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GitHub Copilot Retires Six Models on September 1, Including Claude Sonnet and Opus Versions

· by Pondero Newsdesk

The short version

Six AI models exit GitHub Copilot tomorrow across every surface, including chat, inline edits, and code completions. Administrators have one day to enable replacements before the cutover removes the retired options silently.

GitHub Copilot Retires Six Models on September 1, Including Claude Sonnet and Opus Versions

Six AI models exit GitHub Copilot tomorrow, and the retirement covers every Copilot surface simultaneously: chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, and code completions. GitHub's changelog confirmed the September 1 date on July 31, giving teams roughly a month to plan. That window closes at midnight.

What Gets Retired

The six models leaving are Gemini 3.1 Pro, Claude Opus 4.5, Claude Opus 4.6, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Sonnet 4.6, and Raptor Mini. GitHub named a direct replacement for each. Gemini 3.1 Pro rolls to Gemini 3.6 Flash. Claude Opus 4.5 and 4.6 roll to Claude Opus 4.7, Claude Opus 4.8, or Claude Opus 5. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and 4.6 roll to Claude Sonnet 5. Raptor Mini rolls to MAI-Code-1-Flash.

One exception applies. Per the GitHub Changelog, Claude Sonnet 4.6 remains available to individual Copilot subscribers on annual plans, so that group retains a Sonnet option through the transition.

What Administrators Must Do Today

Removal is automatic on September 1. Enabling the replacement model is not. Per GitHub, Copilot Enterprise administrators need to enable the alternative model through their model policies in Copilot settings before their teams can select it. Availability is confirmed by checking that the model appears in the Copilot Chat model selector in VS Code and on github.com. GitHub Enterprise customers with questions can reach their account manager.

Teams on GitHub Copilot that have not yet updated policies should treat today as the actual deadline. Once the deprecated models are removed, there is no fallback path back to them.

Why It Matters

Four of the six retired models are Anthropic models, which reflects the pace of Claude's versioning through 2026. The Opus and Sonnet 4.x lines are now essentially end-of-life on the Copilot platform, replaced by Claude 5-generation and newer 4.7/4.8 versions. For teams that selected Claude Sonnet 4.6 specifically for its balance of speed and output quality, the move to Claude Sonnet 5 is not guaranteed to be behavior-identical. Testing the replacement in a non-production environment before tomorrow is worth the effort.

The Raptor Mini retirement also deserves attention. Its named replacement, MAI-Code-1-Flash, is a Microsoft-developed model. Teams relying on Raptor Mini for low-latency completions will want to benchmark MAI-Code-1-Flash response time and cost against their current usage before assuming equivalent behavior.

The carve-out for individual annual subscribers is notable in what it excludes. Business and Enterprise tier customers do not appear to receive the same Claude Sonnet 4.6 extension, per the GitHub announcement. Those tiers lose Sonnet 4.6 entirely on September 1 unless GitHub issues a separate clarification.

What to Watch Next

Whether GitHub extends the individual annual-plan carve-out to Business or Enterprise customers before the September 1 deadline. No such extension has been announced. Also worth monitoring: this is GitHub's second multi-model deprecation batch in quick succession, following the separate July 31 retirement of Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash. If the pace continues, teams should expect quarterly or faster model rotation on the Copilot platform going forward.

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