BUG - Error You’re not authorized to use Copilot.

[AnnibalHAbreu]

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I’m a GitHub Copilot subscriber, but from time to time—without any clear reason—I receive the message: “Error: You’re not authorized to use Copilot.”
To continue working, I have to sign out of my account and log back in.

I also noticed that if I start a chat using, for example, Claude Opus, the next day when I return to the same chat, the model has switched to ChatGPT 5.2. This has happened multiple times.
And when I try to switch back to the Claude Opus model, I get a message saying that a new chat will be started. This is a problem because it causes me to lose all the context built up to that point.

[pratikrath126]

The 'not authorized' message usually means your session token expired or your subscription hasn't synced. After signing back in, clear any stale sessions in VS Code settings (GitHub.Copilot.Advanced.Authentication). For model switching: Copilot Chat may fall back to the default model (GPT-5.2) when the selected one is unavailable. To preserve context, avoid switching models mid-chat—start a new chat with the desired model instead. If issues persist, collect logs and contact Support with your account email.

[madebymustafa]

This usually happens when your GitHub session and Copilot session get out of sync. Even if you’re subscribed, Copilot can show “not authorized” if your login token expired or something didn’t refresh properly.

A few simple things to try:

• Log out of GitHub completely, then log back in
• Restart your editor (VS Code, etc.) after logging back in
• Check that Copilot is active under your GitHub account settings
• If you recently switched models in Copilot Chat, start a brand new chat instead of switching models mid conversation

Most of the time, re-authenticating fixes it.

If it still doesn’t work, grab the logs from your editor and send them to GitHub Support so they can check what’s blocking the authorization on their side.

Hope this helps 🙂

[AnnibalHAbreu]

Thank you, @pratikrath126 and @madebymustafa.
This is something GitHub needs to fix.
The session token should last at least 8 hours so it doesn’t interrupt our work.

About the model switching: I’m not manually changing models within the same chat.
It happens when I return to the chat after some time, and the model has switched on its own.

@Copilot should let us choose which model we want to use as the default.

My prefered model is Claude

By the way, which is the Copilt email support?

[AAbdullahRajput]

Hi @AnnibalHAbreu,

I've experienced the same issues and completely agree with your points.

Regarding the 'not authorized' error — this is clearly a session management bug on GitHub's end. A subscriber should never be interrupted mid-work just because a token expired silently. At minimum, Copilot should refresh the token automatically in the background or at least warn you before it expires.

As for the model switching — this is a known pain point. When you return to an old chat and Copilot silently switches the model, it breaks the entire context and workflow. A default model setting is something many users have been requesting, and GitHub really should prioritize this.

For GitHub Support, you can reach them at:
https://support.github.com

You can submit a ticket there with your account email and logs from your editor. The more users report this, the faster it gets prioritized.

Hope this gets fixed soon for everyone! 🙂

[AnnibalHAbreu]

Thank you for sharing.

[AnnibalHAbreu]

I am still experiencing the same problems I previously reported to GitHub Support.

I’m frequently getting the message “You’re not authorized to use Copilot” while working on a project in Spaces. This happens intermittently and interrupts my workflow, which is quite frustrating.

Another issue occurs when I leave a Spaces chat and later return to it. The model I was using is automatically changed. For example, if I’m working with Claude Opus, after leaving Spaces and coming back to the same chat it switches to GPT-5.2.

This unexpected model change disrupts the continuity of the conversation and can break the work that was already done in the session.

Both issues significantly impact productivity and make it difficult to rely on Spaces for ongoing development work

[codekalinga]

Hey Annibal, really sorry you're still dealing with this, super frustrating! The "not authorized" error is almost certainly a session token bug; try clearing stale sessions in VS Code settings (GitHub Copilot: Advanced: Authentication) and signing out/in before starting work, which sometimes helps the token last longer. As for the model switching in Spaces, it's a known issue where chats default back to the latest model (GPT) when revisited—unfortunately, the only workaround for now is to start a fresh chat with Claude each time to preserve context.