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Clarify model selection availability for Copilot Free and Student plans #45976
Description
Code of Conduct
- I have read and agree to the GitHub Docs project's Code of Conduct
What article on docs.github.com is affected?
https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-ai-models/change-the-chat-model
What part(s) of the article would you like to see updated?
The article explains how to switch between models in GitHub Copilot Chat, but it does not clearly state that users on the Copilot Free and Copilot Student plans cannot manually change the model.
A note should be added:
Note
Copilot Free and Copilot Student users cannot manually select a model. These plans use Auto model selection only. Manual model selection is available on eligible paid Copilot plans, subject to organization or enterprise policies.
The expected outcome is that users on Copilot Free and Copilot Student understand that they cannot manually select a model.
Additional information
Adding a clear statement about this limitation would prevent users from looking for a model selector that is not available on their plan.
Activity
subatoi commentedon Sep 21, 2026
Thanks @ashis-baral—we'll mark this for triage and review it as soon as possible
ashis-baral commentedon Sep 21, 2026
@subatoi Just to clarify, this issue is specifically about the GitHub website. Copilot Free users can see the model selector, but the models are locked, so they cannot manually change the model unless they upgrade to an eligible plan. Unlike VS Code, there is currently no BYOK option on GitHub.com
subatoi commentedon Sep 21, 2026
Thank you, but that doesn't change the suggestion I've made here