Copilot Pro+ “user_weekly_rate_limited” – blocked for 60+ hours on a paid plan

[zacariasnuneiro-spec]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot in GitHub

Body

Hi everyone,

I’m a paying GitHub Copilot user (Copilot Pro / Pro+) and I’m currently getting completely blocked by the following error message in my editor:

“Sorry, you have been rate-limited. Please wait XX hours before trying again or consider switching to Auto.
Server Error: Sorry, you've exceeded your weekly rate limit. Please review our Terms of Service.
Error Code: user_weekly_rate_limited”

In my case, the wait time has been over 60–70 hours, which means I can’t use Copilot at all for several days even though I’m actively paying for it.

This is not a normal short‑term rate limit (like a few seconds or minutes). It’s a multi‑day hard lockout that makes Copilot unusable for real‑world development work. I rely on Copilot as a professional tool, and I also pay for other AI tools, and none of them block me completely for days like this.

A few points that I think deserve attention from GitHub staff and other users:

There is no clear, upfront disclosure when subscribing that a paying user can be fully locked out for multiple days because of an internal “weekly rate limit”.

There is no visible quota/usage meter telling me how close I am to this weekly limit. I only find out when I’m already blocked and the message tells me to “wait 62+ hours”.

The wording “consider switching to Auto” is extremely confusing and feels like I’m being pushed into some different billing/usage mode just to regain access to something I already pay for.

Other people seem to be hitting similar issues with Copilot Pro/Pro+, where a few prompts can trigger aggressive rate limiting or multi‑hour lockouts.

From a user perspective, this:

Breaks trust in Copilot as a reliable paid product.

Makes it impossible to plan work, because I never know when I will suddenly be locked out for days.

Feels inconsistent with how the product is marketed as a “pro” tool for developers.

What I’m asking GitHub to do:

Immediately fix or adjust these weekly rate limits so that paying users are not completely blocked for 60+ hours. Soft throttling is acceptable; total lockout is not.

Provide a clear public explanation of:

What the “user_weekly_rate_limited” error actually means.

What the concrete limits are for Pro / Pro+ (requests per minute/hour/day/week).

How “Auto” fits into this and whether users are being pushed into additional billing just to keep working.

Add a visible usage indicator in the product so we can see remaining quota and avoid hitting hidden caps.

Right now, I’m paying for Copilot and, for long periods, I simply can’t use it. That’s not what I expect from a paid, professional developer tool.

If anyone else is seeing the same user_weekly_rate_limited error with long wait times (dozens of hours), please reply here with your experience so GitHub can see how widespread this is.

Thanks.

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[ColdeZhang]

Same #192880

[thanhviettbd]

I'm experiencing a similar situation, but without a time limit notification. I just bought the Pro+ package and haven't used it even 14% yet, and I've already received a rate limit notification. I don't even know when it will unlock for me. It seems like buying GitHub Coplot was a mistake, and now I don't know how to get my money back. If I were in the US, I might sue GitHub for consumer fraud for not informing customers about this before they made a purchase. Consider switching to Cursor.

[subsona808]

same, i recommend spending the time to investigate alternative and maybe even local hosting, then unsubscribe, they are not listening to us at all when it comes to usage limits, maybe they see it as a negative sales point, but i would of seen it as a warning to be aware of instead of just getting locked out with now warnings or reset timer, when can i start again? dunno, um how do i plan around this ? dunno, is copilot a good product ? yes, customers service is so bad, i got told im not "entitled to support" that is what they responded after jumped through all their hoops, not good enough, been like this since the free month trial lasted 8 days and was hit with a bill, im so migrating to another provider or alternate methods.

[BitBasherr]

correct, even worse is that the weekly limits now cut off from even the "no rate limit" models that were priorly available which were horrible already but at least you could sort of suffer through using them if you had the patience. But agreed that not being able to use your credits because of a lockout cuz of some weekly limit is unacceptable. If it's a demand issue then soft limit for an hour or something more reasonable, not a whole week.