Trying to switch to Azure metered billing

[aman-cuebo]

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Question

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I switched my account to use Azure Metered billing in August. Github is still trying to charge my credit card and the transaction keeps failing. This is now starting to affect my account.

I raised a ticket a week ago with Github but no response yet. Anyone knows how I can resolve this without having to pay every bill twice?

[aymansalkhatib]

This is usually caused by how GitHub splits charges between the two payment methods. Connecting an Azure subscription does not move everything to Azure:

• Azure only pays for metered (usage-based) charges — e.g. Actions minutes, Packages/storage, Codespaces, and other usage billed per month. (Connect an Azure subscription)
• Licenses / plan subscriptions stay on the card. GitHub's docs say it explicitly: "For unmanaged accounts, you might pay for volume licenses with a credit card or PayPal, and metered usage with an Azure Subscription ID." (Supported payment methods) So if your account has a paid plan (e.g. Team seats) or licenses bought with the card, those renewals will keep going to the card. Also, GitHub Copilot that was purchased with a credit card may not be switchable to Azure.

So most likely you're not paying the same bill twice — the card charge is for a different part of the bill than what Azure pays. Here's how to confirm and fix it:

1. Check what the failing card charge is for. Go to Billing and licensing → Overview / Payment history of the account that's being charged and open the latest receipt/invoice. If the line items are plan seats or licenses, that's expected to be on the card.
2. Make sure Azure is connected to the right account. The Azure subscription is connected per organization or enterprise — it's not available for personal accounts. If you connected it to an org but your personal account (or another org) has its own paid plan, that one keeps using the card. Each account has its own payment method and billing date (billing cycles).
3. Check the Azure subscription type. Free trial, Pay-As-You-Go and some other offer types can't be used for GitHub. If yours is one of them, the metered charges can't be billed to Azure.
4. Stop the account from being locked. Until it's sorted out, update the card (or pay the open balance) under Billing and licensing → Payment information (manage payment information) — a failed payment can lock paid features. If you were really charged twice for metered usage that Azure also billed, GitHub Support can refund it.
5. When contacting support, open the ticket from the account that is affected with the topic set to Billing at https://support.github.com/contact and include the invoice number + the Azure subscription ID. Billing tickets are handled by a separate team, so mentioning that your account is close to being locked usually helps get it prioritized.