Official Documentation

You can disable the built-in AI features in VS Code with the chat.disableAIFeatures setting, similar to how you configure other features in VS Code. This disables and hides features like chat or inline suggestions in VS Code and disables the Copilot extensions. You can configure the setting at the workspace or user level.

Alternatively, use the Learn How to Hide AI Features action from the Chat menu in the title bar to access the setting.

If you have previously disabled the built-in AI features, your choice is respected upon updating to a new version of VS Code.

Source (Since 2025-09-04)

Example

In version 1.105.1 (7d842fb8, 2025-10-14), in addition to the configuration setting, a command was added Chat: Learn How to Hide AI Features that also redirects to the setting.

_{Thank you, @shoover!}

Official Documentation (v1.104.*)

Can I disable AI functionality in VS Code?

You can hide the built-in AI functionality in VS Code by selecting Hide AI Features in the Command Palette or selecting Hide AI Features from the Copilot menu in the VS Code title bar.

If you have already installed the Copilot extensions, you need to first uninstall the Copilot and Copilot Chat extensions before you can hide the built-in AI features.

To restore the built-in AI features in VS Code, run the Chat: Use AI Features with Copilot for free command from the Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P).

Source (since 2025-08-28)

_{Thank you, @Bret Johnson!}

Example (v1.103.1)

In version 1.103.1 (360a4e4f, 2025-08-12), the option was renamed to Chat: Hide AI Features.

_{Thank you, @Filippo Alberto Edoardo!}

Example (v1.98.2-v1.102.*)

Evidently, VS Code v1.98.2 (ddc367ed, 2025-03-12) should have option Chat: Hide Copilot that, once confirmed, removes Chat and the status bar indicator.

Related: Official Documentation Source (since 2025-05-19)

_{> "Machines should work; people should think." ~ IBM Pollyanna Principle ( Source)}

ctrl+shift+p > Hide Copilot

Then you can see the icon in the lower right crossed or not.

For disabling Chat-related AI features of VS Code, use the chat.disableAIFeatures setting.

Specific features for GitHub Copilot

See the official enable/disable docs. TL;DR, pre-1.97 there's a status bar indicator for GitHub Copilot in VS Code, and upon clicking it, you will be prompted to disable it globally or just for the specific language mode of your currently active editor tab (see the github.copilot.enable setting, which takes an object mapping language modes to booleans for whether Copilot should be enabled for editor tabs in the language mode). Post VS Code 1.97, I think that thing has moved to the title bar and is visible even without the extension installed, and I believe that can be hidden using the chat.commandCenter.enabled setting and right clicking the other copilot action buttons in the title bar and hiding them.

There's also a command you can bind to a keyboard shortcut: github.copilot.completions.toggle (previously github.copilot.toggleCopilot). That's the command ID; the command title which you can use in the command palette is GitHub Copilot: Enable/Disable Copilot Completions.

For excluding files from GitHub Copilot, see How to Exclude Specific Files (like .env) from GitHub Copilot in VS Code?.

You may also be interested in [Idea] AI actions should respect Copilot Completions language disablement #199379.

If you just want to disable automatically showing inline completions, then use the github.copilot.editor.enableAutoCompletions setting.

General disablement of VS Code extensions

To disable an extension, go to the extensions view. You can do that under the "View" menu at the top left, or click the icon at the left bar, or use the View: Show Extenstions command, or ctrl+shift+x (on Windows and Linux).

Here are pictures of the extension button icon that you can see in the left bar:

Then scroll until you find the Github Co-pilot extension, then click the gear icon at the bottom right of the extension card. Then, in the menu that pops up, click "Disable" or if you only want to disable it for the current workspace, "Disable (Workspace)".

Here are pictures of the gear button icon that you can see at the bottom right of the extension card:

Now that "NES" is built into VS Code itself (as of December 2024) rather than being an extension that you can just rip out, you'll need to modify your settings to disable every aspect of it.

So, based on https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/copilot-settings, you'll want to add the following to your user settings json file (command palette -> "open user settings (json)") or even your defaultSettings.json (which is typically read-only so you'll need to UAC-admin or sudo your way to victory there):

"github.copilot.enable": { "*": false },
"github.copilot.editor.enableAutoCompletions": false,
"github.copilot.editor.enableCodeActions": false,
"github.copilot.nextEditSuggestions.enabled": false,
"github.copilot.renameSuggestions.triggerAutomatically": false,
"chat.commandCenter.enabled": false,
"chat.agent.enabled": false

And then restart VS Code.

To disable it per workspace

create a folder called .vscode, if not already exist

create a file called settings.json, if not already exist

That json file should have this line -

github.copilot.editor.enableAutoCompletions set to false

like so,

{
    // other settings
    "github.copilot.editor.enableAutoCompletions": false,
    // other settings
}

Okay. To disable copilot chat.

1. Open Command Palette (Ctrl+Shift+P / Cmd+Shift+P)
2. Search Preferences: Open Settings (UI).
3. In the search bar, type copilot
4. Chat: Disable AI Features
5. Turn on "Chat: Disable AI Features"

What worked for me:

Step 1: Uninstall Copilot from the Extensions remove Copilot

Step 2: Hide Copilot option is now available

Do cmd+shift+P on mac or ctrl+shift+P on windows, and type >enable copilot. This will toggle the option (Enables if already disabled and vice-versa).

1. Open your VS Code workspace

2. In the left sidebar, look for a .vscode folder.

3. Inside .vscode, locate or create a file named settings.json.

4. Add the following configuration:

   {
       "github.copilot.enable": {
           "*": false
       },
   }
   

5. Save the file. VS Code will apply the setting immediately.

To disable all AI features in the newest release (1.104.1), go to settings and set @id:chat.disableAIFeatures to true. This will immediately hide the chat panel, the status bar icon and all GitHub Copilot code completion features.

Why everyone makes it so hard to disable the co-pilot in VSCode.. Just press the co-pilot icon where I mark with arrow 1, and then will pop-up "GitHub Copilot Menu", and where the arrow with 2 is press "Disable Completions", that's it.

After searching for a way to toggle this on/off without having to sign out of Github, ended up just doing:

View > Extensions, search for Copilot, select the extension(s) and on the right, clicked Disable. When I want it back, I should just need to click Enable.

You can use the Visual Studio Installer to uninstall GitHub copilot.

1. Open the installer, select modify, and then view the installation details on the right side of the window.
2. Navigate down this list until you find GitHub copilot.
3. Uncheck the option, select modify, and it will be uninstalled.

Note: The GitHub copilot icon still appears at the top right side of Visual Studio. You can now click on the icon and hide the GitHub copilot.

1. Open GitHub Copilot Settings → Configure Code Completions.

2. Click Edit Settings....

3. Find GitHub › Copilot: Enable.

4. Click the ✏️ next to the list.

5. Set * from true to false.

6. Click OK to save.

See screenshot here

The old methods may not work anymore. This is what is working for me to toggle copilot completions:

Add this snippet to your keybindings.json (Ctrl + Shift + P >>> Preferences: Open Keyboard Shortcuts)

{
    "key": "ctrl+shift+alt+o",
    "command": "github.copilot.completions.toggle"
}

For anyone wondering how to temporarily disable GitHub's Copilot:

if you hover over Copilot's icon in the bottom-right, this popup brings up, and you can Snooze the auto completion for 5 minutes

You can choose to disable the extension from the extensions tab

1. Click the Copilot Icon at the top.
2. Click "Configure Code Completions"
3. Depending on the current state, click "Enable Completions" or "Disable Completions" to toggle it.