Copilot Pro (Student Pack) asking for upgrade when selecting Claude Opus 4.6

[Pratyush56555]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Question

💬 Feature/Topic Area

VS Code

Body

Hello everyone,

I’m currently using GitHub Copilot Pro through the Student Pack, which includes 300 premium requests per month. Last month, I barely used any of those requests.

However, this month when I try to use Copilot and select

Claude Opus 4.6, it shows an “Upgrade to Copilot Pro” message instead of letting me use it.

I’m a bit confused about what’s going on:

I should already have Copilot Pro via the Student Pack
I haven’t exceeded my premium request limit
Other models seem selectable, but this one specifically asks for an upgrade

Did I misunderstand something about model access or limits?
Is Claude Opus 4.6 not included in the student plan anymore?

Would really appreciate any clarification or guidance on how to fix this.

Thanks!

[im-tomasz]

hi,

unfortunately, github removed claude opus 4.6 from the student plan.

you might find more informations about it in those topics :

https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1s2smvv/copilot_pro_from_student_pack_vs_claude_pro_for/?tl=fr

https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeAI/comments/1rts8va/github_removed_opus_46_from_student_plan_what_are/?tl=fr

hope it helps you out !

[Gecko51]

This changed in March 2026. GitHub updated the student plan and removed Claude Opus 4.6 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 from self-selection under the Copilot Student tier. The stated reason was keeping Copilot free for students at scale.

What's still available on the student plan: Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.1 Pro, GPT-5.3 Codex, and whatever Auto mode picks. You're not stuck with bad models, just not the top tier ones specifically.

If you need Opus 4.6, GitHub added the option to upgrade to paid Copilot Pro or Pro+ while keeping the rest of your Student Pack benefits intact. So JetBrains, Namecheap, etc. stay active, you'd only be adding a paid Copilot tier on top.

So to answer directly: you didn't misunderstand anything and it's not a bug. The model got restricted to paid plans after that March update.