Cursor vs GitHub Copilot

A side-by-side comparison of Cursor and GitHub Copilot — pricing, free tiers, and who each tool is genuinely best for.

	Cursor	GitHub Copilot
Tagline	The AI-first code editor built for working at the speed of thought	AI pair programmer that autocompletes code and chats inside your editor
Category	AI Coding	AI Coding
Pricing	Free Hobby tier; Pro ~$20/user/mo; Business ~$40/user/mo	Free tier with limited completions; Pro from ~$10/user/mo; Business ~$19/user/mo; Enterprise ~$39/user/mo
Free tier
Best for	Professional developers who want a full AI-native IDE with strong multi-file agentic editing and model choice.	Developers and teams already living in GitHub and mainstream IDEs who want trusted inline completions plus chat.
Not for	Developers unwilling to switch away from their current editor or who only need lightweight inline suggestions.	Teams wanting a fully agentic, repo-rewriting IDE rather than an assistant layered onto their existing editor.
Use cases	Multi-file refactoring Codebase-wide chat Agentic feature building Predictive multi-line autocomplete Debugging with context	Inline code completion Code explanation and chat Writing unit tests Refactoring functions Generating boilerplate
	Visit Cursor	Visit GitHub Copilot

Choose it if: Professional developers who want a full AI-native IDE with strong multi-file agentic editing and model choice.

Choose it if: Developers and teams already living in GitHub and mainstream IDEs who want trusted inline completions plus chat.