GitHub Retires Four Models From Copilot
Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Kimi K2.7 Code and Claude Opus 4.7 have left every Copilot experience, creating an immediate migration task.
Edited by Tyronne Panaino
GitHub deprecated Gemini 3.5 Flash, Gemini 3.6 Flash, Kimi K2.7 Code and Claude Opus 4.7 across GitHub Copilot on October 2, 2026. The completed change covers Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, and code completions, so users and teams that selected one of the four models now need to move to a supported alternative.
Four retirements and three replacement paths
GitHub maps both Gemini retirements to Gemini 3.8 Flash. It recommends Kimi K3 for Kimi K2.7 Code and Claude Opus 5.5 for Claude Opus 4.7. The official notice describes the change as a deprecation that is already in effect, rather than a future deadline.
That distinction matters for workflow owners. A configuration that names a retired model is now operational debt, not merely an item for a later migration calendar. GitHub explicitly asks customers to update workflows and integrations to supported models. Teams should therefore check model pins in shared instructions, automated coding flows and internal documentation, then test the named replacement under the same task conditions before treating the migration as complete.
Enterprise policy can affect replacement visibility
The replacement name is only one part of the change for managed accounts. GitHub says Copilot Enterprise administrators may need to enable an alternative through model policies. Administrators can check the relevant model in their individual Copilot settings; when the policy is enabled, GitHub says the model appears in the Copilot Chat selector in Visual Studio Code and on GitHub.com.
GitHub says no administrator action is required to remove the deprecated models. The practical action is on the replacement side: confirm that the alternative is permitted, visible and suitable for the workflows that depended on the retired option. This creates a two-part migration check for enterprises — update the selected model, then verify that policy permits users to reach it.
Why the change matters
Copilot is a product surface that can route work across multiple model providers, but a broad product abstraction does not eliminate model-specific dependencies. Prompts, expected response styles, latency assumptions and tool-use behaviour can still be tuned around a named model. Replacing the identifier may restore availability while leaving quality or governance differences that require testing.
The release note does not give a reason for the four retirements or publish adoption and migration data. It establishes the affected models, effective date, suggested alternatives and policy path; it does not show how many users were affected or whether every existing workflow behaves equivalently after substitution.
Status
Confirmed. GitHub's official changelog records the completed October 2 deprecations and the supported alternatives. Internal confidence is medium because the operational record comes from one first-party source and replacement behaviour has not been independently evaluated in this run.
Sources
Update note: Last reviewed 2026-10-03. We will revise this post if GitHub changes the replacement guidance or publishes additional migration details.
Sources
Drafted with AI assistance from source briefs; reviewed for citation completeness and label accuracy.