Copilot is unavailable in my region (Russia). Account: wmmagnet

[wmmagnet]

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Hello,

I am a developer from Russia and I am trying to set up the free plan of GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio Code for my project. Unfortunately, I am encountering an error that prevents me from accessing the service.

Problem Description:
After multiple attempts to sign in and authorize, I am consistently redirected to the Copilot Pro signup page or see the error message: "Copilot is unavailable to you at this time". I cannot activate the free Copilot plan.

What I have tried:

Following the official setup guide in VS Code.

Using commands GitHub: Sign Out and GitHub: Sign In multiple times.

Clearing the cache and reinstalling the extension.

Checking my account settings at github.com/settings/copilot.

My GitHub account username is: wmmagnet

I understand from public community discussions that Copilot access may be restricted in my country
. Could you please clarify the current status of GitHub Copilot availability for users in Russia? Is there any way for me to use the free tier of the service for my personal development projects?

[AnuragDubey007]

"Hi @wmmagnet,

I understand how frustrating it is to encounter access errors after following all the standard setup steps.

To clarify the current status: GitHub, as a U.S.-based company, must comply with trade control regulations. Currently, GitHub Copilot (including the free tier for individuals) and several other GitHub services are restricted for users located in Russia due to these international sanctions and trade compliance requirements.

This is likely why you are seeing the message 'Copilot is unavailable to you at this time' despite attempting to re-sign in or clear your cache.

Regarding your questions:

Availability Status: There is currently no official timeline or provision for enabling GitHub Copilot for users in Russia under the current regulatory landscape.

Accessing the Free Tier: Because these restrictions are applied at the account and network level based on regional compliance, standard troubleshooting (like reinstalling the extension) will not bypass the block if the account is identified as being in a restricted region.

Since you are looking for a way to use AI-assisted coding for your personal projects while Copilot is restricted, here are a few technical alternatives and 'tricks' that developers in your situation are currently using:

Switch to Alternative LLM Extensions: Many VS Code extensions allow you to use different AI models (like CodeLlama, DeepSeek, or Qwen) which do not have the same regional restrictions as GitHub. I recommend checking out:

Continue.dev: An open-source extension that lets you plug in any API key (including free tiers from other providers).

Codeium: Currently offers a very strong free tier for individuals and often has broader regional availability than Copilot.

Local LLMs (The 'Total Bypass'): If you have a decent GPU (or even a Mac with M-series chips), you can run your own 'Copilot' locally. Use Ollama or LM Studio to run models like starcoder2 or codellama. Since the code never leaves your machine, there are no regional blocks or privacy concerns.

Check API availability vs. IDE availability: Sometimes the web-based API access for certain models is restricted differently than the IDE extension. You might find that using the OpenAI API or Anthropic API through a third-party wrapper works even when the official 'Copilot' button does not.

Mirroring/Proxy: While I cannot recommend violating ToS, many developers ensure their environment variables (http_proxy and https_proxy) are correctly configured in their terminal and VS Code settings to ensure the IDE can reach GitHub's authentication servers through their local network's preferred route.

While the 'official' Copilot might be stuck, the tools above will give you the same (or better) coding assistance without the regional errors."