Copilot desktop app usage not visible in Copilot usage API

[andriy-ah]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Bug

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Copilot Agent Mode

Body

It seems there is no way from the API responses to understand whether people in the company are using Copilot desktop app or not? From the AI Credit usage for the specific user who used Copilot app only on a specific day I see a lot of credits used, but from the Copilot metrics reports API there is no indication that app was used. CLI/VSCode/Visual Studio IDE are tracked, but Copilot desktop app is simply not there.
This is a critical thing in understanding how Copilot is being used in our company.

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[initial-d]

I think you are running into a real reporting gap rather than just a query mistake.

The Copilot usage metrics reports are useful for adoption and engagement, but the documented fields are feature/activity oriented and do not always map cleanly to every new Copilot surface. The docs describe the metrics APIs as reports for Copilot features and engagement, while the activity report exposes only a “most recent surface” style field such as IDE, GitHub.com, or unspecified when details are unavailable.

Docs I would compare against:

• Copilot usage metrics API: https://docs.github.com/en/rest/copilot/copilot-usage-metrics
• Data available in Copilot usage metrics: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-usage-metrics/copilot-usage-metrics
• Activity report fields, including last_surface_used: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/metrics-data

For now, I would not rely on the metrics report alone to answer “who is using the Copilot desktop app?” I would build a temporary reconciliation report from three sources:

1. Copilot user usage metrics

   Pull the org/enterprise user usage metrics report for the day:

   gh api \
     -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10" \
     /orgs/ORG/copilot/metrics/reports/users-1-day?day=YYYY-MM-DD

   or enterprise scope:

   gh api \
     -H "X-GitHub-Api-Version: 2026-03-10" \
     /enterprises/ENTERPRISE/copilot/metrics/reports/users-1-day?day=YYYY-MM-DD

2. AI credit / premium request usage

   Use the billing / premium request analytics export for the same day and user. This gives you the cost/credit side, even if the Copilot desktop app is not broken out as a surface in the metrics report.

3. Seat/activity report

   Use Copilot seat/activity data as a weak signal for recency and surface. The user management API notes that seat objects include recent Copilot activity, but IDE activity depends on telemetry being enabled:

   https://docs.github.com/en/rest/copilot/copilot-user-management

The practical classification I would use is:

User has AI credit usage on day D
AND metrics report has little/no matching VS Code / Visual Studio / CLI / GitHub.com activity
AND the user is known to have used only Copilot desktop that day
=> likely Copilot desktop usage not represented as a first-class surface in the metrics export

That is not perfect, but it gives you an auditable way to estimate the gap until GitHub adds an explicit surface/app field.

For a product fix, the most useful ask would be: add a stable surface, client, or app dimension to the user-level usage metrics reports, with values such as vscode, visual_studio, jetbrains, cli, github_web, copilot_desktop, etc. Ideally the same dimension should be present in both usage metrics and premium request / AI credit reporting so admins can reconcile adoption with spend.

If you open a support/product ticket, I would include one anonymized example day where:

• AI credits increased for one user
• the user only used Copilot desktop
• the usage metrics report did not show a desktop-app surface
• the exact report endpoint and date used

That gives GitHub a concrete schema/reporting mismatch to verify, instead of a general “metrics look wrong” report.