Need guidance on how to onboard a customer to GitHub Copilot using their Azure subscription, including licensing, billing, and user assignment process

[errortax]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot in GitHub

Body

I’m trying to understand the correct onboarding process for a customer who wants to use GitHub Copilot through their Azure subscription.

Specifically:

1. If a customer already has an Azure subscription, what are the steps to provision or assign GitHub Copilot licenses to their users?
2. Can GitHub Copilot be purchased and managed directly through Azure, or does it still require setup through GitHub (e.g., GitHub Enterprise or organization-level billing)?
3. How does licensing assignment work in this scenario (Azure AD users vs GitHub accounts)?
4. Are there any prerequisites, integrations, or configuration steps required between Azure and GitHub before assigning licenses?

If available, I would greatly appreciate it if you could share any official documentation, step-by-step guides, or real-world implementation references or tutorials that explain the full process.

[Manoj7ar]

This is a solid breakdown. One practical detail worth adding for anyone planning rollout at scale:

For non-EMU orgs, seat assignment can also be managed more cleanly through team-based access inside GitHub instead of individual-by-individual assignment.

That makes onboarding easier when mapping internal departments (engineering, platform, data, etc.) to GitHub Copilot access.

So operationally the rollout tends to look like:

1. Connect billing (Azure Marketplace or linked Azure subscription)
2. Verify org/enterprise policy settings
3. Create/sync GitHub teams
4. Assign Copilot access at team scope
5. Users accept invitation and activate

One nuance that often surprises customers:

Azure billing ≠ identity federation.

A lot of teams assume “we pay via Azure, so Azure users automatically have Copilot access” — but unless they’re using Enterprise Managed Users, identity lifecycle and seat lifecycle remain GitHub-managed.

That distinction is usually the biggest onboarding friction point.

[Jamonygr]

A useful way to explain this to customers is to separate billing from administration.

If the customer wants to use their Azure subscription, that usually means Azure is being used as the payment method for eligible GitHub Enterprise billing. The actual Copilot setup still happens on the GitHub side, where the enterprise or organization enables the Copilot plan, assigns seats to users, and manages policies.

So I would first confirm whether the customer has a GitHub Enterprise or organization account that supports Azure billing. After that, connect the Azure subscription under the enterprise billing settings, enable the right Copilot plan, and assign the users from GitHub. The Azure portal is important for payment, but it is not normally where Copilot seats are assigned.

In short, Azure handles the billing relationship, while GitHub handles Copilot access, policy, and seat management.