Microsoft upgraded its own Copilot coding model to MAI-Code-1.1-Flash ten weeks after launch, claiming a 75% cost cut.

The update adds native image input and faster token streaming alongside gains in instruction following and tool use. It arrives with Polaris becoming the default model on every Copilot seat and Visual Studio 18.9 exposing low/medium/high thinking-effort controls. RuntimeWire Microsoft iterating its own model rather than reselling frontier vendors is the part to track, and the cost cut is what makes first-party viable. Same logic as Wix and Base 1.