Best LLM for GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot meters its frontier models as 'premium requests' on top of unlimited completions, so picking the right model is about spending that premium-request allowance where it actually changes the output.
Models GitHub Copilot supports
Copilot's paid tiers let you switch the model for chat and agent mode across a selection of frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google; inline completions run on a fast default model.
Best value pick
GLM-5.3-Flash
Z.ai (Zhipu AI) · Coding Arena 1607 · about $23.75/month at 100,000 calls. The top-ranked Kimi K3 costs $1,200.00/month — you save $1,176.25/month with GLM-5.3-Flash.
| 1 | GLM-5.3-Flash | 1607 | $23.75 | Z.ai (Zhipu AI) |
| 2 | Qwen3.8 27B | 1593 | $29.50 | Alibaba |
| 3 | DeepSeek V4 Flash | 1580 | $52.50 | DeepSeek |
| 4 | Hunyuan Hy3 | 1513 | $70.00 | Tencent |
| 5 | GPT-5.6 Luna | 1519 | $90.00 | OpenAI |
| 6 | GPT-5.6 Luna (India) (Bedrock)Est. | 1519 | $99.00 | AWS Bedrock |
| 7 | MiniMax-M3 | 1487 | $105.00 | MiniMax |
| 8 | DeepSeek V4 Pro | 1581 | $108.75 | DeepSeek |
| 9 | Gemini 3.6 Flash | 1537 | $300.00 | |
| 10 | Gemini 3.7 Flash | 1587 | $300.00 | |
| 11 | Gemini 3.8 Flash | 1568 | $300.00 | |
| 12 | Kimi K2.6 | 1509 | $342.50 | Moonshot AI |
Intelligence scores are community Arena ratings from LMArena / arena.ai, used under CC BY 4.0. Snapshot last refreshed 18 September 2026. Scores are a relative signal, not an absolute measure of capability. A Measured score was voted on directly; an Estimated score is inherited from an identical base model (a regional/creator-prefixed hosting duplicate). See our methodology.
Why picking isn’t obvious
Completions are effectively free on paid Copilot, so the decision only matters for chat and agent mode, which draw on premium requests. A cheaper coding-strong model handles most chat and refactors at a fraction of a premium request's value; the flagship earns its keep on complex, cross-file agent tasks. We rank the eligible models by coding Arena and cost.
FAQ
What is the best value LLM for github copilot?
GLM-5.3-Flash is the cheapest model that still clears our quality bar for this task, at about $23.75/month for 100,000 calls (1,500 in / 500 out). It scores 1607 on the Coding Arena.
Is the most expensive model worth it for this?
Kimi K3 tops the Coding Arena but costs about $1,200.00/month here — roughly $1,176.25/month more than GLM-5.3-Flash for 72 extra Arena points. For most workloads that gap is not worth the premium.
What counts as a premium request in Copilot?
Inline completions are unlimited on paid plans; chat and agent-mode interactions with the frontier models consume your monthly premium-request pool. Choosing a lighter capable model for routine chat conserves that pool.
Is the most expensive model worth it in Copilot?
Only for the hardest tasks. For everyday completions and chat a mid-tier coding model is usually indistinguishable, so the premium model is best reserved for multi-step agent work where its edge is visible.
Cite / link to this page
You’re welcome to reference this page and its figures with attribution and a link back.
https://aicalculatorpro.com/best-llm-for/github-copilot/<a href="https://aicalculatorpro.com/best-llm-for/github-copilot/">Best LLM for GitHub Copilot — AI Calculator Pro</a>