GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf

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

	GitHub Copilot	Windsurf
Tagline	AI pair programmer that autocompletes code and chats inside your editor	Agentic IDE with Cascade flows that keep you and the AI in sync
Category	AI Coding	AI Coding
Pricing	Free tier with limited completions; Pro from ~$10/user/mo; Business ~$19/user/mo; Enterprise ~$39/user/mo	Free tier; Pro from ~$15/user/mo; Teams/Enterprise tiers above
Free tier
Best for	Developers and teams already living in GitHub and mainstream IDEs who want trusted inline completions plus chat.	Developers wanting an AI-native IDE with tightly integrated agentic flows and a generous free tier.
Not for	Teams wanting a fully agentic, repo-rewriting IDE rather than an assistant layered onto their existing editor.	Teams that prefer to keep their existing editor and just bolt on completions.
Use cases	Inline code completion Code explanation and chat Writing unit tests Refactoring functions Generating boilerplate	Agentic multi-step edits Codebase-aware autocomplete Feature implementation Refactoring AI chat over your project
	Visit GitHub Copilot	Visit Windsurf

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

Choose it if: Developers wanting an AI-native IDE with tightly integrated agentic flows and a generous free tier.