diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 1ff03afc65a36e700f4b9d542b664dde57afa44c..7ce0765ad5814ecc65df4a6b4d6d3489909c9b13 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ codec-comparison-on-main-push:
     - git checkout $latest_commit
 
     # helper variable - "|| true" to prevent failures from grep not finding anything
-    - non_be_flag=$(echo $CI_MERGE_REQUEST_TITLE | grep -c --ignore-case "\[non[ -]*be\]") || true
+    - non_be_flag=$(echo $CI_COMMIT_MESSAGE | grep -c --ignore-case "\[non[ -]*be\]") || true
 
     ### prepare pytest
     # create short test vectors