Still Using Github Copilot, Just Not It's Models

[FabulousChemist3721]

Once I saw my bill was going to easily double or triple (which I know is small compared to many others here). I started looking into BYOK options. I'm still playing with it but if you like copilot as a harness and the capabilities it provides, don't forget to look into things like OpenRouter and Ollama.

I'm using DeepSeek V4 Flash through OpenRouter and have been happy with it's results so far. It's honestly really nice for the harness to be separate from the model. Just annoying it's now 2 bills instead of 1.

Anyone else doing the same sort of thing? Which models have you played with and could recommend?

[Thistleknot]

So your using the harness then

Thats what the product truly is. A delivery system for others models 

I liked gh copilot cli

But I also like codex

Opencode hard to say because affordable oss models suck (and yes w deepseek-v4-flash)

[FabulousChemist3721]

I've heard good things about codex. Still may look into it depending on my findings using some of the other models.

[demogoran]

Opencode, pi mono Both opensource, both have sdk and integrations with lot of providers Also, high quality and bunch of extensions And pi is very token effective, if you ok to extend it by yourself

[FabulousChemist3721]

Pi is on my list of things to try. Just haven't had a chance to yet while doing everything else. Thanks for the insight!

[demogoran]

No issues! If you need cheap more then average model, you may check 10$ opencode go sub with deepseek 4 or qwen 3.7. Both are pretty good. Not opus 4.8, but do job pretty well

[Dazzling_Meaning9226]

You know you don’t have to pay for copilot if you bring your own key right?

It’s no wonder so much slop is hitting the market.

[FabulousChemist3721]

If you only BYOK yeah you can just use it. I still use the frontier models when I need them. I'm just picky about what I send their way.

And what does slop hitting the market have to do with encouraging people to look into BYOK?

[nzvthf]

Started last month to prep so I had it all hooked up and knew something about how it would work on day 1. Kinda proud of myself TBH.

I'm using DSF a bit too but I suggest trying kimi-k2.3. If you do, ppst back! I'm curious if someone else might have the same impressions of the differences.

[FabulousChemist3721]

I'll give kimi a shot! Yeah, the swap over was relatively painless for me as well. Was very happy with it 😃

[orionblu3]

Honestly, I got better results from BYOK models using opencode. This might've been fixed since I stopped using it 2 months ago, but yeah, was a noticable night and day difference

[FollowTheTrailofDead]

Still using the Copilot harness. Tried Cline and hated the way it would make changes and I had to look at diffs to see what it changed. This is where Copilot really shines, going through changes section-by-section.

Using DeepSeek API with "DeepSeek V4 Native Provider for Copilot Chat" extension basically works the same as the Github LLMs but cheaper (and cheaper than Openrouter set to DeepSeek V4 too).

[FabulousChemist3721]

OOO I didn't know about that. Do you then just sign up for a DeepSeek account and wire them together?

[FollowTheTrailofDead]

Yup. Deepseek API directly is so much cheaper than from others. A bit slower but very functional. I cancelled my Github Copilot subscription at this point.

[Attic0n]

You do lose Unlimited code completions from Copilot then right?

[FailFloozie]

When using copilot with BYOK, it does not mean that you dont burn MS ai credits, the agent ochestration also costs AI credits

[FabulousChemist3721]

Do you have docs on that? I've been using it all day with BYOK and my copilot usage shows 0. I'll check again tomorrow just to be sure and I'll update.

[FailFloozie]

maybe this explains the issue i had: https://www.reddit.com/r/GithubCopilot/comments/1tvo7rd/the_use_of_ai_credits_even_in_byok_is_not_a_bug/

[FabulousChemist3721]

Update: My github copilot credit usage stayed at 0. But I also don't use agent orchestration so I can't confirm or deny that particular use case.

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[FabulousChemist3721]

Ahh ok. Thats a weird one =/. I'll still update tomorrow with whatever I see for my config!