Cursor vs GitHub Copilot: Which AI Coding Tool Is Worth It?

Short answer: In the Cursor vs Copilot choice, pick GitHub Copilot if you want to keep your current editor and pay the least, with paid plans from $10 a month. Pick Cursor if you want a coding agent as your main way of working, with paid plans from $8 a month on its newest price list. Both bill by usage now, so the plan price is only the starting point.

Both tools write and change code for you, but they sit in different places. You can read the full details on our Cursor page and our GitHub Copilot page. This post puts them side by side so you can see what each plan actually buys.

Cursor vs GitHub Copilot at a glance

What is Cursor?

Cursor describes itself as a coding agent for building ambitious software. You hand it a task and it works through the code. Then you review the result. Its cloud agents use their own computers to build, test and demo a feature for you to look over, and Cursor also runs in the terminal, in Slack and as a reviewer on GitHub pull requests.

It lets you choose between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and Cursor itself. That choice matters for cost, as the pricing section below shows.

What is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is the assistant from GitHub. It is an extension for Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Vim, Neovim and the JetBrains IDEs, with support listed for Xcode and Eclipse too. You keep the editor you know and add chat, completions and an agent on top.

On github.com it can also review pull requests, and you can assign a task to its cloud agent so it works in the background. GitHub says code review is not supported inside VS Code or other IDEs, so that part lives on the site.

Cursor vs Copilot pricing

Both vendors moved to usage-based pricing, so read the plan before you subscribe.

Cursor pricing

Cursor’s pricing docs list yearly prices for the individual plans: Plus $80 a year, Premium $300 a year, Super $1,000 a year and Ultra $2,000 a year. The usage pool refreshes weekly. Third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini are not in the pool. On Premium and above they are billed at API list price from prepaid credit, and a monthly limit caps what you can spend.

Older Cursor plans (Hobby, Pro, Pro+) continue for existing customers, so you may still see a $20 Pro price quoted elsewhere. New buyers see the list above.

GitHub Copilot pricing

One AI credit equals $0.01. Chat, agent mode and the Copilot CLI use credits. Code completions and next edit suggestions do not, and they stay unlimited on every paid plan. Unused credits do not roll over: they reset on the first of each month. When you run out, you can upgrade, set a budget for extra usage or wait for the reset.

Which one costs less?

At the entry level Cursor Plus is $2 a month cheaper than Copilot Pro, but the comparison is not clean. Plus only includes Grok models. To use Claude or GPT models inside Cursor you need Premium at $30 a month, and those models are billed at API list price on top. Copilot Pro gives you a pooled allowance of $15 in credits, plus unlimited completions. If most of your day is autocomplete, Copilot is the cheaper habit. If most of it is long agent runs on strong models, expect to pay more on either tool.

Where Cursor wins

• Agent first. The product is built around handing off tasks, not around adding chat to an old workflow.
• Model choice. You can pick from several vendors’ models in one place.
• Many surfaces. The app, terminal, Slack and pull request review all use the same agent.
• Higher ceilings. Super and Ultra give heavy users far more usage than the Plus plan.

Where GitHub Copilot wins

• Your editor stays. It works in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Vim and Neovim, so there is nothing to switch.
• Lower entry price. Pro at $10 a month, with unlimited completions on paid plans.
• GitHub native. Assign an issue to the cloud agent, or let it review a pull request on github.com.
• Team plans. Business at $19 per user a month and Enterprise at $39 per user a month, with central policy control.

How to test both fairly

Do not judge either tool on one easy prompt. Pick one real task from your own work, such as fixing a failing test and adding a small feature next to it. Run it in each tool on the free plan. Then compare four things: how many messages it took, how much of your usage allowance it used, whether the diff was easy to read and whether the tests passed without help.

Watch the meter as you go. Cursor shows a weekly pool and Copilot shows monthly credits, so one long agent run can look cheap on day one and expensive by day ten. If one task eats a large share of a plan, a heavier plan or a budget cap is part of the real price.

Teams should also test on a repository that is not a toy. Large codebases, slow test suites and strict review rules show the differences faster than a fresh project does.

What neither does

Neither tool replaces review. Both can write code that looks right and is wrong, so run the tests and read the diff before you merge. Neither publishes exact task counts for each plan, and both change their plans often, which is why we link the vendor pages below. If you prefer a terminal agent to an editor, look at Claude Code and read our Cursor vs Claude Code comparison.

Which should you choose?

• You live in VS Code or JetBrains and want to keep it: GitHub Copilot.
• You want an agent to take whole tasks: Cursor, on Premium or above.
• You mostly want autocomplete at a low price: GitHub Copilot Pro.
• You work in a company on GitHub: Copilot Business, for the policy controls.
• You are not sure: use both free plans on one real task and compare how much each needed from you.

FAQ

Is Cursor better than GitHub Copilot?

Neither is better for everyone. Cursor suits people who want an agent to do whole tasks. Copilot suits people who want AI inside the editor they already use, at a lower starting price.

Is Cursor or Copilot cheaper?

Cursor Plus is $8 a month and Copilot Pro is $10 a month. Cursor Plus only includes Grok models, so most people who want Claude or GPT models will compare Cursor Premium at $30 a month with Copilot Pro+ at $39 a month. Usage beyond the allowance costs extra on both.

Do Cursor and Copilot have free plans?

Yes. Cursor Free has limited agent and chat requests. Copilot Free has 2,000 completions a month and limited chat and agent use. Check each pricing page for the current limits.

Can I use Cursor and GitHub Copilot together?

Yes. Nothing stops you from holding both plans, and Cursor says it reviews pull requests in GitHub. You pay for each plan separately, so test them one at a time first.

Does GitHub Copilot use credits?

Yes. Chat, agent mode and the Copilot CLI use AI credits, and one credit equals $0.01. Code completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits on paid plans.

What else should I look at?

Our best AI coding agents page ranks the options by job. Our Codex vs Claude Code post covers the two terminal agents.

Prices here come from Cursor and GitHub, checked in October 2026. To add tools to your agent, browse the MCP servers directory.