentralized AI compute network. Gonka is a network of 584 GPUs running on the PoUW consensus, where every computation simultaneously confirms a block and performs a real AI task. The project has attracted around $80M in investment, and CertiK conducted the security audit.

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

• Price: $0.0069 per million input tokens and $0.021 per million output tokens — prompt and completion are billed separately.
• Payment model: pay-as-you-go. You pay only for the tokens you send, with no monthly subscription and no caps on the number of premium requests.
• Getting started: 3M free tokens right at signup — enough to test on real tasks before your first top-up.
• Key: jg- format, created in your account dashboard in a minute.
• Top-up: with GNK crypto at no fee (0%), WGNK from Ethereum (1%), or USDT with a 5% fee.

Three frontier models with open weights are available, all at the same price of $0.0069 per million tokens:

• MiniMax M2.7 — a versatile model for code and long context, the gateway's default model.
• DeepSeek V4 Flash — one of the network's longest contexts (380K tokens), strong in agentic scenarios and cost-effective for large prompts.
• GLM-5.3 Flash — Z.ai's reasoning model: it thinks before answering, great where you need to untangle convoluted logic; it also has the network's longest context (390K tokens).

The main difference from Copilot is that these are open-source models you access directly with your own key, rather than through an intermediary with a request pool. There's no artificial "premium requests per month" cap: as long as you have tokens on your balance, the assistant runs at full power.

Let's compare direct costs at a typical volume. Take an active developer who uses an AI assistant all day: autocomplete, code chat, refactoring, agentic edits. Such a profile easily consumes 30—50 million tokens per month, and more in agentic scenarios. For context, note that the direct API prices of proprietary models 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 precisely 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 ~$0.0099 per million is about 72 cents. Even if usage grows tenfold, to hundreds of millions of tokens per month, the bill will remain within a few dollars. A subscription has a fixed fee, which is just the lower bound: it is added to by either extra payments for premium requests over the limit or a loss of quality when the pool is exhausted.

Important disclaimer: the models are different. Copilot gives access to proprietary GPT and Claude, Gonka to open-source MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V4 Flash, and GLM-5.3 Flash models. For most daily coding tasks, frontier-level open-source models provide a comparable result, but if a specific proprietary model is critical for your task, this is worth considering. The benefit of pay-as-you-go is not just in price, but in the absence of a ceiling: you won't be left without a powerful model in the middle of the month.

Switching does not require changing your workflow — the same editors and extensions, but instead of a Copilot subscription, you connect your own key. First, get the key, then configure the client.

Step 1. Get the key. Register at gate.joingonka.ai/register, get 3M free tokens, and create a jg- key in your account dashboard.

Step 2. Connect your editor. Most clients understand either the OpenAI-compatible format or the Anthropic-compatible one — 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. Go to Settings → Models, enable OpenAI API Key, enter https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1 in the Override Base URL field, insert your jg- key, and add the model MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.7. Detailed instructions are in the article on Cursor with Gonka.

Continue.dev. This is 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 is in the Continue.dev guide.

Cline. An AI agent for VS Code that autonomously edits files. In settings, select the OpenAI Compatible provider, use base URL https://gate.joingonka.ai/v1, the jg- key, and the MiniMaxAI/MiniMax-M2.7 model. Details are in the article on 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): from January 2026, any OpenAI-compatible provider can be connected, from June — directly within the Copilot app (public preview for all paid plans), and from 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 switcher next to the built-in ones, and usage will be charged at Gonka prices without consuming your premium Copilot limits.

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

Switching to your own key is worth it 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 usage, rather than a fixed fee with the risk of overage charges;
• frequently work in agentic modes (autonomous editing, multi-step tasks) which consume the premium limit the fastest;
• are satisfied with open-weights frontier models — MiniMax M2.7, DeepSeek V4 Flash, GLM-5.3 Flash;
• value the fact that one key works in multiple clients simultaneously — Cursor, Continue.dev, Cline, and does not need to be changed when switching editors.

Staying with Copilot makes sense if you:

• write code episodically and do not approach the limits — in that case, the $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 Copilot's deep native integration with the GitHub ecosystem and do not want to configure anything manually.

A sensible scenario is a hybrid one: keep the base subscription for native integration, and move heavy agentic tasks and experiments that burn tokens to your own jg- key. This way, you don't hit the limit in the middle of the month and pay mere cents for the volume. To estimate the order of magnitude for your profile, start with the free 3M tokens and check your actual weekly consumption.