The key difference
Both are AI coding assistants with completions, an agent, a CLI and a cloud agent. The differences that decide it are where they run and which models your plan pays for.
Where they run.
- Cursor is its own editor, a fork of VS Code. You switch editors to use it.
- GitHub Copilot is an extension that runs in the editor you already have: VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Xcode, Neovim, Eclipse and more. It also has its own CLI and desktop app.
What your plan pays for.
- Cursor (pricing): included usage covers Cursor’s own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5 and Composer 2.5). Claude, GPT and Gemini cost API list price on Premium ($30) and up; Plus ($8) doesn’t offer them.
- Copilot (plans): usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits, which cover models from Anthropic (including Claude Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5), OpenAI, Google and others. Completions are free and unlimited on paid plans.
Pricing in practice
| Plan | Cursor | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Limited agent and chat requests | Limited chat and agent usage, auto model selection |
| $8 | Plus: Cursor’s own models only ($80/year) | — |
| $10 | — | Pro: $10 base + ~$5 flex AI credits; unlimited completions |
| $30 | Premium: 4x Plus usage; third-party models at API list price | — |
| $39 | — | Pro+: $39 base + ~$31 flex; delegate to Claude and Codex agents (preview) |
| $100 | Super: 15x Plus usage | Max: $100 base + ~$100 flex |
| $200 | Ultra: 50x Plus usage | — |
| Teams | $30, $100 or $200 per seat | Business $19/seat, Enterprise $39/seat |
Prices are from the official Cursor pricing and Copilot plans pages, checked October 22, 2026. GitHub says flex allotments may change over time.
For the same ~$10:
- Copilot Pro covers Claude, GPT and Gemini within its credits.
- Cursor Plus covers Grok and Composer only.
If you want frontier models from several labs on a small budget, Copilot gives you more of them. If Cursor’s models suit your work, Cursor Plus is the cheapest way into a full AI editor.
Features side by side
| Cursor | GitHub Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Form | Its own VS Code-based editor, plus CLI | Extension for most editors, plus CLI and desktop app |
| Completions | Tab | Completions and next edit suggestions, unlimited on paid plans |
| Agent in the editor | Yes | Yes (agent mode) |
| Cloud agent | Premium and up | Works on GitHub issues and opens pull requests |
| Code review | Bugbot, Premium and up | Included on paid plans |
| Included models | Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5; Composer 2.5 | Claude, GPT, Gemini and others via AI credits |
| Own API key | Not on Plus; on higher plans, routed through Cursor | Yes, including locally running models in several clients |
| Customization | Rules, hooks, skills, subagents, plugins, MCP | Custom instructions, prompt files, agent skills, custom agents, subagents, hooks, plugins, MCP |
| Owner | SpaceX | GitHub (Microsoft) |
Who should pick which
Choose GitHub Copilot if:
- you don’t want to switch editors, or you use JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode or Neovim
- you want Claude, GPT and Gemini included at a low price
- your team lives in GitHub and wants an agent that turns issues into pull requests
Choose Cursor if:
- you want an editor built around AI from the ground up
- Grok and Composer are good enough for most of your work
- you want the cheapest paid AI editor ($8 Plus), or you already pay for The X Subscription
Hands-on test
We haven’t run a hands-on test of this pair yet. This comparison is based on each vendor’s documentation and pricing pages, linked on the Cursor and GitHub Copilot pages. When we add a test, this page will name the task, the tool and model versions, and the date it was run.
