According to a product announcement released by GitHub, the company has discovered a significant increase in abuse of the GitHub Copilot free trial system. To protect the platform experience and integrity of compliant developers, GitHub will suspend the Copilot Pro free trial mechanism from April 10, 2026.

This policy only affects new users. Existing users who have started trialling Copilot Pro can continue to trial it in the current cycle, but users who have never passed the trial will not be able to newly open the Copilot Pro free trial plan.

At the same time, GitHub also limits the capacity of Copilot Pro official subscribers, including restrictions based on overall service reliability and usage restrictions for specific models. When developers reach the limit, they must wait for a reset before they can continue to use it.

Free trial suspension policy:

  • Free trial: suspended starting April 10, 2026

  • Scope of application: New users who have opened the Copilot Pro trial plan

  • Existing trial: Users who have already subscribed to the Copilot Pro trial plan can continue to use it within the cycle

  • Free policy: This adjustment only applies to Copilot Pro, existing Copilot Free will continue to be provided

  • Suspension time: GitHub said it will actively improve safeguards to prevent abuse, and will resume trials after follow-up safeguards are in place.

Capacity limits and model adjustments for Copilot Pro subscriptions:

  • Limit settings: 1. Limits for overall service reliability, 2. Capacity limits for a specific model or specific model family

  • Reason for change: GitHub observed rapid growth in Copilot usage, which put significant pressure on shared infrastructure and operations resources

  • Reality: When a developer hits a limit they must wait for the current session to reset, if they are rate limited you will see the information in the error

GitHub said that if the number of times a developer uses a specific model reaches the limit, the developer can switch to an alternative model or use the automatic mode. Of course, the developer can also choose to upgrade the Copilot Pro subscription to obtain a higher usage quota.

In addition, GitHub claims to improve service quality and reliability. From now on, it will stop providing Claude Opus 4.6 Fast version to Copilot Pro + subscribers. Developers need to switch to Claude Opus 4.6 or other models.

via GitHub, GitHub