Microsoft is opening up GitHub Copilot to run on open-weight models for the first time, and the Chinese Kimi model is at the front of the line.

GitHub rolled out access to the Kimi K2.7 Code model, hosted on Microsoft Azure, on July 1 as a “low-cost option” for Copilot users, marking another win for China’s AI industry.

Kimi joins models from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic as an option in the Copilot and Visual Studio Code model picker, making it the cheapest non-lightweight model outside of GitHub’s fine-tuned Raptor mini option.

Availability of the Kimi model will be turned off by default for GitHub Copilot Enterprise and Business, requiring administrators to make it available before users can select it.

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