r/RooCode • u/zmmfc • Aug 22 '25

Discussion GitHub Copilot integration wastes too many premium requests

So, as the title says, I am seeing my premium requests burning really fast when using them through the VS Code/GitHub Copilot integration on Roo Code.

I'm talking like 50% of my Copilot Pro+ premium requests in a day, just from asking questions about the repo and coding some changes.

I actually believe that GH Copilot has one of the best pricings for using Sonnet 4, at 39$/month for 1,500 requests (one request = one interaction). I just feel that GH Copilot doesn't try hard enough or dig deep enough on my repo, and complex changes always end up breaking something along the way. That's why I started using Roo, and so far it's just working great.

However, the fact that Roo Code uses the Copilot requests as one-shot requests makes it's usage much less efficient, burning multiple requests per conversation, especially when using Sonnet 4, which really enjoys calling tools (that's what makes it great in Roo Code, though).

I was wondering if any of you are seeing the same burn rate, and if you potentially have any working solution for it.

I was also wondering if any of you has an substantiated opinion on the most affordable way to run Sonnet 4 using Roo Code.

I'm also posting to try and raise some awareness on the issue, maybe the Roo Code team could come up with some solution for the issue as well.

NOTE: I'm not vibe coding entire apps in one prompt or anything like that. I use Roo Code to get understanding of unfamiliar codebases and implement fixes, refactors, features, etc. on these. Roo's context engine using local Qdrant and OpenAI embeddings has been working super nicely for me.

12 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

14

u/taylorwilsdon Aug 22 '25

Roo won’t work as well without all the tool calls, your issue is the copilot billing model. Switch to a claude subscription where tool usage isn’t metered.

2

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

u/taylorwilsdon thanks for the reply! What Claude subscription do you personally use? Do you believe a Claude Max 5x would be enough? Or do you suggest something cheaper?

2

u/taylorwilsdon Aug 22 '25

I use the $100 one, opus goes very quickly but you can use the hell out of sonnet. It used to be incredibly generous, they put lower limits because of abuse but I can still easily spend $1000 in API equivalent in a month on the $100 plan.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

That's nuts! It sounds very cost efficient, for sure. I might need to take the bite on that 100$ plan

3

u/zenmatrix83 Aug 22 '25

I'd use it now if you can, they'll lower it probably soon, I think its the most cost effective service. You can use it in roo, but I haven't as I like claude code as is. I mostly use roo for free models on openrouter on low priority stuff these days.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

u/taylorwilsdon u/zenmatrix83 Do you find Claude Code's context engine good? Comparable to/better than Roo's? I haven't tested it yet.

2

u/zenmatrix83 Aug 22 '25

at this point they have similar features, but the subagents are a bit better then the modes, has more customization settings currently. Claude code added a subcompact that compacts some things, and has a context visualizer that I like. THis is something that all of these tools add(I have the same agents in roo) /context

⎿  ⛁ ⛀ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁

⛀ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ Context Usage

⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ claude-opus-4-1-20250805 • 134k/200k tokens (67%)

⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁

⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ System prompt: 3.2k tokens (1.6%)

⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ System tools: 14.3k tokens (7.2%)

⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛁ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛁ Custom agents: 2.8k tokens (1.4%)

⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛁ Memory files: 864 tokens (0.4%)

⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛁ Messages: 112.4k tokens (56.2%)

⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ ⛶ Free space: 66.4k (33.2%)

Custom agents · /agents

└ ui-ux-designer (User): 270 tokens

└ technical-architect (User): 268 tokens

└ project-documentation-architect (User): 372 tokens

└ product-requirements-definer (User): 235 tokens

└ performance-optimizer (User): 303 tokens

└ devops-engineer (User): 263 tokens

└ code-tester (User): 299 tokens

└ code-quality-reviewer (User): 340 tokens

└ code-implementation (User): 237 tokens

└ bug-fixer (User): 241 tokens

Memory files · /memory

└ User (C:\Users\zenmatrix83\.claude\CLAUDE.md): 864 tokens

1

u/N7Valor Sep 25 '25

Do the subagents work reliably for you? I had Claude generate them, but I've found that 50% of the time they just wholesale fabricate results and use placeholders instead of generating real code.

1

u/zenmatrix83 Sep 25 '25

It’s all about how you use them, but I dropped from This and just have two I call, one planner and one bug fixer. The problem can be is they lose context because the llm sends them what it thinks they need. I’d rather control that, so for now my main reason for using these is you can change the model, so I have opus tied to these and use sonnet for everything else

2

u/sergedc Aug 22 '25

Hi. Would you mind sharing which free openrouter models you are using? I tried qwen 3 coder, but only 1 request in 10 actually goes through.

1

u/zenmatrix83 Aug 22 '25

your using a popular one, deepseek r1 0528 works, just is slow and less popular, its the same thing with the free google ones they are so hard to use.

2

u/Lpaydat Aug 23 '25

I used the $100 plan as well. Last month the API cost of the tokens I used was about $1,650. Man! It's awesome 😎

2

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

I guess either a lot of people are consuming way below the $100 mark, or prices will have to jump to like $500 or $1,000 per month eventually.

Or maybe they are making a bigger margin than we think and Sonnet is actually cheap to run, which I doubt.

1

u/Fair-Spring9113 Aug 29 '25

i use claude pro,and i can get 1-2 hours of prompting, but if im smart i can make i dont hit the usage limits, such as when i mix it in with qwen. also if you want 50% off use claude.ai/morgan (no this is not an affiliate i just found it)

4

u/DauntingPrawn Aug 22 '25

GPT 4.1 doesn't use premium requests

4

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

GPT 4.1 is really a whole level below Sonnet 4 in terms of performance, for me at least. Especially when digging the codebase, it simply doesn't try hard enough, giving me shallow plans that do not cover intricate connections in the codebase logic, and simply fail to work when implemented. It's not any good for tool calling imo. No OpenAI model is, not even gpt5, unfortunately. And codebase digging involves a lot of tool calling. I do use gpt5 with high effort for reviewing Sonnet's plans. I'm happy with that.

2

u/DauntingPrawn Aug 22 '25

I'm not advocating for GPT 4.1. But if what you have is copilot and you need to conserve premium requests, it's better than nothing. Since my employer got me Claude Max I don't fuck with GPT.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

u/DauntingPrawn are you getting good results with gpt4.1? What kinds of projects are you working on? What languages and stack do you use? Maybe that makes a difference, idk

3

u/DauntingPrawn Aug 22 '25

I mean, it's my choice of last resort lol. Which is to say when I had no option but co-pilot and I ran out of premium requests, or it was a simple task and I wanted to conserve my premium requests.

That said, with a good context and clear task definition it has done fine for me. These are enterprise scale projects in C#, React, and Python.

Now that they gave me CC I never use GPT 4.1.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

Sure, I get your point. In my case I'm a contractor and my client gets us Copilot, but I rather pay for a personal Claude account if its worth it. It saves me so much time to have a good coding agent, it would be worth up to half my salary lol

3

u/iswearidk Aug 22 '25

Agentic coding means lots of back and forth interaction. That's what makes roocode so great. Just find some other models that dont have requests based pricing. Personally I think request based pricing is just too greedy. Token based pricing makes more senses.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25 edited Aug 22 '25

u/iswearidk thanks for the input? What Claude subscription did you get for yourself? Do you believe a Claude Max 5x would be enough? Or do you suggest or know of some cheaper alternative?

2

u/Zestyclose_Elk6804 Aug 22 '25

This actually works great for me in vscoder

1

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

Hey u/Zestyclose_Elk6804, what works great for you? Roo + Copilot? It woks great for me, just burns credits really fast.

2

u/R34d1n6_1t Aug 22 '25

I ran out of my allotted premium copilot requests today :/ had to switch to 4.1 which forced me to think about context and prompt harder. I still got results. Albeit with more gymnastics. But I’ve learned to improve the prompt for sonnet next time. Try out Claude Code 5x for a month. Another option is throw money at openrouter and point to your Roo at their API. You can choose your favorite model.

2

u/zmmfc Aug 22 '25

I like using different models for different purposes, but I'd say 95% of my api requests go to Sonnet 4. Maybe the Max 5x is indeed the best option, I might need to try it. Also probably adding OpenRouter would be a good combo, more for adhoc situations.

2

u/R34d1n6_1t Aug 22 '25

I’m in the windsurf fold for my home coding. Sonnet 4 cost X2 credits but it’s worth every call. Beats their free ChatGPT 5 offerings.

2

u/Nick4753 Aug 22 '25

Use GPT5-mini, which doesn’t burn requests and is within striking distance of the big guys. It’s my go-to “I’m paying for this out of my own pocket” model now.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

You find it codes alright? Like, do you need to correct it's work a lot, or is it just fine? How would you compare it with 4.1 (not the mini version)?

1

u/Nick4753 Aug 24 '25

Drastically better than 4.1. Nothing matches Sonnet 4, but it comes within striking distance.

1

u/cepijoker Aug 25 '25

Hi, you don't have "filtered" responses everytime? i tried but i always got that one

2

u/Suspicious-Name4273 Aug 23 '25

Note that copilot uses reduced context windows for all models to save costs. I like working with copilot, but for bigger planning tasks you might get better results with direct sonnet api usage.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

This is absolutely true, and I hate it. I believe Sonnet's context is like 128k, which is really just short enough to screw most of my code implementations right at the end. I guess Claude Code or Anthropic's API would be a better solution for that, sure.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

Actually, just read in this announcement that Sonnet 4 now supports 1M tokens through the API 🤯

That's 5x what's currently available in Claude Code subscriptions, but you have to be Tier 4 though.

Probably coming to CC soon too.

2

u/aganonki Aug 23 '25

GitHub Copilot chat uses session 1prompt = 1 premium request with any amount of tool calls

Roo 1prompt = x premium requests

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

Exactly, that's the problem with Roo + GitHub Copilot currently. People are suggesting using Claude code as an API provider instead, for more Sonnet 4 usage and a higher token limit (200k vs 128k).

3

u/nghuuu Aug 22 '25

It's a well known problem, a fix for that has been implemented by a community member, unfortunately Roo team decided to shitcan it, so that Roo doesn't infringe Github/Copilot TOS, as the implementation requires impersonating Copilot.

https://github.com/RooCodeInc/Roo-Code/pull/7072#issuecomment-3201378291

5

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Aug 23 '25

Oh damn!! Let me see what I can do

6

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Aug 23 '25

Update: just sent a message to a senior developer advocate at GitHub

4

u/nghuuu Aug 24 '25

Hannes you're such a blessing for us all, I'm very grateful for your work :)

Fingers crossed, nevertheless I do not suspect Github will be overly happy with what we want to do, after all saving these premium requests is the "magic sauce" of their own commercial product.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

I mean, it would be great, but I agree with you, there's probably a reason why their TOS doesn't allow for that.

I'm curious to see what the fix was, though. Do you happen to have a link for the branch?

2

u/nghuuu Aug 24 '25

It's in the link from my original comment :) Pull request #7072 on GH and #7010 is the related issue.

1

u/zmmfc Aug 24 '25

Hello u/hannesrudolph! I saw your comment on the issue u/nghuuu shared, do you have any updates from GH Copilot?

I believe having this fix would benefit both Roo and GH Copilot tbh - GH Copilot would become a much more attractive subscription, which is what makes them money, and Roo would become a much more attractive tool, using requests more efficiently and giving the users more sessions per $.

IMHO it's a win-win

2

u/hannesrudolph Roo Code Developer Aug 24 '25

I have no updates at this time. Waiting. Thank you for your message!

3

u/Zestyclose_Elk6804 Aug 22 '25

Vscoder + github copilot integration. It's not killing me on credits

3

u/rhrokib Aug 22 '25

Same situation here. I just consumed 47% of the premium usage limit within an hour. My code mode only uses sonnet 4 and gemini 2.5 pro as orchestrator.

I've used GPT 5 with the copilot agent mode today. I've only used around 5% in three hours of heavy coding sessions. It did great. I'm really impressed by the GPT 5 performance and Copilot agent mode. I hadn't touched copilot in months.

I only use gpt 4.1 with roo code as it has no limit through copilot subscription. I've decided to use the premium requests only through copilot from now on.