GitHub Copilot vs Cursor
Which is better in 2026? Five scores, side by side.
It's a near tie: both score 8.6, with GitHub Copilot ahead by a hair, so the right pick depends on what you need. GitHub Copilot wins on 2 of the 5 scores, Cursor on 3.
Developers on GitHub who want AI help inside their usual editor
Developers who want AI help built into every part of their editor
Score by score
The details
| Feature | GitHub Copilot | Cursor |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Developer Tools | Developer Tools |
| Category rank | #9 of 13 | #10 of 13 |
| Developer | GitHub | Anysphere (SpaceX) |
| Pricing | Free + paid plans | Free + paid plans |
| Usable for free | Yes | Yes |
| iPhone & iPad | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | — |
| Mac | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | ✓ |
| Web | ✓ | — |
Common questions
Is GitHub Copilot better than Cursor?
It's a near tie: both score 8.6, with GitHub Copilot ahead by a hair, so the right pick depends on what you need. GitHub Copilot wins on 2 of the 5 scores, Cursor on 3.
Which is cheaper, GitHub Copilot or Cursor?
GitHub Copilot: Free: 2,000 completions a month; Pro is $10 a month, Pro+ $39 and Max $100. Cursor: Free tier; Plus $8/month (Grok models only), Premium $30/month adds cloud agents. On value for money, GitHub Copilot scores higher.
Do GitHub Copilot and Cursor work on the same devices?
Only GitHub Copilot runs on Web, Android.
Which is more private, GitHub Copilot or Cursor?
Cursor scores higher on privacy (7.2/10). Privacy Mode guarantees your code is not used for training by Cursor or its model providers. The iPhone app label links location, contact info and usage data to you, partly for marketing.
Strengths and weaknesses
GitHub Copilot
- Free tier and a $10 Pro plan
- Works inside the editors you already use
- Tight GitHub integration for issues and pull requests
- Credit-based billing makes heavy agent use harder to predict
- Individual plans train on your data unless you opt out
- Free plan limits chat, agents and model choice
GitHub Copilot started as autocomplete and is now a full set of coding agents. It suggests code in VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Xcode and more, runs agent mode in your editor, works from the terminal and a desktop app, and can take an issue and open a pull request on its own. You choose models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI. Since June 2026, chat and agents draw on monthly AI credits, so heavy use costs more.
Full GitHub Copilot review
Cursor
- Deep AI help built into every part of the editor
- Familiar VS Code base with easy migration
- Cloud agents keep working while you are away
- Third-party models cost extra on top of your plan
- Plans bundle Grok and X features you may not want
- Code is processed by cloud AI models
Cursor is the AI code editor many developers switch to first. It is built on VS Code, so your setup carries over, and it adds fast completions, agents that edit across many files, and cloud agents that run whole projects in the background. Since SpaceX bought it, plans center on Grok models, and Claude or GPT usage is billed separately. Turn on Privacy Mode for sensitive work.
Full Cursor review
