Weekly limits although we use premium requests?

[philipmat]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot Code Review

Body

We (organization) just got an error on a Copilot Code Review that reads:

[Error: You've reached your weekly rate limit. Please wait for your limit to reset in 7 hours 43 minutes or switch to auto model to continue. Learn More (https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/rate-limits). (Request ID: 1C40:2EAF75:300D557:3B313FF:6A00AF93)]

We have Premium Requests usage enable for the Organization. The current budget limit reads $0.20 out of $10, so it seems there are plenty of credits available.

The link recommends:

If you hit a weekly limit and you have premium requests remaining, you can continue using Copilot with Auto model selection

I don't know how to enable "Auto model selection" for Code Reviews.

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[zippynx]

Hello @philipmat! It can be frustrating to hit a limit when you clearly have the budget enabled.

For Copilot Code Review, the "Auto model selection" isn't a toggle switch in the settings, but rather a behavior dictated by how the review is triggered or configured in your workflow/repository.

Here is how you can resolve this or switch to the auto model to continue:

Check the Repository Settings:
Go to your repository Settings > Copilot > Code Review. If you have manually selected a specific "heavy" model (like GPT-4o or specialized reasoning models), the weekly limits are much stricter. Changing the selection here to "Automatic" or "Default" (if available) allows the system to fallback to models with higher availability once your premium tier for a specific model is exhausted.

Verify Policy at the Organization Level:
Since you are in an Organization, check Organization Settings > Copilot > Policies. Ensure that the policy doesn't "Enforce" a specific high-end model for all members. If it's enforced, individual users can't fallback to the auto/standard model.

Check the copilot-instructions.md (if applicable):
If your team uses a custom instructions file, sometimes specific model requests are embedded there. Removing specific model constraints allows GitHub to use the "Auto" selection.

Why this is happening: Even with "Premium Requests" enabled, certain high-tier models have a hard weekly ceiling to ensure global stability. The "Auto" model selection uses a mix of models to keep you productive without waiting for the 7-hour reset.

I hope this helps your team get back to reviewing code! If switching the selection in repository settings works for you, feel free to mark this as the answer.

[philipmat]

Thank you for your answer, @zippynx

The bottom line is that there's no model selected anywhere, Copilot is free to pick whatever its default is (does it do that?). In this particular instance it was added, manually, as a reviewer -- if that makes a diff, but we have the setting turned on to allow members without a Copilot license to use code reviews.

Here's what I'm seeing.

1. Repository Settings -> Copilot -> Code review -- no model selected.
   "Use custom instructions..." is on, but we don't have copilot-instructions.md for this repo, or any other such custom file. There are no rulesets defined (I had manually added Copilot as a reviewer)
2. Org level -- no model enforced.
   "Premium request paid usage" is "Enabled".
   "Copilot code review" is "Enabled". "Allow members without a Copilot license to use Copilot code review in github.com" is checked. We only have Copilot enabled for code reviews, there are no seats assigned to any users.
   Under Org -> Copilot -> Models all the models are "Unconfigured".
3. There is no copilot-instructions.md for this repo.

[zippynx]

Hello @philipmat! I need to correct part of my previous response.

After double-checking the current documentation, I realized that Copilot Code Review does not currently expose a manual model selector or an “Auto” toggle in repository settings. My earlier suggestion about that setting was inaccurate.

Given the configuration you described:

Premium request paid usage is enabled
No models are enforced
Models are unconfigured
Code Review is enabled
No custom instructions are present

…it appears you are hitting a weekly quota that is separate from your billing budget.

The “switch to auto model” message in the error may simply be a generic Copilot notice that does not fully apply to the current Code Review workflow.

At this point, this looks more like a GitHub-side limitation or bug rather than a configuration problem in your organization.

Opening a GitHub Support ticket with the Request ID is probably the best next step.

Apologies again for the earlier confusion!

[philipmat]

Hi @zippynx -- I went the route of enabling a few of the cheaper models (GPT-5.4 nano, Gemini 3 Flash, Grok Code Fast 1) and retried, but still getting the same "weekly rate limit" error.

I'll submit a Support Ticket, thank you

[zippynx]

Thanks for testing that and reporting back that’s actually very useful information.

Since enabling lighter models like GPT-5.4 Nano and Gemini 3 Flash still results in the same “weekly rate limit” error, that strongly suggests this is not tied to a specific model tier or pricing level.

At this point, it seems more likely that there is a separate quota or rate limit affecting Copilot Code Review itself, independent of:

-premium request budget
-enabled models
-or model cost

That also makes the “switch to auto model” wording fairly misleading in this context.

Given everything you’ve tested so far, I don’t think there’s much more you can reasonably change on the configuration side.

Opening a GitHub Support ticket with the Request ID is probably the best next step now. If Support provides clarification later, I’d genuinely be interested to hear what the actual limitation turns out to be. Good luck!

[philipmat]

For anyone who might be looking for an answer, here's Copilot's response to submitting a ticket about this:

TL;DR:

Users without Copilot licenses still consume rate-limited capacity

• When members without Copilot licenses use code review (via paid usage), their requests:
  • Are billed as overage, and
  • Still count toward Copilot’s enforced weekly limits.

Other points:

The “switch to auto model” message is generic

• The error message you received is shared across multiple Copilot experiences.
• The recommendation to “switch to auto model selection” applies to Copilot Chat and other interactive Copilot features, not to code review.
• There is currently no action you can take in code review to switch models—even when no model is enforced and no custom instructions exist.

Weekly rate limits are separate from premium request budget

• Enabling Premium request paid usage and having available budget only controls billing, not rate limits.
• Copilot enforces weekly usage limits independently to ensure capacity and fairness, even when paid overage is enabled.
• When that weekly limit is reached, code reviews are blocked until the reset, with no fallback mechanism.

And:

What this means for your organization

• Your configuration is valid and correctly set up.
• Enabling cheaper models or leaving models unconfigured will not affect code review limits.
• There is currently no way to bypass or downgrade a Copilot code review once the weekly limit is hit.
• The only supported options are:
  • Wait for the weekly limit to reset, or
  • Proceed with a support ticket if this limit is impacting legitimate organizational usage patterns.

Booo 😢