Image: GitHub / github.blog GitHub Copilot Gets Claude Opus 5 for Complex Long-Running Coding Tasks
Claude Opus 5, Anthropic's newest flagship model, is now available in GitHub Copilot on Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise plans. It targets agentic workflows where careful reasoning and multi-step execution matter, and carries usage-based pricing at the provider's list rate.
GitHub added Claude Opus 5 to Copilot on July 24, two days after Anthropic made the model generally available. It’s now selectable in the Copilot model picker for Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise subscribers.
What Opus 5 is for
GitHub describes it as designed for “complex, long-running coding tasks that require careful reasoning, effective tool use, and reliable execution across multiple steps.” That’s consistent with how Anthropic positions it: Opus 5 is the tier you reach for when a task is long, involves multiple tools, or has high stakes for correctness.
The practical cases are things like autonomous code changes with regression verification, coordinating several tools in sequence, or tasks that benefit from the model double-checking its own work before finishing.
For simpler completions, inline suggestions, or quick chat questions, Opus 5 isn’t the right model to reach for. Claude Sonnet 5 or Claude, which is available at lower cost and still strong on most day-to-day coding tasks.
Pricing
Opus 5 uses usage-based billing at Anthropic’s standard API list pricing: $5 per million input tokens and $25 per million output tokens. Fast mode, which runs roughly 2.5x faster, doubles those rates.
If you’re on an AI credits plan, Opus 5 draws from your credit pool at that rate. GitHub’s Copilot Pro+ and Max plans include a monthly allotment of AI credits; once that’s exhausted, metered billing continues at the same price.
One caveat: security content
GitHub’s changelog notes that Opus 5 includes enhanced safeguards for high-harm cyber content, and that “these safeguards may block some cyber-related or security-adjacent requests.” If you hit a refusal on a security-relevant coding task, the guidance is to rephrase with more context or switch to a different model for that request.
This isn’t unique to the Copilot integration; it reflects Opus 5’s training. Anthropic noted the same in their launch documentation.
Availability
Opus 5 is available in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Eclipse, GitHub.com, and Copilot’s iOS and Android mobile apps. Enterprise and Business administrators need to explicitly enable the model in Copilot settings before their users can select it.
Sources: GitHub Changelog — Anthropic News