Selected models in GitHub Copilot deprecated

GitHub deprecated a set of models across all of its Copilot experiences on October 2, 2026, drawing a firm line under older AI options that had been available in the platform. The change touches Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask mode, agent mode, and code completions — essentially every surface where Copilot surfaces a language model to a developer.

This piece covers what the deprecation means in practice, how teams using the affected models should respond, and where to look for a stable replacement workflow. It is aimed at developers and platform engineers who have Copilot integrated into daily coding or have scripts and extensions that reference a specific model by name.

What Selected models in GitHub Copilot deprecated shipped

GitHub retired a set of previously available models from all Copilot interfaces effective October 2, 2026. The deprecation spans every Copilot mode — Chat, inline edits, ask, agent, and code completions — meaning no surface in the product continues to serve the removed models. When a model is deprecated in Copilot, existing references to it stop resolving; the platform does not silently fall back without user action, so developers who have pinned a specific model by name will encounter broken behavior until they update their configuration.

Deprecations of this kind typically follow a period of reduced investment in a model generation after newer, more capable alternatives ship. GitHub has not published a transition timeline beyond the October 2 effective date, which means the change is live for all Copilot plans simultaneously rather than being rolled out progressively. Individuals and enterprise admins alike need to treat the removal as immediate.

What changed for builders in Selected models in GitHub Copilot

The immediate technical consequence is that any editor configuration, API call, or enterprise policy that references a deprecated model by its identifier will stop working. Copilot Chat requests that name a retired model return an error or fall through to a default, depending on the client version, rather than completing silently. Teams that rely on deterministic model selection for consistency — such as those running Copilot in agent mode for automated pull-request reviews — are most exposed.

Because the source announcement does not publish specific before-and-after capability benchmarks for the deprecated versus recommended models, the table below captures the scope of affected Copilot surfaces rather than performance figures. Builders should verify their specific replacement against GitHub's current model picker for quantitative comparisons.

How to install or upgrade Selected models in GitHub Copilot deprecated

No CLI install is required for this change — Copilot model selection is managed inside the editor or through the Copilot policy API. In Visual Studio Code, open the Copilot Chat panel, click the model picker at the top of the chat window, and select an active model from the list. The deprecated models will no longer appear there; only supported models are shown once the deprecation takes effect.

For teams using the GitHub Copilot API directly or configuring models through enterprise policies, update the model field in your request body or policy JSON to a currently supported model identifier. GitHub's Copilot model documentation lists available identifiers. If your team has a .github/copilot-instructions.md or a Copilot extension that hard-codes a model name, search that file for the deprecated identifier and replace it. No package update or version bump is needed on the Copilot extension itself — the change is server-side.

Gotchas and compatibility in Selected models in GitHub Copilot

The most common failure mode after a deprecation like this is silent degradation in agent-mode workflows. If Copilot agent mode is configured to use a specific model by name and that model is now gone, the agent run may error out or produce output from an unexpected fallback model without a clear error message in the pull-request log. Teams should run a test agent invocation after switching to a replacement model to confirm the new model identifier is being honoured end to end.

Enterprise administrators who manage Copilot model access through GitHub organization policies need to audit any allowlists or denylist entries that reference the deprecated model identifiers. A model that no longer exists in the platform can leave a stale entry in policy configuration that is harmless today but could cause confusion when reading audit logs or when new models with similar names are introduced later. Remove deprecated identifiers from policy configurations as part of the migration.

What to watch after Selected models in GitHub Copilot deprecated

GitHub's model picker in Copilot Chat is the most reliable signal for which models remain in active support. Any model visible there is currently maintained; models not visible have either been deprecated or were never available on the active plan. Developers who need longer-term model stability should monitor the GitHub Changelog for deprecation notices, which tend to follow a pattern aligned with major model generation cycles.

The broader trend is GitHub consolidating Copilot around a smaller set of well-supported models rather than offering a wide catalogue with uneven maintenance. Future deprecation notices will likely follow the same pattern — an effective date with no extended run-out period — so teams with hard-coded model references in scripts, CI pipelines, or editor dotfiles should adopt a model-agnostic configuration pattern, referencing a stable alias or the default rather than a specific model version string.