'This is horrific': GitHub kills Copilot pull-request ads after user backlash

Date:
Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:05:00 +0000

Description:
Developers were (understandably) furious with Copilot and other ads appearing in their pull requests now GitHub has reversed its decision.

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now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter More than 11,000 GitHub pull requests had ads inserted by Copilot Developers were unhappy about the way they were being implemented GitHub has confirmed this was a mistake, and it has no plans to advertise like this GitHub has reversed its decision to insert ads for its AI tools into Copilot-generated and edited pull requests after developer backlash.

Australian developer Zach Manson explained how after a colleague used Copilot to correct a typo in a pull request, the Microsoft -owned platform had also inserted promotional messages for but just its own tools, but also third parties like Recast. Manson was just one of many developers complaining about this perceived advertising more than 11,000 pull requests contained similar Copilot-inserted ads without user awareness or consent. Article continues below You may like Bad news skeptics - GitHub says it will employ user data
to train its AI after all OpenAI is serving ads to free and paying users, and not everyone is happy GitHub integrates Claude and Codex AI coding agents directly into GitHub GitHub has stopped inserting ads into pull requests Besides the unwanted ads, developers were also unhappy about GitHub's execution ads appeared as if they were written by the developers, not inserted by AI.

One of GitHub's later changes included these so-called 'tips' on any pull request where Copilot was mentioned, but previously, they were just inserted when Copilot created the pull requests.

Manson cited separate commentary by Cory Doctorow on TikTok's demise : "Here is how platforms die: first, they are good to their users; then they abuse their users to make things better for their business customers; finally, they abuse those business customers to claw back all the value for themselves. Then, they die."

GitHub has since admitted it made the "wrong judgement call," and has subsequently disabled these tips in pull requests. Are you a pro? Subscribe
to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

"GitHub does not and does not plan to include advertisements on the
platform," Developer Relations VP Martin Woodward has since explained .

"We recently identified a programming logic issue in the GitHub Copilot
coding agent that caused a 'product tip', including a third-party suggestion, to appear incorrectly in a pull request comment.

"Our goal was to share novel ways to use Copilot coding agent, and in this case, we highlighted our integration with Raycast as part of a broader set of product tips... We have removed Copilot agent tips from all pull requests moving forward." Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/pro/this-is-horrific-github-kills-copilot-pull-reque st-ads-after-user-backlash


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