Heck I use copilot at work and use M365 copilot chat for a lot of short things and small scripts and tools over credits in Github Copilot. At home I throw things things into copilot chat free, google AI, and more to avoid cost.

Then all the real AI work I'm using my local setup on dedicated hardware for large local models. I have usede my Copilot pr sub a few times this month to check work but it's either:

1. I ask about bugs and security fixes, glaring holes, and other checks before calling the work complete and posting a release to my persona github. 2% credit usage over 20 minutes and useful small changes. 2. I ask about information in a repo I'm using, like GUFO or Halogen-flash-next, and some key info. 35% of my monthly premium credits gone before the one chat completes.

How can 20 minutes on a whole custom project looking for bugs and issues use almost nothing, then a question about a repo eats 30%+? I don't even have budget to learn how I failed as 2 more tests and I'm burned on premium requests for the month (in minutes).

So I abuse the free options for everything I can. Draft scripts/sql/etc, stage prompts or handoff/etc files, ask questions or research something and pass on to vs code/copilot chat/etc like I run at work (with much more credits through the enterprise plan).