Summary
It's possible in Copilot to bypass any billing / 'premium request' usage by taking advantage of:
Subagents and tool calls not consuming any 'requests'.
Request cost being calculated on the initial model used.
"Free" models incl. in Copilot e.g. GPT-5-mini, GPT-4.1 etc.
Ability to define an agent for a subagent.
Ability to specify a model for an agent.
Combining these correctly results in 'free' and almost unlimited, usage of expensive premium models like Opus 4.5 which would usually cost '3 premium requests':
Instructions
Start a new Chat. Set the model to a "free" model, included in Copilot e.g. GPT-5 Mini. Create an agent, and set it's model to a premium model, e.g. Opus 4.5 Set the mode to "agent". In the initial message, instruct it to launch an agent '[your_agents_name_here]' as a subagent using the runSubagent tool, and to pass on the following query e.g. "What time is it in London, UK". Submit the message. The initial request will be picked up by the free GPT-5 Mini model, incurring no fees. The free model will create a subagent (which is also free) The free subagent will launch with an 'agent' profile, this profile has the model set to a premium model The premium model will be used for the subagent - but premium requests will be consumed.
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