Is Copilot Down? GitHub Copilot & Microsoft Copilot Status Guide (2026)

Originally published on API Status Check.

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Your AI coding assistant just stopped suggesting completions. The inline suggestions vanished, chat isn't responding, and your IDE feels like it's 2020 again. Whether it's GitHub Copilot in your editor or Microsoft Copilot in your browser, you need to know if the service is down — or if it's a local configuration issue.

Here's how to check, what to do while it's down, and how to keep coding productively during outages.

Is Copilot Actually Down Right Now?

"Copilot" can mean two different products. Check the right one:

GitHub Copilot (Code Completion & Chat in IDEs)

1. API Status Check — GitHub — Independent monitoring including Copilot
2. GitHub Official Status — Check "Copilot" component specifically
3. Downdetector — GitHub — Community-reported outages

Microsoft Copilot (Bing Chat, Microsoft 365, Windows)

1. API Status Check — Microsoft — Microsoft service monitoring
2. Microsoft Service Health — Official Azure/M365 status
3. Downdetector — Microsoft — Community reports

Recent GitHub Copilot Incidents

• Jan 14, 2026 — Claude Opus 4.5 model experienced degraded performance in Copilot due to upstream provider issues (~1 hour)
• Jan 13, 2026 — Copilot service unavailable with 504 gateway timeout errors (~1.5 hours)
• Dec 24, 2025 — Service disruption lasting ~1 hour 21 minutes

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GitHub Copilot: Is It Down or Is It You?

Most "Copilot is down" situations are actually local issues. Run through this diagnostic first:

Quick Troubleshooting Checklist

1. ✅ Check githubstatus.com → Is Copilot component green?
2. ✅ Check your subscription → Is it active? (github.com/settings/copilot)
3. ✅ Check your IDE extension → Is it up to date?
4. ✅ Check your network → Can you reach api.github.com?
5. ✅ Check your auth → Sign out and back in to GitHub

VS Code Diagnostics

# Check Copilot extension status
1. Open Command Palette (Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P)
2. Type: "GitHub Copilot: Diagnostics"
3. Look for connection errors or auth issues

# Check output logs
1. View → Output → Select "GitHub Copilot" from dropdown
2. Look for error messages

# Nuclear option: reset Copilot
1. Command Palette → "GitHub Copilot: Sign Out"
2. Restart VS Code
3. Command Palette → "GitHub Copilot: Sign In"

JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ, PyCharm, etc.)

# Check plugin status
1. Settings → Plugins → Search "GitHub Copilot"
2. Ensure it's enabled and updated

# Check logs
1. Help → Show Log in Finder/Explorer
2. Search for "copilot" in the log file

# Reset auth
1. Settings → Languages & Frameworks → GitHub Copilot
2. Click "Sign Out" then sign back in

Neovim

# Check Copilot status
:Copilot status

# If it shows "Not authenticated":
:Copilot auth

# Check Copilot node process
:Copilot log

# Restart the Copilot server
:Copilot restart

Common Error Messages and Fixes

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What to Use When GitHub Copilot Is Down

Don't sit idle. These alternatives can fill the gap:

Quick Alternatives (No Setup Required)

IDE Extensions (Minutes to Set Up)

The Emergency Setup: Codeium in 60 Seconds

Codeium is the fastest drop-in replacement:

VS Code:
1. Extensions sidebar → Search "Codeium"
2. Install → Sign in with Google/GitHub
3. Start typing — completions appear immediately

JetBrains:
1. Settings → Plugins → Marketplace → "Codeium"
2. Install → Restart IDE → Sign in
3. Works alongside Copilot (disable one if they conflict)

Keep Both Installed

Pro tip: Install a backup AI coding extension NOW, while Copilot is working. Configure it but disable it. When Copilot goes down, toggle it on in seconds instead of scrambling.

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Microsoft Copilot: Troubleshooting

If you're searching "is copilot down" about Microsoft's Copilot (Bing Chat, M365, Windows):

Microsoft Copilot (Web/Bing)

1. Try: copilot.microsoft.com
2. If that fails, try: bing.com/chat
3. Clear browser cookies for microsoft.com
4. Try incognito/private browsing
5. Check: status.cloud.microsoft.com

Microsoft 365 Copilot (Word, Excel, Teams, etc.)

1. Check Microsoft 365 Service Health: admin.microsoft.com/Adminportal/Home#/servicehealth
2. Restart the specific Office app
3. Sign out and back into Microsoft 365
4. Clear Office cache:
   - Windows: %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Wef\
   - Mac: ~/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.*/Data
5. Check your M365 Copilot license is assigned in admin center

Windows Copilot

1. Check if Windows Copilot is enabled: Settings → Copilot
2. Try Win+C keyboard shortcut
3. Reset via Settings → Apps → Installed apps → Copilot → Advanced options → Reset
4. Check Windows Update — some builds have known Copilot issues

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For Teams: Reducing Copilot Dependency

If your engineering team relies heavily on Copilot, plan for outages:

Organization-Level Resilience

1. Have a backup extension approved. Don't let compliance review be the bottleneck during an outage. Pre-approve Codeium or Amazon Q Developer.

2. Snippet libraries. Maintain team snippet libraries for boilerplate code that Copilot usually generates:

   // .vscode/project.code-snippets
   {
     "React Component": {
       "prefix": "rfc",
       "body": [
         "interface ${1:Component}Props {",
         "  $2",
         "}",
         "",
         "export function ${1:Component}({ $3 }: ${1:Component}Props) {",
         "  return (",
         "    <div>",
         "      $0",
         "    </div>",
         "  )",
         "}"
       ]
     }
   }
   

3. Local AI fallback. For air-gapped or latency-sensitive environments:

   # Ollama + Continue.dev = fully local AI coding
   ollama pull codellama:13b
   # Install Continue.dev extension, point to localhost:11434
   

4. Communication plan. When Copilot goes down, post in your eng Slack channel so everyone knows — otherwise you'll get 20 individual "is Copilot broken?" messages.

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Monitoring Copilot for Your Organization

GitHub Copilot Usage API

Track usage and catch anomalies:

# Check your org's Copilot usage (requires admin)
curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer $GITHUB_TOKEN" \
  -H "Accept: application/vnd.github+json" \
  "https://api.github.com/orgs/YOUR_ORG/copilot/usage" | jq '.total_active_users'

Set Up Alerts

1. API Status Check — Get notified via Discord/Slack when GitHub status changes
2. githubstatus.com — Subscribe to Copilot component updates specifically
3. RSS feed — https://www.githubstatus.com/history.rss for all GitHub incidents

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Get Notified Before It Affects Your Team

Stop finding out about Copilot outages from frustrated developers:

1. Bookmark apistatuscheck.com/api/github for real-time status
2. Set up instant alerts via API Status Check integrations
3. Subscribe to githubstatus.com — filter to Copilot component
4. Pre-install a backup extension — Codeium or Amazon Q Developer as a warm standby

Copilot outages are annoying but survivable. The developers who handle them best aren't the ones with the fastest status page refresh — they're the ones with a backup extension already installed and a snippet library to fall back on.

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