Copilot Pro trial stuck – cannot revert to Free – VS Code "Failed to fetch models"

[glendinez]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Other

Body

My Copilot Pro trial was canceled, but my account is stuck in an inconsistent state.

• The trial is still marked as active until expiration
• Copilot Pro trials are currently paused
• I cannot switch to Copilot Free
• Copilot Chat in VS Code fails with:
  "Failed to fetch models – Copilot Pro trials have been temporarily paused"

This makes Copilot completely unusable.

I believe this is a backend subscription mismatch.

Could someone from GitHub reset my Copilot subscription state so I can use Copilot Free again?

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[TRKA234]

Hi @glendinez,

This looks like a classic "subscription ghosting" issue where the backend hasn't successfully downgraded your entitlement status after the trial cancellation. When the system says "trials are paused," it usually means it's blocking the Pro features but hasn't released your account back to the Free tier yet.

While only a GitHub Staff member can performing a hard reset on your subscription state, you can try these steps to force a local state refresh:

1. Force Token Refresh in VS Code
   Sometimes the IDE keeps trying to fetch the Pro model because of a cached session token.

Open the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P).

Type and select: Developer: Reload Window.

If that fails, go to the Accounts icon (bottom left) > Sign Out of GitHub, restart VS Code, and Sign In again.

2. Revoke and Re-authorize
   You can try to "nudge" the backend by revoking the extension's access:

Go to your GitHub Settings > Applications.

Find GitHub Copilot and Revoke its access.

Go back to VS Code and sign in again to trigger a fresh authorization flow.

3. Check the "Billing" vs "Copilot" Tab
   Verify if there is a "Resume Subscription" or "Cancel" button still visible at github.com/settings/billing. Sometimes clicking "Cancel" one more time (if available) triggers the final state change to Free.

4. Official Support Ticket
   Since this involves a billing state mismatch ("Copilot Pro trials have been temporarily paused" error), I highly recommend opening a ticket at GitHub Support.

Topic: Account & Billing

Subject: Backend subscription mismatch - Stuck in Trial state

Details: Mention specifically that you are seeing the "trials have been temporarily paused" error, which prevents the fallback to Copilot Free.

They are usually able to "purge" the stuck trial state manually so you can regain access to the Free tier.

[queenofcorgis]

Hi, we appreciate you reaching out to report this issue.

We have recently needed to pause GitHub Copilot Pro trial plans due to a significant rise in abuse of our free trial system, as announced on the GitHub Blog: Pausing new GitHub Copilot Pro trials.

⭐ We are aware that some users are having trouble cancelling the trial and we are working towards a solution. For more information and real-time updates, please subscribe to this discussion to receive notifications as we post additional details.