GitHub Copilot: Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash Retired
GitHub CopilotGitHub has formally retired Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash across every GitHub Copilot surface, effective July 31, 2026, following the advance notice it issued earlier in July. The models are no longer available in Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask and agent modes, or code completions, with Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview) and Gemini 3.6 Flash positioned as the recommended replacements. No action is required from individual users to remove references to the retired models, but Copilot Enterprise administrators may need to enable the newer models through their organization's model policy settings before team members can access them.
Key Takeaways
- Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash are fully retired from GitHub Copilot as of July 31, 2026, with no remaining access across Chat, inline edits, ask/agent modes, or code completion.
- Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview) and Gemini 3.6 Flash are the designated replacements, and both are already available across most Copilot surfaces including VS Code, CLI, and the cloud agent.
- No manual cleanup is required for individual developers — GitHub says references to the deprecated models simply stop resolving rather than breaking workflows.
- Enterprise and Business administrators carry extra responsibility, since replacement models aren't always enabled by default and may require a manual policy change before teams can use them.
- A UI gap undercut the transition for some users — a filed bug report shows Copilot's model picker didn't reliably display deprecation warnings ahead of the cutoff, so some developers were caught off guard.
- This is the second half of a two-step rollout — GitHub pre-announced this exact deprecation back on July 2, 2026, giving developers roughly a month's notice before the July 31 cutoff took effect.
Sources & Mentions
1 external resource covering this update
Two Gemini Models Reach End of Life in Copilot
GitHub has completed the retirement of Gemini 2.5 Pro and Gemini 3 Flash from GitHub Copilot, closing out a deprecation cycle it first flagged in early July. As of July 31, 2026, both models are unavailable across every Copilot surface where they previously ran, including Copilot Chat, inline edits, ask mode, agent mode, and code completions. The move is part of GitHub's ongoing practice of cycling out older models in favor of newer, more capable successors as the Copilot model lineup continues to expand.
What Changes for Developers
Anyone who had pinned a workflow, extension, or personal preference to Gemini 2.5 Pro or Gemini 3 Flash will find those options gone from the model picker. GitHub says no manual cleanup is required — deprecated model references simply stop resolving rather than throwing errors — but developers who relied on either model for day-to-day coding tasks will need to switch their default selection going forward.
Recommended Replacements
GitHub is steering users toward Gemini 3.1 Pro (Preview) as the successor to Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Gemini 3.6 Flash — which itself only became available in Copilot on July 21, 2026 — as the replacement for Gemini 3 Flash. Both newer models are already rolling out across Copilot's surfaces, including VS Code, the Copilot CLI, and the Copilot cloud agent, giving developers a direct upgrade path rather than a gap in capability.
Enterprise Rollout Considerations
For organizations on Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise, the transition isn't fully automatic. Administrators may need to explicitly enable the replacement models through the Copilot Models policy settings before members of their organization can select them, since new models are not always turned on by default at the enterprise tier. GitHub recommends enterprise admins review their model policies ahead of time so teams aren't left without a supported option once the older models are removed. Customers with specific migration concerns are encouraged to reach out through their account managers.
A Known Rough Edge
Independent bug reports surfaced in the run-up to this deprecation noting that the Copilot model picker UI didn't consistently surface a warning indicator for models with an announced retirement date — the kind of small "yellow triangle" alert users have come to expect elsewhere. That meant some developers only discovered the change when their preferred model disappeared outright on July 31, rather than being nudged toward switching in advance.