Cursor vs GitHub Copilot
Cursor and GitHub Copilot side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Cursor | GitHub Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Code & Dev Tools | Code & Dev Tools |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $8/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $10/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Cursor has the lower starting price ($8/mo against $10/mo for GitHub Copilot). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Code & Dev Tools category.
About each tool
Cursor
AI code editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with Agent, Chat and Tab. Free plan with limited usage; paid plans from $8 a month with a weekly usage pool, up to $200 for Ultra.
Who it is for
Individual developers on the Free, Plus, Premium, Super or Ultra plans. Teams and Enterprise plans add shared billing, admin controls and SSO for organizations.
Strengths
- A Free plan includes Agent, Chat and Tab completions with Cursor's own models, with limited usage
- Paid plans have one weekly usage pool for Cursor models, shared across Agent, the command line and Cloud Agents, and the docs say it refreshes weekly
- With Privacy Mode on, Cursor says customer data will not be used for training by Cursor, and that it has zero-data-retention agreements with all its model providers
- The desktop app is offered for macOS (Apple Silicon, Intel, Universal), Windows (x64, ARM64) and Linux (x64, ARM64; .deb, RPM, AppImage)
- Teams and Enterprise list SAML and OIDC SSO, usage analytics and team-wide privacy settings, and Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs and invoice billing
Limitations
- Free usage is limited for Agent, Chat and Tab, and no numeric limits are published
- Plus ($8) does not include Auto, Cloud Agents, Automations, Bugbot or third-party models, which are listed from Premium ($30) up
- Third-party models are not covered by the weekly pool. They are billed at API list price from prepaid credit, and a monthly additional-usage limit caps extra spend
- With Privacy Mode off, Cursor may use and store codebase data, prompts, editor actions and code snippets to improve its AI features and train models
GitHub Copilot
GitHub's AI coding assistant: completions, chat, code review and agents in VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode and on GitHub. Free plan; Pro is $10 a month.
Who it is for
Individual developers, students, and teams or enterprises that want AI help inside their editors and GitHub workflows. GitHub sells separate individual, Business and Enterprise plans, with admin budgets and pooled credits for organizations.
Strengths
- A free plan is available, with 2,000 code completions a month and limited chat and agent use
- GitHub's feature matrix lists VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Neovim and Eclipse, plus GitHub.com, GitHub Mobile and the command line
- On paid plans, code completions and next edit suggestions do not use AI credits
- Copilot Student is free for verified students, and GitHub says verified teachers and popular open-source maintainers may be eligible for free Copilot Pro
- Business and Enterprise plans pool credits across the organization, with admin budgets at enterprise, cost-center and user level
Limitations
- Usage is metered in AI credits (1 credit equals $0.01) based on token use. Included credits reset monthly and do not carry over
- On individual plans, Copilot pauses once the included credits run out unless you turn on paid additional usage and set a budget
- Annual Pro and Pro+ subscribers stay on the older premium-request system until the plan expires (300 and 1,500 requests a month, $0.04 per extra request), then move to Free
