Side-by-side comparison to help you choose the right tool
Cursor offers a better integrated editing experience, while Copilot has the ecosystem backing of GitHub.
We've analyzed Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and dozens of other tools to find the top performers for your specific needs.
Quick recommendations based on your use case
GitHub Copilot
Broad compatibility with IDEs used in various curriculums (Eclipse, JetBrains, Visual Studio) and a clearly defined free tier allowance make it more versatile for learning.
GitHub Copilot
Extensive platform support (VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains) allows integration into existing corporate workflows without forcing a switch to a specific IDE.
Cursor
Access to superior, cutting-edge models like GPT-5 and Claude Opus 4.5 provides the highest potential coding intelligence for individual productivity.
| Specification | Cursor | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| model | GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4.5, Claude Opus 4.5, Gemini 3 Pro, Grok | GPT-4.1, GPT-5 mini, Claude Sonnet 4/4.5, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Claude Opus 4.1, Haiku 4.5 (varies by plan) |
| users | Millions of professional developers | Millions of individual users and tens of thousands of business customers |
| security | Enterprise | Enterprise-grade controls, SOC2 (implied by GitHub's overall security posture), GDPR (implied) |
| platforms | Web, Mac, Windows | VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, Azure Data Studio, Eclipse, Raycast, GitHub CLI, Windows Terminal Canary, GitHub Mobile, GitHub.com |
| context window | N/A | N/A |
| gdpr compliant | N/A | N/A |
| soc2 compliant | N/A | N/A |
| enterprise features | ✓ Yes | ✓ Yes |
| free tier allowance | N/A | 50 agent mode/chat requests/mo, 2,000 completions/mo |