GitHub Copilot incorrectly counts usage during manual symbol renaming, even with suggestions disabled

[Sorecchione07435]

GitHub Copilot incorrectly counts usage during manual symbol renaming, even with suggestions disabled

I've encountered a recurring issue with GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio:
Whenever I use the Rename Symbol feature — even when I manually type a new name and have disabled AI suggestions — Copilot still counts it as usage toward my monthly limit.

🔍 What I discovered

After testing, I found that the issue is related to the "Enable Rename Suggestions" setting.
When this option is enabled, Copilot appears to trigger background completions during renaming, even if no suggestions are accepted.
Once I disabled this setting, the issue resolved: I could manually rename symbols without any usage being counted.

In fact, I noticed that 2% of my monthly usage was consumed entirely by manual renaming, without accepting a single AI suggestion.
This confirms that Copilot is counting passive background activity as usage, which is misleading and unfair.

Additionally, I noticed that even when clicking the toggle to disable AI suggestions in the Rename window, Copilot continued to count usage during manual renaming.
The issue only resolved after completely disabling the "Enable Rename Suggestions" option in Visual Studio settings.
This means that the toggle alone isn't enough to prevent passive usage tracking.

Most importantly, I had reached 100% usage on my Copilot free plan without ever intentionally using the AI.
The only recurring action was renaming symbols manually — and that alone consumed my entire quota.
This is unacceptable and deeply misleading for users who expect fair usage tracking.

Even more unnerving, I noticed that just clicking “Cancel” in the Rename Symbol dialog still triggered a usage count.
This means that Copilot scales usage simply by opening the rename interface, regardless of whether the user accepts, modifies, or even rejects the suggestion.
Such behavior is technically flawed and ethically unacceptable — users should not be penalized for exploring or aborting an action.

⚠️ Why this is problematic

• It penalizes standard manual coding operations
• It consumes usage quota without explicit interaction with Copilot
• It creates confusion and frustration for free plan users
• It undermines trust in the freemium model by scaling limits invisibly
• It discourages exploration of features due to fear of hidden costs

---

✅ Request

Please revise how usage is counted during rename operations and UI interactions.
There should be a clear distinction between accepted suggestions and passive background invocations.
Manual renaming or simple UI clicks should not trigger usage deductions unless the user explicitly accepts an AI-generated suggestion.

Thank you for considering this issue — I believe it affects many developers who rely on Copilot responsibly.

[github-actions[bot]]

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