GitHub announced on August 7, 2026 that choosing an effort level for Copilot code review has moved to general availability 1. There are two settings. GitHub describes Lite as suited to “feedback on straightforward changes,” and Balanced as the one to reach for “when a change warrants deeper analysis from a higher-reasoning model” 1. The Low and Medium levels used during public preview have been renamed to Lite and Balanced, and existing configurations migrate automatically 1.
The settings nest rather than conflict. Picking a level on an individual pull request affects only that review, leaving repository and organisation defaults untouched 1. Administrators set an organisation-wide default under organisation settings → Copilot → Copilot code review, which repositories inherit unless they specify their own 1.
The more consequential change day to day may be one of visibility. GitHub says the review “now labels which effort level ran in both timeline events and the pull request overview comment” 1 — so the depth of a given review travels with its output, rather than having to be inferred. The feature is available on Copilot Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise plans 1.
Sources
- Copilot code review effort levels are generally available - GitHub Changelog (August 7, 2026)