GitHub retires four Copilot models with replacements available

GitHub retired four Copilot models on October 2, affecting Chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, and code completions. The announcement identifies replacements and asks users to update their workflows and integrations.

Which models need replacing

• Gemini 3.8 Flash is recommended for Gemini 3.5 Flash and Gemini 3.6 Flash users
• Kimi K2.7 Code has Kimi K3 as its suggested replacement
• Claude Opus 4.7 has Claude Opus 5.5 as its suggested replacement

GitHub says Enterprise administrators may need to enable the alternatives through model policies. Once enabled, the models appear in the Copilot Chat selector in VS Code and on GitHub.com. Users do not need to remove the retired models manually.

Replacement access needs checking

The model access guide makes availability conditional on the subscription, client and organization or enterprise restrictions. Owners can control access for Business and Enterprise seats. Individual plans do not require that policy setup, although Free and Student users can only use automatic model selection.

Kimi K3 needs particular attention in managed deployments. GitHub’s default availability documentation excludes open weight models, including Kimi K3, from automatic enablement. They remain disabled by default even when the general policy enables newly released models. An administrator should therefore check the specific Kimi setting rather than assume the replacement inherited access.

Check editor versions too

The supported model reference lists VS Code 1.131 as the minimum for Kimi K3. For Visual Studio, it lists 17.14.22 or 18.1.0 for Gemini 3.8 Flash and 17.14.6 for Claude Opus 5.5. Several other client and model combinations still have minimum versions marked as undetermined.

GitHub cautions that an unspecified minimum does not establish compatibility with every older editor. The table is tentative as support rolls out, and the company recommends updating the IDE and its Copilot extension or plugin. A model appearing in a selector also does not guarantee the best behavior on older versions.

For teams making the switch, the useful first check is the actual combination of account, policy and editor. Confirm the replacement appears, then try a familiar task before relying on it for routine work. ByteForward has reviewed the documentation but has not independently tested these migrations.

Illustrative archival photograph Laptop on a neat desk by Norbert Levajsics under CC0. Resized and converted to WebP. The screens do not show Copilot.