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Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in your environment

To use Copilot in your preferred coding environment, follow the steps for your chosen IDE.

Prerequisite

To use Copilot in your IDE, you need either limited access through Copilot Free or a paid Copilot plan for full access. For more information about how to get access and choose the right plan, see What is GitHub Copilot?.

About the GitHub Copilot extension in Visual Studio

Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in Visual Studio allows you to receive coding suggestions from Copilot as you type.

To see instructions for other popular coding environments, use the tool switcher at the top of the page.

Version compatibility

Starting from Visual Studio 2022 Version 17.10, the unified Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat extension is included by default as a built-in component. For more information, see Install GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio in the Microsoft documentation.

Installing the GitHub Copilot extension in Visual Studio

  1. Make sure you have access to GitHub Copilot. For information, see What is GitHub Copilot?.

  2. Make sure you have a compatible version of Visual Studio installed. To use GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio, you must have version 2022 17.8 or later of Visual Studio for Windows installed. For more information, see Install Visual Studio in the Microsoft documentation.

  3. Install the GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio See Install GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio in the Microsoft documentation.

  4. After installing the GitHub Copilot extension, to enable GitHub Copilot, ensure you have added your GitHub account to Visual Studio. For more information, see Add your GitHub accounts to your Visual Studio keychain in the Microsoft documentation.

    Note

    If you're using a Copilot plan for a managed user account on GHE.com, you'll need to update some settings before you sign in. See Using GitHub Copilot with an account on GHE.com.

Next steps