GitHub Copilot Chat beta now available for all individuals

In July, we introduced a public beta of GitHub Copilot Chat, a pivotal component of our vision for the future of AI-powered software development, for all GitHub Copilot for Business users. Today, we’re thrilled to take the next step forward in our GitHub Copilot X journey by releasing a public beta of GitHub Copilot Chat for all GitHub Copilot individual users across Visual Studio and VS Code. Integrated together, GitHub Copilot Chat and the GitHub Copilot pair programmer form a powerful AI-assistant capable of helping every developer build at the speed of their minds in the natural language of their choice. We believe this cohesion will form the new centerpiece of the software development experience, fundamentally reducing boilerplate work and designating natural language as a new universal programming language for every developer on the planet.

Let’s jump in and take a deeper look into what this announcement means for individual developers and how you can get started.

How developers can access GitHub Copilot Chat beta

GitHub Copilot Chat beta has been enabled for all Copilot for Individual users for free. Currently, GitHub Copilot Chat is supported in both Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code editors. GitHub Copilot for Individual users will also receive an email notification to guide them on the next steps. If you’re not already part of our beta program and would like to get started, please refer to our comprehensive getting started guide, which is conveniently linked in your email notification.

What GitHub Copilot Chat can do for you

Now, anyone signed up for GitHub Copilot for individuals can access the powerful AI assistant that major enterprises are leveraging to turbocharge developer productivity and happiness. Now, teams of developers and individuals alike can use GitHub Copilot Chat to learn new languages or frameworks, troubleshoot bugs, or get answers to coding questions in simple, natural language outputs—all without leaving the IDE. By reducing the need for context switching, it streamlines the development process, which helps developers maintain their focus and momentum. GitHub Copilot Chat also empowers individual contributors to suggest security patches, enhancing the overall security of open-source projects—and we think that’s pretty exciting news for the developer community.

Here are some of GitHub Copilot Chat’s other powerful features:

• Real-time guidance. GitHub Copilot Chat can suggest best practices, tips, and solutions tailored to specific coding challenges—all in real time. Developers can use GitHub Copilot Chat to learn a new language or upskill at speed.
• Code analysis. With GitHub Copilot Chat, you can break down complex concepts and get explanations of code snippets.
• Fixing security issues. GitHub Copilot Chat can make suggestions for remediation and help reduce the number of vulnerabilities found during security scans.
• Simple troubleshooting. Trying to debug code? GitHub Copilot Chat not only identifies issues, but also offers suggestions, explanations, and alternative approaches.

Democratizing software development for a new generation

Today, developers are no longer just people building software for technology companies. They’re an increasingly diverse and global group of folks across industries, who are tinkering with code, design, and documentation in their free time; contributing to open source projects; conducting scientific research; and more. Whether you are a young developer in Brazil learning how to execute a unit test for the first time or a professor in Germany who needs help documenting data, GitHub Copilot Chat enables you to learn and build code through outputs in the language that feels most natural to you.

By enabling the rise of natural language as a new universal programming language, we will democratize software development as we know it, enabling every developer to build the innovation of tomorrow and accelerate human progress, today.

Written by

Shuyin Zhao

@shuyinzjk