GitHub Unveils GPT-4o Copilot, Now Integrated with Claude 3.7 Sonnet
GitHub has launched an exciting new milestone for developers with the release of GPT-4o Copilot, a cutting-edge code completion model that supercharges GitHub Copilot with unprecedented speed and precision. This update promises to transform AI-assisted coding by delivering smarter, near-instantaneous suggestions right in your IDE.
Not long after, Anthropic has introduced Claude 3.7 Sonnet, their most advanced AI assistant to date, released in February 2025. Boasting enhanced reasoning and deeper analytical capabilities, Claude 3.7 Sonnet is designed to tackle complex tasks with remarkable insight, complementing tools like GPT-4o Copilot for a powerful AI-driven development experience.
A Quick Look at GitHub Copilot's Journey
GitHub Copilot debuted in a technical preview in June 2021, born from a partnership with OpenAI and powered by the GPT-3 model. Trained on a vast library of public code, it offered intelligent, context-aware code suggestions directly within IDEs, quickly becoming a game-changer for developers.
Since then, Copilot has grown rapidly, expanding language support, refining its grasp of coding conventions, and integrating seamlessly with popular IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains. It became available to individual developers via a subscription in 2022 and went free for all in 2024. Each step has seen the underlying AI models grow more sophisticated, with GPT-4o Copilot marking the latest leap forward.
What's New with GPT-4o Copilot?
GPT-4o Copilot elevates GitHub Copilot's "ghost text" code completion with several standout improvements:
- Blazing-Fast Suggestions: Code completions appear almost instantly as you type, eliminating delays and boosting workflow efficiency.
- Pinpoint Accuracy: Trained on over 275,000 high-quality public code repositories, it delivers spot-on, contextually relevant suggestions that align with real-world coding practices.
- Broad Language Coverage: Unlike many AI tools limited to a handful of languages, GPT-4o Copilot supports over 30 programming languages, including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Ruby, Go, C++, C#, Java, PHP, Swift, Rust, and more.
- Real-World Code Optimization: By learning from curated public codebases, it helps developers write clean, idiomatic code that adheres to industry standards and best practices.
Powered by OpenAI's GPT-4o mini architecture, GitHub has fine-tuned this model specifically for code completion, leveraging its extensive repository of public source code to create a highly specialized tool.
What's New with Claude 3.7 Sonnet?
Claude 3.7 Sonnet, Anthropic's latest AI model released in February 2025, introduces groundbreaking advancements that make it a standout companion for developers and knowledge workers alike. As the industry's first hybrid reasoning model, it seamlessly integrates rapid responses with deep, step-by-step reasoning, offering users unprecedented flexibility:
Hybrid Reasoning: Claude 3.7 Sonnet operates in two modes—standard and extended thinking. Standard mode delivers quick, real-time responses ideal for simple queries, while extended thinking mode allows the model to break down complex problems with visible, step-by-step reasoning, significantly boosting performance in math, physics, coding, and instruction-following. API users can fine-tune the reasoning duration, setting a token budget (up to 128,000 tokens) to balance speed, cost, and depth.
Coding Excellence: The model achieves state-of-the-art performance in coding, excelling in tasks like front-end web development, full-stack updates, and complex codebases. It scored an impressive 62.3% on SWE-bench Verified (rising to 70.3% with extended thinking), surpassing competitors like OpenAI's o3-mini and DeepSeek R1. It's also optimized for real-world coding scenarios, making it ideal for powering agentic workflows and development lifecycles.
Extended Context Handling: With support for up to 128,000 output tokens (over 15x longer than its predecessor, Claude 3.5 Sonnet), Claude 3.7 Sonnet can process and generate detailed outputs for large codebases, data analysis, and planning tasks, enhancing its utility for developers and researchers.
Transparent Reasoning: Unlike some competitors, Claude 3.7 Sonnet offers full transparency by displaying its raw chain-of-thought process, allowing users to see how it arrives at solutions—a feature particularly valuable for debugging, refining code, and understanding complex decisions.
Broader Applications: Beyond coding, Claude 3.7 Sonnet excels in instruction-following, multimodal tasks, and general reasoning, with notable improvements in math, physics, and even niche tests like Pokémon gameplay. It's available on all Claude plans (including free).
This model's integration with GitHub Copilot in public preview further enhances its appeal, offering developers powerful AI assistance across IDEs like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains, with particularly strong results in agentic coding scenarios.
How to Dive into GPT-4o Copilot
Starting today, GPT-4o Copilot is available for GitHub Copilot users in Visual Studio Code. To get started:
- Click the Copilot icon in the VS Code title bar.
- Select "Configure Completions," then "Change Completions Model."
- Choose "gpt-4o-copilot" from the options.
Once activated, Copilot will instantly use the new model to suggest completions as you code—simply press Tab to accept a suggestion. The update will soon roll out to JetBrains IDE users, with plans to make it the default model for all Copilot users after performance monitoring and feedback collection.
The Next Frontier of AI-Powered Coding
From its early days as a technical preview to its status as an indispensable tool for developers globally, GitHub Copilot has redefined coding workflows. With the introduction of GPT-4o Copilot and advanced models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet, the AI landscape is evolving at breakneck speed, promising to make software development faster, more intuitive, and more accessible than ever.
To explore and start using GPT-4o Copilot, head to the GitHub Copilot website. For more on Claude 3.7 Sonnet, visit Anthropic's website or try it via Claude.ai or the Anthropic API.
Happy coding!
PS: Start experimenting today!