GitHub vs Magic — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
GitHub starts at $4/mo. Magic uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- GitHub (Per Seat) — GitHub bills on a fixed plan from $4/mo, so the listed price is what you pay regardless of volume.
- Magic (Per Usage) — Magic bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
The dominant developer platform (source control + code review + CI/CD + package registry), owned by Microsoft ($7.5B acquisition, 2018). Positioned as the alternative to GitLab and Bitbucket for the vast majority of open-source and enterprise software teams. Distinctive for its Copilot AI product ($10-$39/user/mo) that became Microsoft's fastest-growing AI SKU. Priced free (unlimited public + private repos) up to $21/user/mo Enterprise. Real cost bloat: GitHub Actions minutes and Copilot seats scale with team activity.
Frontier AI research lab building autonomous coding models with long-context capability (up to 100M tokens claimed). All pricing custom-quoted, enterprise-only. Partnered with Google Cloud for infrastructure. Focus on enterprise engineering teams that need agent capabilities with massive context windows. No self-serve.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | GitHub monthly | GitHub annual | Magic monthly | Magic annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Free / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Teams | Team / — | $4 | $4 | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | $21 | $21 | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
GitHub is worth it if… GitHub is still the default Git host in 2026 for any team that wants industry-standard PR workflows, code review, CI/CD (Actions), and native Copilot AI. Free for public repos; Team is the entry paid tier, Enterprise for larger orgs.
Magic is worth it if… Magic is only worth engaging with if you're a large engineering org that specifically needs an AI agent with a very long context window (repositories >1M lines, or complex multi-repo reasoning). The 100M-token context claim is the differentiator.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — GitHub is per seat, Magic is per usage.
Choose GitHub over Magic if…
Choose GitHub if…
- You want fixed-price predictability (per seat, from $4/mo).
- You match the profile GitHub is built for: still the default Git host in 2026 for any team that wants industry-standard PR workflows, code review, CI/CD (Actions), and native Copilot AI.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose Magic if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, custom pricing).
- You match the profile Magic is built for: only worth engaging with if you're a large engineering org that specifically needs an AI agent with a very long context window (repositories >1M lines, or complex multi-repo reasoning).
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| GitHub | Magic | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Entry price | $4/mo | Custom |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Per Seat | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 14, 2026 | — |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 14, 2026. Tracked daily.