Cursor vs GitHub Copilot
Cursor and GitHub Copilot side by side: what each one is, verified plan pricing and install commands where we have them, and the full review of each.
Cursor
EssentialAI-native code editor forked from VS Code, now sold as part of The X Subscription. Agent edits multiple files at once and Tab autocomplete predicts your next edit. Plus is $8/mo (Cursor's own Grok and Composer models only); Premium at $30/mo adds third-party models at API list price.
GitHub Copilot
328K viewsGitHub's AI coding assistant. Inline completions, chat, and agent mode in VS Code and JetBrains, plus a coding agent that turns issues into pull requests. Free tier, Pro from $10/mo.
At a glance
| Field | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI Coding | AI Coding |
| Website | cursor.sh | github.com |
| Pricing | Free - $0/mo: limited Agent and Chat usage; Plus - $8/mo ($80/yr): Cursor's own models only (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, Composer 2.5) at fixed settings; no Auto, Cloud Agents, Bugbot, third-party models or own API keys; Premium - $30/mo ($300/yr): 4x Plus usage, Cloud Agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot, third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit; Super - $100/mo ($1,000/yr): 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times; Ultra - $200/mo ($2,000/yr): 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models; Teams - $30, $100, or $200 per seat/mo; third-party models at API list price plus a $0.25 per million token Cursor Token Rate; Enterprise - custom pricing, pooled usage | Free - $0: 2,000 completions/mo, limited chat and agent usage, Copilot CLI, Auto model selection only; Pro - $10/mo: unlimited completions and next edit suggestions, cloud agent and code review, model selection, $15/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Pro+ - $39/mo: premium models including Opus, $70/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Max - $100/mo: priority access to new models and features, $200/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Business - $19 per granted seat/mo, 1,900 credits per user per month; Enterprise - $39 per granted seat/mo, 3,900 credits per user per month; GitHub AI Credits - 1 credit = $0.01; additional usage billed against a budget you set |
| Install | curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash or irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex | npm install -g @github/copilot or brew install --cask copilot-cli or curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install | bash |
| Models | Paid plans include a weekly usage pool, shared with Grok, for Cursor's own models: Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5. Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), GPT-5.6, Gemini 4 Argon and 3.x, and Meta Muse Wonder are third-party models billed at API list price from prepaid credit on Premium and above; individual plans get Auto in Cost mode, while Teams and Enterprise can use Cursor Router's Balance and Intelligence modes. | Pick a model in the model picker in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Eclipse, Copilot CLI, and the coding agent, from OpenAI (GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Sol, Luna), Anthropic (Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), Google (Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.8 Flash), xAI (Grok 4.7), Moonshot Kimi K3, and Microsoft MAI-Code-1.1-Flash; Free and Student plans get Auto model selection only. HydraFusion can orchestrate several models into a single response instead. |
| Last verified | October 25, 2026 | October 25, 2026 |
In Depth
Cursor
Cursor is a fork of VS Code rebuilt around AI. The killer feature is Composer - you describe a change in natural language and it edits multiple files simultaneously with a diff view. Tab autocomplete goes beyond single-line suggestions, predicting multi-line edits based on your recent changes. It indexes your entire codebase for context and supports OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Cursor models, and custom API keys. Plans are Free, Plus $8/mo, Premium $30/mo, Super $100/mo, and Ultra $200/mo; Claude, GPT, and Gemini are billed at API list price on Premium and above, and the old Pro and Pro+ plans continue only for existing customers. I use Cursor for visual editing alongside Claude Code for CLI-driven autonomous work.
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot is one of the most widely adopted AI coding tools. It runs inside VS Code and JetBrains, offering real-time code completions as you type. Copilot Chat adds conversational editing, agent mode makes multi-file changes in the editor, the Copilot CLI works in the terminal, and the coding agent can take a GitHub issue and open a pull request. Copilot Spark (announced at GitHub Universe) is their no-code app builder competitor. Plans moved to a credit-based structure (August 2026): Free $0, Pro $10/mo, Pro+ $39/mo, Max $100/mo - chat, agent mode, code review, CLI and cloud agent usage draw down GitHub AI Credits, while inline completions stay unlimited on every paid plan. My Copilot intro video hit 328,000 views - my most-viewed video ever. It's still the default recommendation for developers new to AI coding tools.
FAQ
Answers taken from each tool's verified fact sheet, with the date it was last checked.
How much does Cursor cost?
As of October 25, 2026: Free - $0/mo: limited Agent and Chat usage; Plus - $8/mo ($80/yr): Cursor's own models only (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, Composer 2.5) at fixed settings; no Auto, Cloud Agents, Bugbot, third-party models or own API keys; Premium - $30/mo ($300/yr): 4x Plus usage, Cloud Agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot, third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit; Super - $100/mo ($1,000/yr): 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times; Ultra - $200/mo ($2,000/yr): 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models; Teams - $30, $100, or $200 per seat/mo; third-party models at API list price plus a $0.25 per million token Cursor Token Rate; Enterprise - custom pricing, pooled usage. Source: Cursor pricing, Cursor docs: Models and Pricing, Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans, Cursor CLI installation, Cursor changelog.
How do I install Cursor?
Official install commands as of October 25, 2026: curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash or irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex.
Which models does Cursor use?
As of October 25, 2026: Paid plans include a weekly usage pool, shared with Grok, for Cursor's own models: Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5. Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), GPT-5.6, Gemini 4 Argon and 3.x, and Meta Muse Wonder are third-party models billed at API list price from prepaid credit on Premium and above; individual plans get Auto in Cost mode, while Teams and Enterprise can use Cursor Router's Balance and Intelligence modes.
How much does GitHub Copilot cost?
As of October 25, 2026: Free - $0: 2,000 completions/mo, limited chat and agent usage, Copilot CLI, Auto model selection only; Pro - $10/mo: unlimited completions and next edit suggestions, cloud agent and code review, model selection, $15/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Pro+ - $39/mo: premium models including Opus, $70/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Max - $100/mo: priority access to new models and features, $200/mo in GitHub AI Credits; Business - $19 per granted seat/mo, 1,900 credits per user per month; Enterprise - $39 per granted seat/mo, 3,900 credits per user per month; GitHub AI Credits - 1 credit = $0.01; additional usage billed against a budget you set. Source: GitHub Copilot plans, GitHub Docs: Plans for GitHub Copilot, GitHub Docs: Installing Copilot CLI, GitHub Docs: Supported AI models, Changelog: models deprecated on October 19, 2026, Changelog: upcoming model deprecations, Changelog: HydraFusion updates and Max option, Changelog: Gemini 4 Argon in GitHub Copilot.
How do I install GitHub Copilot?
Official install commands as of October 25, 2026: npm install -g @github/copilot or brew install --cask copilot-cli or curl -fsSL https://gh.io/copilot-install | bash.
Which models does GitHub Copilot use?
As of October 25, 2026: Pick a model in the model picker in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Eclipse, Copilot CLI, and the coding agent, from OpenAI (GPT-6.1 Sol, GPT-6 Astra, Sol, Luna), Anthropic (Claude Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), Google (Gemini 4 Argon, Gemini 3.8 Flash), xAI (Grok 4.7), Moonshot Kimi K3, and Microsoft MAI-Code-1.1-Flash; Free and Student plans get Auto model selection only. HydraFusion can orchestrate several models into a single response instead.
