JULY WEEK-2 CLUSTER (2026-07-01 → 2026-07-09, all vendor changelog): (1) **GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, and Luna landed in Copilot 7/9** -- day-one availability with OpenAI's GA; the picker now spans GPT-5.6 (three tiers), Sonnet 5, Fable 5, and Kimi K2.7. (2) **Deprecation notice 7/2: Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash are being removed from Copilot** (removal date not yet specified in the changelog -- migrate picker defaults off them). (3) 7/7: **Kimi K2.7 extended to Business/Enterprise**, **Codex now works as an agent provider inside JetBrains IDEs**, the **GitHub Copilot app is available to all**, and the Copilot Billing Preview app retires 8/3. (4) 7/1: **Copilot vision GA** (images/PDFs in chat) + CLI auto model selection. Net: Copilot's picker is now the fastest-moving multi-vendor surface in the market -- three frontier vendors shipped into it inside 10 days
2026-07-09•GitHub Changelog (github.blog/changelog/label/copilot -- 2026-07-01 through 2026-07-09 entries)
LATE-JUNE/JULY CLUSTER (2026-06-30 → 2026-07-02, vendor changelog): (1) **Claude Sonnet 5 is GA in GitHub Copilot** (6/30) -- day-one availability alongside Anthropic's launch; the new 'most agentic Sonnet' model joins the picker. (2) **Browser tools for Copilot agents are GA in VS Code** (7/1) -- agents can drive a browser to test/verify their own web changes. (3) **GitHub Models is being fully retired on 2026-07-30** (7/1 announcement) -- the model-catalog/playground product winds down; migrate off before the date. (4) **Kimi K2.7 Code is GA in Copilot** (7/1) -- the first open-weight Chinese model in the picker; a lower-cost option that meters against the 6/1 credit system. Sonnet 5 note: available to Pro/Pro+/Max/Business/Enterprise, billed at provider list pricing under usage-based billing (no special multiplier), Zero Data Retention, rolling out across VS Code / Visual Studio / CLI / JetBrains / Xcode / Eclipse / mobile.
2026-07-01•GitHub Changelog (github.blog/changelog/2026-06-30-claude-sonnet-5-is-generally-available-for-github-copilot/, .../2026-07-01-browser-tools-for-github-copilot-in-vs-code-are-generally-available/, .../2026-07-01-github-models-is-being-fully-retired-on-july-30-2026/, Kimi K2.7 Code GA entry 2026-07-01)
MODEL ADD (2026-06-09, vendor-primary github.blog/changelog): **Claude Fable 5 is generally available in GitHub Copilot** on launch day -- Anthropic's first public Mythos-class model lands in the Copilot model picker the same day it ships, ahead of Cursor (which still lacks it as of 6/10). For Copilot users this is currently the strongest available model on agentic coding benchmarks (vendor: SWE-Bench Pro 80.3%). Usage meters against the 6/1 credit system like other premium models
2026-06-09•GitHub blog (github.blog/changelog/2026-06-09-claude-fable-5-is-generally-available-for-github-copilot/)
BILLING CUTOVER WENT LIVE (2026-06-01, vendor-primary github.blog/changelog): usage-based billing is now live for all GitHub Copilot users. Each plan ships with monthly included usage; beyond it, requests meter against GitHub AI Credits / token rates. Code completions and Next Edit suggestions stay free. **New Copilot Max tier introduced the same day** -- an upgrade for existing Student/Pro/Pro+ subscribers with higher included usage + higher spending limits. **New signups remain PAUSED for Student, Pro, Pro+, AND the new Max plan** ('we'll reopen sign-ups in the coming weeks'). Copilot code review now also consumes GitHub Actions minutes as of 6/1. Net: the 4/27-announced transition is no longer 'upcoming' -- it is the current state.
2026-06-01•GitHub Changelog (github.blog/changelog/2026-06-01-updates-to-github-copilot-billing-and-plans/), GitHub Blog: moving to usage-based billing
MICROSOFT BUILD (2026-06-02): Microsoft's own **MAI-Code-1-Flash** -- a lightweight in-house coding model -- is rolling out to GitHub Copilot individual users in VS Code, in the model picker and under the default auto-picker. Vendor benchmarks vs Claude Haiku 4.5: SWE-Bench Pro 51.2% vs 35.2% (a 16-point lead), solves SWE-Bench Verified problems with up to 60% fewer tokens, and +28.9 on IF Bench (instruction-following). Microsoft frames it as 'better price-to-performance across coding benchmarks.' Significant because it is the first time a first-party Microsoft model is the cost-efficient default inside Copilot rather than an OpenAI or Anthropic model -- part of the broader 'seven new MAI models' Build wave that also includes MAI-Thinking-1 (reasoning), MAI-Image-2.5, MAI-Transcribe-1.5, and MAI-Voice-2.
2026-06-02•Microsoft AI (microsoft.ai/news/introducingmai-code-1-flash/), Microsoft Build 2026 newsroom (news.microsoft.com/build-2026/)
PRODUCT + MODEL CLUSTER (2026-05-14 → 2026-05-21, 6 vendor changelog entries in 8 days -- highest cadence of the year): (1) **2026-05-14 GitHub Copilot app in technical preview** -- standalone Copilot app outside the editor, paralleling the OpenAI Codex mobile / Cursor / Anthropic 'agent goes where you go' pattern. (2) **2026-05-19 Gemini 3.5 Flash GA inside Copilot** -- same day as Google's I/O 2026 reveal (no aggregator delay; vendor-to-vendor handoff). Added to the Pro+/Business/Enterprise model picker. (3) **2026-05-20 Auto model selection routes by task in VS Code** -- Copilot auto-picks among the lineup based on task type rather than user-pinned default. (4) **2026-05-20 Semantic issue search in Copilot Chat** -- chat queries the issues backlog with semantic understanding (find related, dedupe, surface stale). (5) **2026-05-20 Updates to available models in Copilot on web** -- model-picker parity refresh across surfaces. (6) **2026-05-21 Issue fields public preview** -- organization-wide rollout of issue-field customization. Net effect: 6 customer-facing changelogs in the 8-day window ahead of the 6/1 billing cliff.
2026-05-21•GitHub Changelog (github.blog/changelog -- 5/14 copilot-app-tech-preview, 5/19 gemini-3-5-flash-ga, 5/20 auto-model-selection-vscode, 5/20 semantic-issue-search-copilot-chat, 5/20 updates-to-available-models-on-web, 5/21 issue-fields-public-preview)
Issues here are sourced from our editorial sweeps, not real-time telemetry. Newer issues may exist.