GitHub Copilot will deprecate Claude Opus 4.8, Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra on November 16

Which models leave Copilot and when

GitHub says it will deprecate three models across all GitHub Copilot experiences on November 16, 2026: Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 5 and GPT-5.6 Terra. The deprecation covers Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, and code completions.

GitHub suggests Claude Opus 5.5 in place of both Claude Opus 4.8 and Claude Opus 5, and GPT-6.1 Sol or GPT-6 Luna in place of GPT-5.6 Terra. GitHub asks users to move their workflows and integrations to supported models before November 16.

Sources: Upcoming deprecation of selected GitHub Copilot models in mid-November - GitHub Changelog

Annual plan exception for Claude Opus 4.8

Claude Opus 4.8 will stay available to individual GitHub Copilot subscribers on annual plans so they keep an Opus option, and its deprecation does not apply to them. The announcement does not give the same exception for Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra.

Sources: Upcoming deprecation of selected GitHub Copilot models in mid-November - GitHub Changelog

What Business and Enterprise admins need to do

When default model enablement is on, the suggested alternatives are turned on automatically for Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise customers. This does not happen if an administrator has turned off the global default or explicitly disabled the model. If you turned off the global default, you can turn on the alternatives through their model policies in Copilot settings. Once a model is enabled, users see it in the Copilot Chat model selector in supported Copilot experiences.

You don't need to do anything to remove the deprecated models after November 16. The announcement does not mention any price or credit-rate change for the replacement models.

Sources: Upcoming deprecation of selected GitHub Copilot models in mid-November - GitHub Changelog