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Cursor vs GitHub Copilot: Which Is Better? (2026)

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Compare Cursor and GitHub Copilot on pricing, features, and use cases. Find out which AI coding tool is right for you in 2026.

Best for Individual Devs

Cursor

$20.00 /mo

★★★★½ 4.7/5

  • AI-native VS Code fork with deep editor integration
  • Multi-file editing via Composer / Agent mode
  • Cursor Tab: predictive next-edit autocomplete
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Best for Teams

GitHub Copilot

$10.00 /mo

★★★★☆ 4.3/5

  • Plugin for VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, Visual Studio, Xcode, and Eclipse
  • Inline code completions and multi-line suggestions
  • Copilot Chat with context-aware Q&A inside the IDE
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Feature Best for Individual Devs Cursor Best for Teams GitHub Copilot
Price $20.00$10.00
Rating ★★★★½ ★★★★☆
AI-native VS Code fork with deep editor integration ✓ ✗
Multi-file editing via Composer / Agent mode ✓ ✗
Cursor Tab: predictive next-edit autocomplete ✓ ✗
Full codebase indexing for large-context awareness ✓ ✗
Background and parallel subagent support ✓ ✗
Support for OpenAI, Anthropic Claude, and Google Gemini models ✓ ✗
Inline chat and diff preview ✓ ✗
Privacy mode to disable code telemetry ✓ ✗
Extension marketplace compatible with VS Code plugins ✓ ✗
Pro plan includes 500 fast premium requests/month and unlimited slow requests ✓ ✗
Plugin for VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, Visual Studio, Xcode, and Eclipse ✗ ✓
Inline code completions and multi-line suggestions ✗ ✓
Copilot Chat with context-aware Q&A inside the IDE ✗ ✓
Copilot Edits (multi-file agent editing mode) ✗ ✓
Copilot coding agent for autonomous task execution ✗ ✓
GitHub PR integration: review summaries and fix suggestions ✗ ✓
Centralized policy management for Business and Enterprise plans ✗ ✓
Free tier with 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests per month ✗ ✓
Pro+ tier ($39/mo) with premium model access and higher request limits ✗ ✓
Enterprise plan with fine-tuned models and audit logs ✗ ✓
Pros
  • Best-in-class multi-file context awareness keeps entire codebase in scope
  • Composer mode dramatically accelerates complex, cross-file refactoring tasks
  • Flexible model choice (GPT-4o, Claude 3.7, Gemini 2.0) without switching tools
  • Predictive Tab autocomplete anticipates next edits, not just completions
  • Familiarity for VS Code users — near-identical UI with zero learning curve
  • Rated 4.7/5 on G2 (180+ reviews as of early 2026)
  • Significantly lower cost — Pro plan at $10/mo vs Cursor Pro at $20/mo
  • Works inside any major IDE without replacing your existing setup
  • Deep GitHub ecosystem integration: PRs, issues, and Actions awareness
  • Fast and low-friction onboarding; easy to standardize across large teams
  • Enterprise-grade controls: SSO, audit logs, policy enforcement, and IP indemnity
  • Free tier makes it accessible for hobbyists and students
Cons
  • More expensive than GitHub Copilot at every tier ($20/mo vs $10/mo for individuals)
  • Credit-based billing can be opaque; parallel agents burn credits quickly
  • Editor can lag or freeze on very large monorepos
  • Occasional hallucinations recommending outdated APIs or deprecated packages
  • Not a plugin — requires switching away from your existing IDE setup
  • Weaker multi-file context compared to Cursor; suggestions can be locally narrow
  • Agent and Edits modes still maturing; less powerful than Cursor's Composer
  • Suggestions can introduce security vulnerabilities if not carefully reviewed
  • Privacy and IP concerns due to training on public repositories
  • Productivity gains are concentrated in code authoring; end-to-end delivery improvement is limited
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Frequently Asked Questions

For individual developers, GitHub Copilot Pro costs $10/month while Cursor Pro costs $20/month — making Copilot half the price. At the team level, GitHub Copilot Business is $19/user/month versus Cursor Teams at $40/user/month, saving roughly $252/year per developer. Both products offer a free tier with limited usage.

Yes. Cursor is a standalone editor — a fork of VS Code — so you install it as a separate application. It is not a plugin. GitHub Copilot, by contrast, is a plugin that installs directly into VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, Visual Studio, Xcode, and Eclipse, so you keep your current editor.

Cursor has a clear advantage here. Its Composer / Agent mode can read and edit across your entire indexed codebase in a single session, making it well-suited for large refactors, scaffolding new features across controllers, services, and tests simultaneously. GitHub Copilot's Edits mode is improving but still tends toward more localized, file-by-file suggestions.

GitHub Copilot has a permanent free tier that includes 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests per month at no cost. This is sufficient for light use, hobbyists, and students. Cursor also offers a free plan with a 2-week Pro trial, 2,000 completions, and 50 slow premium requests, but it does not offer a permanent unlimited free tier.

Cursor gives you explicit model choice: you can switch between OpenAI GPT-4o, Anthropic Claude 3.5 / 3.7, and Google Gemini 2.0 from within the editor. GitHub Copilot also supports multiple underlying models (including GPT-4o and Claude) but the model selection is less granular for end users, particularly on lower-tier plans.

GitHub Copilot is the more mature enterprise choice. Its Business ($19/user/mo) and Enterprise ($39/user/mo) plans include centralized policy management, SSO, audit logs, IP indemnity, and the ability to fine-tune models on your private codebase (Enterprise). Cursor Teams ($40/user/mo) is aimed at dev teams but lacks the same depth of governance and compliance tooling.

Both tools offer opt-out mechanisms for telemetry. Cursor has a Privacy Mode that prevents your code from being stored or used for training. GitHub Copilot Business and Enterprise plans exclude your code from training by default and provide admin controls. On GitHub Copilot Free and Pro, you should review the data handling settings if code privacy is a concern.

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