GitHub Copilot adds MAI-Code-1.1-Flash ahead of September model retirement
Microsoft's smaller coding model is rolling out across Copilot with a lower stated list price, while teams have until September 10 to migrate from its predecessor.
GitHub announced on August 11 that Microsoft's MAI-Code-1.1-Flash is rolling out in GitHub Copilot, while the earlier MAI-Code-1-Flash model is scheduled to leave every Copilot experience on September 10, 2026. The change matters to developers choosing a lightweight coding model and to administrators who control which models their organisations can use.
What changed in Copilot's model menu
GitHub describes MAI-Code-1.1-Flash as Microsoft's latest small-tier coding model. The company says the new version adds native vision for image understanding and improves coding quality, instruction following, tool use and performance. Those capability statements come from the vendor announcement and have not been independently tested for this report.
The rollout spans Copilot CLI, Copilot cloud agent, the Copilot app, Copilot Chat on GitHub, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, GitHub Mobile, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse and Xcode. Free and Student users will receive the model through automatic model selection. Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise users can also select it manually.
Business and Enterprise administrators face an extra step: GitHub says the MAI-Code-1.1-Flash policy is off by default and must be enabled in Copilot settings. That makes availability a policy decision rather than an automatic organisation-wide change.
Price and migration implications
GitHub says serving and model-efficiency gains produce a 73% lower list price than MAI-Code-1-Flash. For annual Copilot subscribers, MAI-Code-1.1-Flash carries a 0.25x premium-request multiplier. These are GitHub's stated commercial terms, not an independent price-performance comparison, and actual value will depend on the workload and the results users obtain.
The predecessor's retirement creates the immediate operational deadline. GitHub says MAI-Code-1-Flash will be deprecated across all Copilot experiences on September 10 and names MAI-Code-1.1-Flash as the suggested alternative. Teams that pin models in workflows or integrations should test the replacement before that date. Administrators should also confirm that the replacement policy is enabled where controlled model access is required. GitHub says no separate action is needed to remove the older model after deprecation.
What to watch next
The next verifiable checkpoints are whether the rollout reaches every listed Copilot surface and whether GitHub changes the availability, multiplier or retirement schedule. Independent evaluation would also be needed to establish how the model's claimed improvements translate into coding quality and tool use outside vendor testing.
Status
Confirmed. GitHub published both the availability notice and the dated deprecation notice. Internal confidence is medium because the performance and pricing comparison is a first-party claim without independent corroboration.
Sources
- GitHub: MAI-Code-1.1-Flash available in GitHub Copilot
- GitHub: Upcoming deprecation of MAI-Code-1-Flash
Update note: Last reviewed 2026-08-12. We will revise this post if GitHub changes the rollout, policy requirements, commercial terms or retirement date.
Sources
- GitHub - MAI-Code-1.1-Flash availability — official
- GitHub - MAI-Code-1-Flash deprecation — official
Drafted with AI assistance from source briefs; reviewed for citation completeness and label accuracy.