Organize models ending on November 16, 2026 with GitHub Copilot and their migration destinations

Hey! I'm Yuji Nishimura from the Operations Division!

If you have Claude Opus 4.8 or GPT-5.6 Terra specified in the GitHub Copilot model selection, those will in principle become unavailable on November 16, 2026 (there is an exception for individual annual subscriptions, described later). I've summarized the content announced in the GitHub Changelog in order of: deprecated models and their migration targets, scope of impact, contract-specific exceptions, and what administrators need to do.

Which models are being deprecated

The announcement states that three models will be deprecated on November 16, 2026. The migration targets for each are as follows.

At the time of the announcement, all three of these models as well as their migration targets — Claude Opus 5.5 / GPT-6.1 Sol / GPT-6 Luna — are listed as GA (generally available) in the supported AI models list. The migration target models are not being prepared in response to this announcement; they are already available to select.

The following diagram is a conceptual diagram I created myself, not an official configuration diagram. It summarizes on one page the migration targets and required actions based on the model you are using and your subscription type. Claude Opus 4.8 can continue to be used under individual annual subscriptions, while other subscription types will migrate to Claude Opus 5.5. Claude Opus 5 migrates to Claude Opus 5.5, and GPT-5.6 Terra migrates to GPT-6.1 Sol or GPT-6 Luna. For Enterprise / Business, administrators need to perform separate verification on their end.

Scope affected by the deprecation

The announcement states that these models will be deprecated "across all GitHub Copilot experiences." The specific areas named are as follows.

• Copilot Chat
• Inline edits
• Ask mode and agent mode
• Code completions

Copilot CLI and code review are not explicitly mentioned in the body of the announcement. If the area you are using is not listed in the announcement, it is most reliable to directly check the model selector display for that area.

Individual annual subscribers can continue using Opus 4.8

There is an exception to this deprecation. Users on an individual GitHub Copilot annual plan will not be subject to the deprecation and can continue using Claude Opus 4.8.

This exception is not mentioned for Claude Opus 5 or GPT-5.6 Terra. Unless you are using Opus 4.8 on an individual annual subscription, it is better to plan on switching to the migration targets shown in the table above.

What administrators and users need to do

What needs to be checked differs between Enterprise / Business administrators and individual users.

For Copilot Enterprise / Copilot Business, if default model enablement is on, the migration target models will automatically become available. However, if an administrator has turned off the global default or explicitly disabled that model, it will not be enabled automatically. In environments where the global default is off, you will need to enable the migration target model from the model policy in Copilot settings. Once enabled, it will appear in the Copilot Chat model selector for each corresponding experience.

For users, the announcement advises the following.

• Before November 16, 2026, update your workflows and integrations to use the migration target models
• No additional action is required to remove deprecated models from the list after deprecation

Summary

On November 16, 2026, Claude Opus 4.8, Claude Opus 5, and GPT-5.6 Terra will be deprecated, with migration targets of Opus 5.5, and GPT-6.1 Sol / GPT-6 Luna. Only individual annual subscriptions will retain Opus 4.8 as an exception. The migration target models are already GA and available to select. If users switch to the migration target models promptly and Enterprise / Business administrators verify the default enablement status and model policy, those models will remain usable after November 16.

Pricing differences (such as premium request multipliers) are outside the scope of this announcement. Since multipliers vary depending on the billing method, you will need to check the billing documentation for your current plan to understand the impact on costs.

I hope this is helpful to someone.

Reference links:

• Upcoming deprecation of selected GitHub Copilot models in mid-November（GitHub Changelog）
• Supported AI models（GitHub Docs）