What your coding tool keeps: GitHub can train on your Copilot prompts unless you switch it off

Since 24 April, GitHub can train its AI models on what you type into Copilot. If you use Copilot Free, Pro or Pro+ and never changed one setting, that has been the deal for almost six months. Max, launched in June, is in too.

GitHub announced it on 25 March and gave 30 days' notice. The fix is one dropdown.

What changed

GitHub's own words: from 24 April, "interaction data" from individual users, meaning "inputs, outputs, code snippets, and associated context", "will be used to train and improve our AI models unless they opt out."

The March announcement named Free, Pro and Pro+. Copilot Max arrived on 1 June and costs $100 a month, and GitHub's current docs list it with the other three. If you upgraded to Max at any point since June, even from Copilot Student, check the setting.

Who's out: Business and Enterprise seats, whose Data Protection Agreement prohibits training on their data without customer authorization. Per GitHub's FAQ, students on Copilot Student and teachers who get Pro for free are also excluded. So is any account that is a member or outside collaborator of a paid organization.

What it collects

With the setting on, GitHub's list says it can use:

• suggestions you accept or edit
• what you send to Copilot, including code snippets shown to the model
• the code around your cursor
• comments and documentation you write
• file names, repository structure and navigation patterns
• how you use Copilot features, including chat and inline suggestions
• your thumbs up and thumbs down

Private repositories come with a qualifier. Among the things GitHub says the program does not use: private repository content "at rest". GitHub calls the phrase deliberate. Copilot processes private code while you use it, and that interaction data "could be used for model training unless you opt out."

Where does it go? GitHub says the data may be shared with its affiliates, which include Microsoft, and that GitHub and Microsoft staff working on model development may access it. It says third-party model providers don't get it for their own training, and that automated filters try to remove API keys, passwords, tokens and personally identifiable information.

Two lines of fine print

The opt-out runs forward. The Terms of Service say that once you opt out, GitHub "will not collect or use your Inputs and Outputs" for training "from the effective date of your opt-out going forward." The changelog puts it plainly: "we stop collecting from that point forward." The same changelog lists a right to request deletion of your data, through [email protected].

The switch also has a defined scope. The Terms say the opt-out applies "solely" to your Copilot inputs and outputs. Content that isn't a Copilot input or output, "including Content stored in public repositories", falls outside it, and so does the license granted in Sections D.4 to D.8.

Already opted out?

If you'd already turned off the old "prompt and suggestion collection" setting, GitHub kept your choice. You don't need to do it again.

Chat history

Chat is on GitHub's training list. Your visible chat history follows a separate rule: Copilot Chat on github.com keeps up to 100 of your recent conversations, and each message is deleted after 28 days.

Work seats

On a work seat, ask your admin which telemetry capture classes are on. Since 12 October, enterprise admins can attach your GitHub login, OS username and machine name to Copilot telemetry, and separately capture prompts, responses and tool output. Every capture class ships off, so anything that's on, someone switched on.

How to opt out, today

1. Sign in to github.com with your personal account.
2. Click your profile picture in the top right, then Copilot settings.
3. Find "Allow GitHub to use my data for AI model training" and set it to Disabled.
4. No such setting? Check you're not signed in with an account that has a Copilot Business or Enterprise license. GitHub doesn't show the setting on those plans, so switch to your personal account and look again. If that's your only account, you're already excluded.
5. Want your earlier data deleted? Email [email protected] and request it.

GitHub says these settings apply wherever you use Copilot. If you keep a second personal account for side projects, check that one too.

Defaults are decisions. Make your own.

Sources

1. GitHub blog: Updates to GitHub Copilot interaction data usage policy (25 Mar 2026)
2. GitHub changelog: Updates to our Privacy Statement and Terms of Service (25 Mar 2026)
3. GitHub Docs: Managing GitHub Copilot policies as an individual subscriber
4. GitHub Community FAQ: Copilot data use for model training
5. GitHub Terms of Service, Section J
6. GitHub changelog: Updates to GitHub Copilot billing and plans (1 Jun 2026)
7. GitHub Docs: Plans for GitHub Copilot
8. GitHub Docs: Chat with Copilot in GitHub
9. GitHub changelog: Client telemetry user attribution and configurable capture (12 Oct 2026)

Sources checked 18 Oct 2026. Re-check on publish day.