title: "FAQ" description: "Frequently asked questions about GitHub Copilot in VS Code" section: "Copilot" readTime: "5 min"

Frequently Asked Questions

Subscriptions

How do I get Copilot?

Individual: Sign up for Copilot Free (monthly allowance) or a paid plan at github.com/settings/copilot
Org/Enterprise member: Go to github.com/settings/copilot and request access under "Get Copilot from an organization"

What does a paid plan add?

More monthly AI credits for chat and agents (Pro 1,500, Pro+ 7,000, Max 20,000; Business 1,900 and Enterprise 3,900 per user)
Unlimited code completions and next edit suggestions (Free has 2,000 completions per month)
Access to more models than Free's Auto-only selection
Agent mode, MCP, and the cloud agent (limited on Free)
Third-party agents (not on Free or Student)
Business and Enterprise: centralized policy control and content exclusions

See the plans page for current details.

How do I monitor usage? Open the Copilot status dashboard from the Status Bar. It shows your inline suggestions and monthly AI credit usage.

I reached my limit, what now? Inline suggestions and AI credits reset monthly and are limited separately. Hitting only the credit limit still leaves inline suggestions working, and hitting the suggestions limit still leaves chat working. On a paid plan you can upgrade (you pay only the difference) or set a budget for additional usage. Rate limits can also occur when credits are not exhausted; wait a few minutes and retry.

My subscription is not detected:

Sign out (Accounts menu) and sign in with the correct GitHub account
Verify the subscription is active at github.com/settings/copilot
GHE.com managed accounts: follow the GHE.com setup in Setup

General Usage

How do I remove Copilot from VS Code? Set chat.disableAIFeatures (user or workspace level), or choose Learn How to Hide AI Features from the Chat menu in the title bar. This hides AI features and disables the Copilot extensions.

Network/firewall issues: Configure your firewall or proxy to allow the domains Copilot needs. For VPNs or proxies, see the GitHub Copilot firewall troubleshooting docs and run GitHub Copilot: Chat Diagnostics.

I am being rate-limited: GitHub uses rate limits for fair access. Wait and retry, as they are usually temporary. See the rate limit docs.

Are there pre-release builds? Yes. Extensions view → Copilot extension gear/context menu → Switch to Pre-Release Version.

Chat & Agents

Agents not available? Verify chat.agent.enabled is on. If the setting is locked, your organization manages it by policy, so contact your admin.

What can agents do? Agents handle complete coding tasks autonomously: multi-file changes, terminal commands, tool invocations, self-correction on errors. Use for features, refactoring, migrations, debugging, test generation.

Does Copilot work with large codebases? Yes. Use #codebase for semantic search with language intelligence, and multi-root workspaces for monorepos.

Not all models appear in the picker? Organizations can restrict models, and availability depends on your plan. On Free, only Auto is offered. Contact your admin if a model should be available.

How do I stop the Chat view opening automatically? Chat view ... menu → toggle Show View by Default. Or set workbench.secondarySideBar.defaultVisibility to hidden.

Organization Admin Controls

Enable/disable agents and specific features via enterprise AI settings and Copilot policies
Restrict model access and set content exclusions (Business and Enterprise)
Manage Copilot Memory and BYOK by policy
See GitHub Copilot Trust Center for compliance details