# GitHub Copilot App Adds Bring Your Own Key Support

**GitHub Copilot app users can now run agent sessions against their own model providers, from OpenAI to self-hosted Ollama and LM Studio setups.**

## What changed

The GitHub Copilot app now supports bring your own key, or BYOK, so developers can run agent sessions against their own model providers instead of only Copilot-hosted models. According to [GitHub's changelog](https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-23-github-copilot-app-support-for-byok/), supported providers include OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, LM Studio, Ollama, and any OpenAI-compatible endpoint.

## How to set it up

A developer adds a provider in Settings, under Model Providers, with an endpoint and API key, or just a host for LM Studio or Ollama. Once added, that provider's models appear in the model picker alongside Copilot-hosted models, and the developer chooses which one to use each session. GitHub says keys are stored in the local OS keychain and are never read back by the UI.

## What BYOK lets developers do

GitHub lists three things BYOK enables. First, developers can connect the providers they already use, adding Azure OpenAI, Anthropic, self-hosted Ollama, LM Studio, or any OpenAI-compatible gateway, then choosing the right model for each session while keeping their existing billing, quotas, regions, and data-handling terms. Second, developers can mix frontier and local models, pairing a frontier model to handle complexity with a local or self-hosted model to handle execution. Third, developers can keep traffic in their own tenant, routing inference through their own cloud account, tenant, or internal gateway for enterprise and regulated environments with stricter data-boundary requirements.

## Who can use it

GitHub tells developers to download the GitHub Copilot app to start a session. GitHub notes that accessing the GitHub Copilot app on a Copilot Business or Enterprise plan requires an organization or enterprise admin to have the Copilot CLI enabled in policy settings, so an individual developer on one of those plans may still need an admin to flip that setting first before they can use BYOK at all.

## Why the three use cases matter

Each of the three things GitHub says BYOK enables addresses a different reason a team might not want to run everything through Copilot-hosted models alone. Connecting a provider a team already uses lets that team keep the billing, quotas, regions, and data-handling terms it has already negotiated with that provider, rather than starting over under Copilot's own terms. Mixing frontier and local models lets a team send the harder reasoning work to a larger frontier model while routing routine execution to a smaller model running locally or on infrastructure the team controls, which GitHub frames as a complexity-versus-execution split rather than an all-or-nothing choice between hosted and local models. Keeping traffic inside a team's own tenant addresses the enterprise and regulated cases GitHub calls out specifically, where inference has to stay behind a company's own cloud account, tenant, or internal gateway rather than passing through Copilot's hosted infrastructure at all.

## Where to learn more

GitHub points developers who want configuration detail beyond the changelog post itself to two further resources: documentation on getting started with the GitHub Copilot app, and documentation specifically on using your own LLM models through BYOK. GitHub also invites developers to join the discussion in the GitHub Community if they have feedback on the feature.

## Key facts

- The GitHub Copilot app now supports bring your own key (BYOK) for agent sessions.
- Supported providers include OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, Microsoft Foundry, Anthropic, LM Studio, Ollama, and OpenAI-compatible endpoints.
- Providers are added in Settings under Model Providers, with an endpoint and API key, or just a host for LM Studio or Ollama.
- Keys are stored in the local OS keychain and are never read back by the UI.
- Copilot Business and Enterprise users need their admin to enable the Copilot CLI in policy settings to access the app.

## Check your understanding

- Where are BYOK keys stored, and does the GitHub Copilot app UI ever read them back?
- What are the three things GitHub says BYOK lets a developer do with frontier and local models?

## Sources

- [GitHub Copilot app support for BYOK (GitHub Changelog)](https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-23-github-copilot-app-support-for-byok/)

---

- Category: implement (tooling)
- Affects: —
- Published: 2026-06-23T00:00:00.000Z
- Original: https://github.blog/changelog/2026-06-23-github-copilot-app-support-for-byok/
- Generated by tinker news