February 8, 2026
Paywall? More like a suggestion
Billing can be bypassed using a combo of subagents with an agent definition
Copilot paywall loophole sparks roast fest; bot shuts it down
TLDR: A GitHub report says Copilot’s billing can be dodged via a clever setup, making pricey models free. Comments erupted with jokes about “vibe coding,” claims Microsoft is “phoning it in,” and laughs at an AI bot closing the case—spotlighting trust and transparency concerns around AI paywalls.
A GitHub user claimed there’s a clever way to sneak past Copilot’s paywall using a chain of chat helpers, turning “premium” AI brains into free ones. The report landed on Microsoft’s VS Code issue tracker and was promptly closed as “not planned”, which only poured rocket fuel on the comments. The mood? Equal parts chaos and comedy.
Some devs were furious, accusing Microsoft of sloppy billing and low effort. “Is it just me or is Microsoft really phoning it in,” one commenter groaned, while another coined the instant meme: “vibe coding”—as in, the paywall vibes are optional. Others were baffled: “Billing for what?” became the unofficial catchphrase for how unclear Copilot’s pricing feels. Then came the meta-drama: users pointed out fake maintainer vibes and vague “fixes,” saying repositories need tighter contributor controls. And the kicker? An AI bot appeared to have closed the issue, prompting eye-rolls and laughter: the robots are not only coding now—they’re shutting the door on bug reports.
Between jokes and jabs, the thread turned into a bigger debate about trust, transparency, and how quickly AI tools can get messy when money’s involved. Whether the loophole is real or patched, the community’s verdict is loud: the billing story needs fewer vibes and more answers.
Key Points
- •The issue reports a method to bypass Copilot Chat billing by combining subagents and agent definitions.
- •Billing is claimed to be calculated on the initial model, while subagents and tool calls do not consume request credits.
- •Free models (e.g., GPT-5 Mini, GPT-4.1) are used to handle the initial request before invoking a subagent with a premium model.
- •Step-by-step instructions detail starting a chat with a free model, defining an agent with a premium model, and invoking the subagent via runSubagent.
- •Example prompt and agent files demonstrate configuring a subagent to use Claude Opus 4.5 while the initial request uses a free model.