GitHub Copilot Freezes New Subscriptions and Locks Opus 4.7 to Paid Pro+ Tier
GitHub moved to compress its Copilot model access structure on April 20, pausing new subscriptions across all individual plans and confining Anthropic’s Opus lineup to its top-tier offering.
The Changes
- New signups suspended: Pro, Pro+, and Student plans are no longer accepting new subscribers.
- Opus removed from Pro: Anthropic Opus models are no longer available on the base Pro plan.
- Opus 4.7 requires Pro+: The latest Anthropic flagship is now exclusive to Pro+.
- Legacy Opus retiring: Opus 4.5 and Opus 4.6 are being removed from Pro+ as well.
GitHub cited service quality for existing paying customers as the rationale. Existing Pro subscribers can upgrade to Pro+ for access to higher limits. Anyone who finds the changes unworkable can cancel and claim a refund for April usage before May 20.
Why Now
The timing maps directly to Opus 4.7’s compute requirements. The model introduces an xhigh effort level between high and max, which Anthropic set as the new Claude Code default. Extended thinking at xhigh burns significantly more tokens per task than earlier Opus variants — and Anthropic itself has acknowledged that Opus 4.7 costs roughly 35% more to serve per session despite identical public API pricing.
Unlimited-tier access to a more expensive-to-serve model at unchanged subscription prices is not a sustainable economics story. Something had to give.
Broader Pattern
This is the second major access tightening for Copilot’s Opus offering in two weeks. On April 10, GitHub enforced new usage limits and retired Opus 4.6 Fast Mode from Pro+, the variant Anthropic launched at $30/M output tokens to make Opus economics viable at higher volumes.
The progression — Opus 4.6 Fast retired, Opus removed from Pro, Opus 4.7 locked to Pro+, legacy Opus retiring entirely — describes a steady migration of frontier-model access toward higher-cost subscription tiers. For developers who want Anthropic’s best model inside a GitHub-native coding assistant, the floor has moved up.
GitHub did not disclose subscriber counts or reopen timelines for new signups.