Many of the best LLM models no longer available in "Edit" mode for VSCode GitHub Copilot

[johnkord]

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I am no longer able to use any reasoning models (like OpenAI's o3 model) in Edit mode in VSCode GitHub Copilot Chat. It appears that my "Edit" mode has only the same models available to the "Agent" mode.

I've reloaded my VSCode many times, on both my personal and corporate enterprise GitHub accounts, and this hasn't changed.

I very much prefer the code generation capabilities of reasoning models like o3 in my development over the alternatives. Is this a bug, or intentional?

See this screenshot from my VSCode GitHub Copilot interface for details:

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[SomeOne-0o0]

Hey @johnkord ! This change is actually intentional — as of mid-2025, the "Edit" mode in GitHub Copilot Chat for VS Code now only supports a limited set of models (mostly standard ones like GPT-4.0 and GPT-4.1).

Premium reasoning models like OpenAI’s o3 or Claude 3 Sonnet are currently restricted to "Agent" mode only.

I confirmed this with the GitHub Copilot changelog and in-app behavior — even with a Pro plan, these models no longer appear in "Edit" mode dropdowns. It looks like GitHub is streamlining model access per mode (likely for consistency or performance reasons).

If model access is critical to your workflow, I’d recommend switching to Agent mode for anything that needs o3-level reasoning. Hoping they add more flexibility in a future update!

[johnkord]

@SomeOne-0o0 Thanks for your comment, but can you give me any source on these claims of yours?

Specifically, please point me at the changelog entry that you reference. From your profile I do not see anything that would make me believe you are an official representative GitHub Copilot, and I'm not trying to be rude, but I don't trust statements from 3rd parties without sourcing. I'd like an official statement on the matter from GitHub Copilot themselves.

Also, to be clear, contradicting one of your claims: my "Agent" mode in GitHub Copilot does not have access to the Premium o3 model (or other high end models) either.

[johnkord]

This bug appears to be fixed now, as of this comment. Thanks to whoever fixed it!