GitHub Models shuts down today: playground, inference API, BYOK gone
Two warning brownouts are done; now everyone loses access at once. Move to Azure AI Foundry or Copilot — and OpenAI opened ChatGPT to 100k researchers.
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Everything switches off, for everyone
As of today the playground, model catalog, inference API, and bring-your-own-key are all gone — no exceptions, including accounts with active usage. The July 16 and July 23 brownouts were the dress rehearsals; this is the permanent cut.
Where to repoint your code
GitHub steers you to Azure AI Foundry for general model-catalog and inference access, and to GitHub Copilot for AI wired into your repo workflows. Neither is a drop-in swap for a free playground key, so plan for auth and billing setup — not a one-line change.
Audit for the hidden dependency
The real risk isn't the playground you'll miss — it's the prototype quietly calling the GitHub Models inference endpoint inside something you now ship. Grep your codebase for those calls today, before they start throwing errors in production.
OpenAI opens ChatGPT to 100k researchers
A new academic program gives 100,000 researchers free GPT-5.6 Sol Pro through 2027, each able to invite up to four collaborators, with their data kept out of training by default. Weights stay closed — but OpenAI notes the Codex/ChatGPT Work agent harness underneath is open-source.