GitHub added Grok 4.6 to Copilot's model picker in August 2026. Here is which plans get it, where to find it, and what it actually costs to use.
1. What is Grok 4.6 in GitHub Copilot?
Grok 4.6, xAI's current flagship model, is now selectable inside GitHub Copilot, GitHub's AI coding assistant. That puts it in the same model picker as Copilot's other premium options from Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, rather than as a separate xAI product you have to go looking for elsewhere.
Grok 4.5 was the first Grok model added to Copilot, on 28 July 2026. Grok 4.6 followed it into the picker only weeks later, according to GitHub's own changelog and a matching announcement on xAI's news page.
2. When did Grok 4.6 land in GitHub Copilot?
GitHub's changelog dates the rollout to 14 August 2026, and xAI's own announcement of the integration lines up with that date. Grok 4.6 itself had launched as xAI's new flagship only days earlier, in August 2026, with the official developer docs describing it as the company's most intelligent and fastest model for chat and code.
The rollout was staged, not instant. GitHub said availability would expand gradually across accounts, so seeing Grok 4.6 in your own model picker a little later than a colleague's is expected, not a fault on your side.
Grok 4.6 now sits in the same model picker as Claude and Gemini, so the real question is which model finishes your task with the smallest diff.
3. Which Copilot plans get Grok 4.6?
Grok 4.6 is limited to paid Copilot plans. GitHub's official plans page and changelog list it for Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business and Enterprise, not the free tier.
Where you can pick it is broad. GitHub's changelog lists the model picker as available across eight development surfaces: Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, GitHub Copilot CLI, the Copilot cloud agent, the Copilot mobile app, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode and Eclipse.
Business and Enterprise need a switch flipped
On Copilot Business and Enterprise, Grok 4.6 is off by default. An administrator has to enable the Grok 4.6 policy in Copilot settings before anyone on the plan can select it, so ask your admin if the model is missing from your picker.
4. How much does Grok 4.6 cost inside Copilot?
Copilot moved every plan to usage-based billing on 1 June 2026, replacing the old flat premium-request counts with AI Credits, where one credit is worth $0.01. Each paid plan includes a monthly credit allowance, and premium models, Grok 4.6 included, draw down that allowance as you use them, on top of code completions and next-edit suggestions, which stay free of charge.
GitHub's own billing docs describe premium models as billed at provider list pricing. xAI's published rate for Grok 4.6 is $2 per 1 million input tokens and $6 per 1 million output tokens, the same rate as Grok 4.5 and the figure on xAI's own pricing page. Treat that as the reference rate rather than an exact credit cost, since GitHub converts token usage into credits internally and had not published a fixed multiplier specific to Grok 4.6 at the time of writing. Check your own Copilot billing page for the live figure before you budget around a number here.
5. Should you switch to Grok 4.6 in Copilot?
Test it the way you would test any new coding model, rather than switching because it is new. Copilot's picker already includes Claude and Gemini options, and early coverage has described Grok 4.6 doing well on terminal-based coding tasks specifically, though independent, task-by-task comparisons inside Copilot itself are still thin this soon after launch.
If you already use Grok Build, xAI's separate coding-agent CLI, this is a different route to a related model rather than the same product. Grok Build runs as its own agent outside Copilot, while this integration puts Grok 4.6 to work inside the editor and workflow you already have. Compare the two on a real task instead of assuming one replaces the other.
Run one real bug fix or small feature through Grok 4.6 in your normal Copilot workflow, then judge it on accepted diffs, passing checks and review time, the same standard worth applying to any coding assistant.
6. The bottom line
Grok 4.6 in GitHub Copilot is a distribution change more than a pricing one. The model, its 500k token context window and its per-token price have not moved. What is new is where you can reach it.
Takeaway: if you are on Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business or Enterprise, look for Grok 4.6 in the model picker, or ask an admin to switch it on for Business and Enterprise, then run one real coding task through it before deciding whether it earns a place in your rotation.