GitHub Copilot is an AI tool built into coding software that suggests lines of code — or entire functions — as a developer types, acting like an autocomplete that understands programming. It launched in June 2022 and is used by millions of developers worldwide. A more recent "coding agent" version can work through programming tasks on its own, with minimal human input.

GitHub Copilot became generally available June 21, 2022. It was originally powered by OpenAI Codex (a large language model trained on billions of lines of publicly available code), and now supports multiple models including GPT-4, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini. Copilot Business launched February 2023 and Copilot Enterprise in February 2024. In May 2025, GitHub introduced a coding agent that autonomously works through software issues inside a secure cloud environment. Microsoft reports approximately 40% of code in supported files is AI-generated in popular languages. A class-action copyright lawsuit filed in November 2022 challenges whether training on public code constitutes fair use.