Global default for Copilot features generally available
By Steven Van ·
Copilot Business and Enterprise admins have until October 26 to set a default, or unconfigured generally available features follow the global policy.
The global default policy for GitHub Copilot features is now being enforced on Copilot Business and Copilot Enterprise plans. GitHub announced the policy in September, and enforcement began on October 22. It rolls out gradually through October 26, so it may take effect at different times for different enterprises and organizations.
What changes
Once the policy takes effect, eligible generally available features and capabilities left Unconfigured are set to the selected global default: Enabled, Disabled, or Let organizations decide. The policy applies to eligible settings on "Features & clients" and "MCP servers in Copilot". Copilot code review is also covered.
- This is a one-time change. Later changes to the default policy don't alter feature policies that are already set.
- Explicit choices are preserved. If an administrator has enabled or disabled a feature, the rollout leaves that setting alone.
- Preview features remain opt-in. If an organization opted into a preview that later becomes generally available, its choice is kept. Otherwise the default policy applies once the feature is eligible.
How the policy works
At the enterprise level, Enabled everywhere turns on any unconfigured GA feature for all Copilot users, and organizations cannot disable it. Disabled everywhere does the opposite, and organizations cannot enable it. With Let organizations decide, each organization's own default for new features applies to anything its owner hasn't explicitly configured. If a feature's policy doesn't support delegation, it is disabled.
Some policies are exceptions and are not affected: the restrictive model policies on GHE.com (data residency and FedRAMP), and storing local sessions in the cloud for Copilot CLI and VS Code.
Models have a separate policy
A separate "Default availability for released models" policy covers new and unconfigured GA models. It is not related to the default model selected for users' sessions. Pre-GA models, open weight models (DeepSeek, Kimi K3) and models outside GitHub's data retention agreement (Claude Fable 5, Claude Fable 5.1) stay disabled by default regardless of this setting.
Checking or opting out
Administrators can review the setting under AI Controls, then Copilot, then "Default policy for new features". To avoid default enablement entirely, disable the default policies in the enterprise or organization settings, either for the whole enterprise or only for organizations with stricter compliance requirements. Alternatively, keep the policies on and explicitly disable individual features or models so they are not eligible for automatic enablement.
