GitHub Copilot starts using Free, Pro, and Pro+ interaction data for model training unless users opt out

GitHub’s new Copilot interaction-data training policy takes effect on April 24, 2026.

What changes

For Copilot Free, Pro, and Pro+ users, GitHub says interaction data can be used to train and improve AI models unless users opt out.

GitHub lists the included data as:

• inputs sent to Copilot
• outputs accepted or modified
• code snippets shown to the model
• surrounding cursor context
• comments and documentation
• file names and repository structure
• navigation patterns
• chat, inline suggestion, and feedback interactions

What is excluded

GitHub says the program does not use:

• Copilot Business interaction data
• Copilot Enterprise interaction data
• enterprise-owned repository interaction data
• data from users who opt out
• issues, discussions, or private repositories at rest

Important nuance: private repositories at rest are excluded, but active Copilot interactions can include private-repo context if the user is using Copilot there.

Why it matters

This is one of the biggest AI-coding privacy changes of 2026 because it affects individual developers by default. It also creates a policy split:

• enterprise users get stronger isolation
• individual users get opt-out training by default

For tool scoring, it is a value-versus-trust tradeoff: Copilot may improve from real-world data, but individual developers and small teams need to revisit privacy settings.