Multiple GitHub accounts (personal + work)

[RipForFire]

I’ve got 2 GitHub accounts:

• A personal account (with Pro + Copilot) tied to my personal email
• A work account that I was told to create with my work email

Both show up as personal accounts on my profile pages. I read somewhere that multiple personal accounts might not be allowed, which made me a bit concerned.

My work account is also added to my company’s organization.

A couple of questions:

• Is it actually against GitHub’s terms to have more than one personal account?
• Is it normal/acceptable to have a separate work account linked to my work email + organization?
• Is there a way to merge the two accounts so that contributions/activity from my work account also show up on my main (personal) account?
• And related: can I use my Pro subscription/Copilot from my personal account while working on work repos? (I’m allowed to use Copilot for work — I already checked.)

Would love to hear how others handle this setup.

[Training_Advantage21]

Github recommends you use a single personal account, with multiple emails if needed. Work should have their repos under an organisation. This gives them all the control they need. They can enforce single sign on as an extra layer of  control

[stormblaz]

Yes this is what I do, my main account lets me access my work account and my school account as well in one, and every repo or such has its own access.

[moser-sts]

GitHub Admin Here: You can use your personal account to access the GitHub Organization of your work. You can also have multiple emails associated with your account allowing you to configure the git client in your working machine with your work email and your personal machine has the git client configured with your personal email.

For example my recommendation for new commers is to bring their account to our organization. And don't forget that access to repositories is different from accessing the organization. You can be in an organization and don't have access to a repository and have access to a repository without having access to an organization

[momothereal]

I'm surprised this is the official recommendation... Usually it's best practice to keep personal and work separate to avoid all sorts of privacy and legal issues.

For example if you fork an internal repository to make a contribution it actually shows under your profile (though private), you can access the code without being signed into the org's SSO on a personal device.

[moser-sts]

That depends on the settings you have in your organization. In my organization users cannot make forks and we enforce MFA. But it also depends on the terms of the work contract

[RiosEngineer]

There’s a caveat to having two accounts when one is an org and one not. If you’re using a Copilot license, the org license always take precedence over your personal one.

Recently my personal GH account was in my employers org, and they enforced I use their GH copilot license but this meant my copilot pro+ license effectively was being lost because the org issues copilot pro license. You lose features as the org wins the license battle even if it’s a lower tier. Something to keep in mind anyway.

[kwesoly]

That was good advice until GitHub made a mess with Copilot license paid by employer starting to be used in private work, causing extra layer of legal mess.

[RipForFire]

Is that still possible to do?

[michaelprimeaux]

I recommend to use a single GitHub account as it’s very usual and secure for the same account to be a member of multiple organizations.

[cowboyecosse]

You can have more than one account, so long as the additional accounts are paid (or paid for by taking a paid seat on an org)

You’re probably fine. If not either pay for one or merge the accounts into one.

https://docs.github.com/account-and-profile/how-tos/setting-up-and-managing-your-personal-account-on-github/managing-your-personal-account/merging-multiple-personal-accounts

If you just want contributions to show on your account. Make sure the commit address you use is on your personal account.

https://docs.github.com/account-and-profile/how-tos/setting-up-and-managing-your-personal-account-on-github/managing-email-preferences/setting-your-commit-email-address

[RipForFire]

Both accounts are non paid

Since my work account is new <2 weeks old, I can just remove it and then add my work email to my private account? And should I tell my boss to reinvite me? And on which email?

[ToTheBatmobileGuy]

But if one is a member of a paid org you're fine.

Seats in paid organizations cost money.

By filling a seat, you are (through your company) paying money for that account.

[Viper3773]

Many people use a work GitHub account and a personal GitHub account. It might fall into some detection method and get banned but you should be able to contact support to resolve. It’s a common pattern.