GitHub Copilot now works in Xcode’s built-in coding assistant. How to set it up

What changed on November 4

GitHub announced on November 4, 2026 that “you can now work with GitHub Copilot directly in Xcode’s built-in coding assistant.” It’s a public preview, “available starting with Xcode 27.3 beta,” and “All Copilot plans are supported.”

Apple’s Xcode 27.3 beta release notes list it as the only new Coding Intelligence feature: “GitHub Copilot is now available in the coding assistant.” The beta ships Swift 6.4 and the 27.3 SDKs, and it “requires a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26.6 or later.”

Until now, Copilot users in Xcode had one route: GitHub’s Copilot for Xcode app, which runs beside Xcode as an extension. That doesn’t go away. GitHub says “the existing GitHub Copilot for Xcode extension remains a separate option, so you can choose the workflow that works best for you.”

Who gets it

Anyone on a Copilot plan who is willing to run a beta Xcode. These are the individual plans as GitHub lists them on November 5:

Plan	Price	Included usage, as GitHub puts it
Copilot Free	$0	2,000 completions a month, “Limited chat and agent usage”
Copilot Pro	$10 a month	$15 a month in credits ($10 base, $5 flex)
Copilot Pro+	$39 a month	$70 a month in credits ($39 base, $31 flex)
Copilot Max	$100 a month	$200 a month in credits ($100 base, $100 flex)
Business and Enterprise	Through your organization	“Admins set usage limits and decide whether additional paid usage is allowed”

On Business and Enterprise, your admins also decide what reaches your Mac. Apple’s setup guide says a management profile that sets CodingAssistantAllowExternalIntegrations to false turns the coding assistant off for outside providers.

How to set it up

GitHub’s steps are short, and Apple’s guide fills in how Xcode’s sign-ins work.

1. Update macOS to Tahoe 26.6 or later.
2. Download the Xcode 27.3 beta from Apple Developer Downloads. Keep a released Xcode for the builds you submit.
3. Open Xcode > Settings > Intelligence and set up GitHub Copilot there. For other providers, Apple’s guide has you sign in from the settings and finish in the browser. GitHub hasn’t documented Copilot’s exact screens.
4. Open the coding assistant with the Coding Assistant button or Command-0, and start a new conversation. If you’ve set up more than one agent, Xcode asks which to use.

GitHub asks for bug reports in the Copilot for Xcode repository or through Apple’s Feedback Assistant.

The built-in assistant or the extension

For now, most people should keep the extension and try the built-in option on the side.

• The extension works today. It runs on macOS 13 or later and Xcode 14 or later, and installs with brew install --cask github-copilot-for-xcode. GitHub’s feature matrix lists code completion, chat, agent mode, checkpoints, Copilot code review and MCP for Xcode, with next edit suggestions, custom agents and custom instructions in preview.
• The built-in option is a beta inside a beta. It needs Xcode 27.3 beta and is itself a preview. What you get is Xcode’s own assistant, which Apple says can build your app to check the code and fix build errors as it goes, with a conversation history you can roll changes back through.

If your team ships from a released Xcode, nothing changes until Apple releases 27.3. Neither company has given a date for that.

Where Copilot sits among Xcode’s other options

Copilot joins a crowded settings pane. Apple’s setup guide describes these routes:

• Agents you install with Get and Install, which “automatically” get Xcode capabilities “such as building and testing your app.” Apple’s guide shows Claude Agent, and Xcode 26.3 added Claude Agent and Codex in February.
• Chat providers. ChatGPT works “with or without an account,” Claude Sonnet & Opus with a Claude sign-in, and any other provider that supports the Chat Completions API, hosted online or on your Mac.
• Agents that speak the Agent Client Protocol, added with Add an Agent.
• Agents outside Xcode. Under Model Context Protocol, set “Allow External Agents to Use Xcode Tools” to Always or “While Xcode is Open.” Apple’s guide then gives claude mcp add --transport stdio xcode -- xcrun mcpbridge for Claude Code and codex mcp add xcode -- xcrun mcpbridge for Codex. Open the project in Xcode before you prompt.

That last route is the one to use if you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT and work in a terminal or another app. Enjoy runs Claude Code and Codex side by side on the plans you already have; it doesn’t run Copilot.

What GitHub and Apple haven’t said

We couldn’t find answers to these on either company’s pages on November 5:

• Which Copilot models you can pick in Xcode’s assistant.
• How requests count against your plan’s AI credits, or how much a Free account’s “limited” chat and agent usage covers there.
• Which Copilot features come through: whether it acts as an agent that builds and tests, or as a chat provider, and whether Copilot code review or MCP servers work there.
• When Xcode 27.3 ships outside the beta, and whether the preview ends then.
• Whether the extension has an end date. GitHub calls it “a separate option” and gives no sign it’s going away.