Question 1

How does GitHub use the Copilot data from Business/Enterprise subscribers?

Accepted Answer

GitHub uses Copilot data from Business and Enterprise subscribers only to provide, support, and improve the services. Specifically, GitHub uses this data to: provide the service and personalize user experience; monitor and improve performance, accuracy, and overall quality; develop new features and capabilities; troubleshoot issues including security incidents and software bugs; and enhance user productivity, reliability, privacy, accessibility, and security. These practices are outlined in GitHub's Data Protection Agreement (DPA). GitHub also uses certain personal data with customer authorization under the DPA for billing and account management, legal compliance, abuse detection and prevention, generating summary reports for employee commissions and partner incentives, and producing aggregated reports for internal use and strategic planning. Learn more at the Copilot Trust Center.

Question 2

How does GitHub use the Copilot data from Individual (Free/Pro/Pro+) Subscribers?

Accepted Answer

GitHub uses the Copilot data from Individual subscribers for all the operational purposes described above for Business/Enterprise subscribers. In addition, for Individual subscribers only: GitHub may use Copilot interaction data — including prompts (inputs), suggestions (outputs), and code snippets generated during Copilot sessions — to train and improve AI models. This training helps improve code suggestions for all Copilot users. Individual subscribers can opt out of having their data used for AI model training at any time through https://github.com/settings/copilot/features. Opting out does not affect your access to Copilot features. For details on GitHub's data processing activities as a controller, particularly for Copilot Free, Copilot Pro, and Copilot Pro customers, refer to the GitHub Terms of Service and the GitHub Privacy Statement.

Question 3

Does GitHub Copilot support compliance with the GDPR and other data protection laws?

Accepted Answer

Yes. GitHub and customers can enter a Data Protection Agreement that supports compliance with the GDPR and similar legislation.

Question 4

Does GitHub Copilot ever output personal data?

Accepted Answer

While we've designed GitHub Copilot with privacy in mind, the expansive definition of personal data under legislation like the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means we can't guarantee it will never output such data. The Large Language Model (LLM) powering GitHub Copilot was trained on public code and there were instances in our tests where the tool made suggestions resembling personal data. These suggestions were typically synthesized and not tied to real individuals.

Question 5

How does Copilot allow users to access, alter or delete personal data?

Accepted Answer

These actions are available to Copilot users as described in the GitHub Privacy Statement.

Question 6

What are the intellectual property considerations when using GitHub Copilot?

Accepted Answer

The primary IP considerations for GitHub Copilot relate to copyright. The model that powers Copilot is trained on a broad collection of publicly accessible code, which may include copyrighted code, and Copilot's suggestions (in rare instances) may resemble the code its model was trained on. Copyright law permits the use of copyrighted works to train AI models: countries around the world have provisions in their copyright laws that enable machines to learn from copyrighted materials, including software code. GitHub Copilot's AI model was trained with the use of code from GitHub's public repositories. In rare instances (less than 1% based on GitHub's research), suggestions from GitHub may match examples of code used to train GitHub's AI model. Copilot does not 'look up' or 'copy and paste' code, but instead uses context from a user's workspace to synthesize and generate a suggestion. You can opt whether to allow Copilot to suggest code completions that match publicly available code on GitHub.com. Matching code does not necessarily mean copyright infringement, so it is ultimately up to the user to determine whether to use the suggestion and what to attribute in appropriate circumstances.

Question 7

Does GitHub Copilot include a filtering mechanism to mitigate risk?

Accepted Answer

Yes, GitHub Copilot does include an optional code referencing filter to detect and suppress certain suggestions that match public code on GitHub. GitHub has created a duplication detection filter to detect and suppress suggestions that contain code segments over a certain length that match public code on GitHub. With the filter enabled, Copilot checks code suggestions for matches or near-matches against public code on GitHub of 65 lexemes or more (on average, 150 characters). If there is a match, the suggestion will not be shown to the user. GitHub Copilot also includes filters to block offensive language in the prompts and to avoid synthesizing suggestions in sensitive contexts. In addition to off-topic, harmful, and offensive output filters, GitHub Copilot also scans the outputs for vulnerable code. If you see offensive outputs, please report them directly to copilot-safety@github.com.

Question 8

Can GitHub Copilot introduce insecure code in its suggestions?

Accepted Answer

Public code may contain insecure coding patterns, bugs, or references to outdated APIs or idioms. When GitHub Copilot synthesizes code suggestions based on this data, it can also synthesize code that contains these undesirable patterns. Copilot has filters in place that either block or notify users of insecure code patterns that are detected in Copilot suggestions. These filters target the most common vulnerable coding patterns, including hardcoded credentials, SQL injections, and path injections. You should always use GitHub Copilot together with good testing and code review practices and security tools, as well as your own judgment.

Question 9

Is GitHub Copilot intended to fully automate code generation and replace developers?

Accepted Answer

No. GitHub Copilot is a tool intended to make developers more efficient. It's not intended to replace developers. Developers should use exactly the same sorts of safeguards and diligence with Copilot's suggestions as they would use with any third-party code. Practices such as rigorous functionality testing, code scanning, security testing, etc. should continue with Copilot's suggestions. Moreover, you should make sure your code editor does not automatically compile or run generated code before you review it.

Question 10

Does GitHub Copilot support accessibility features?

Accepted Answer

We are conducting internal testing of GitHub Copilot's ease of use by developers with disabilities and working to ensure that GitHub Copilot is accessible to all developers. Learn more about accessibility at GitHub and view detailed documentation on various accessibility topics and features, including instructions for using our products with screen readers and other assistive technologies at the GitHub Accessibility website.

Question 11

Will GitHub Copilot work as well using languages other than English?

Accepted Answer

Given public sources are predominantly in English, GitHub Copilot will likely work less well in scenarios where natural language prompts provided by the developer are not in English and/or are grammatically incorrect. Therefore, non-English speakers might experience a lower quality of service.

Plans & Pricing

For individuals

Free — $0 USD

Pro — $10 USD per user / month

Pro+ — $39 USD per user / month

Max — $100 USD per user / month

GitHub AI Credits

Available on your favorite platforms

Frequently asked questions

Take flight with GitHub Copilot