Cursor vs GitHub Copilot: which AI code editor is worth it?

Prices (as of October 2026)

GitHub Copilot: according to GitHub, Free costs nothing, Pro costs 10 dollars, Pro+ 39 dollars and Max 100 dollars a month. For companies, GitHub lists Copilot Business at 19 dollars and Copilot Enterprise at 39 dollars per user and month. The German pages show dollar prices; GitHub gives no euro amount.

Cursor: according to Cursor, the Hobby plan is free, Pro costs 20 dollars, Pro Plus 60 dollars and Ultra 200 dollars a month. Teams cost 40 dollars per user for a Standard seat and 120 dollars for a Premium seat. Cursor says all prices are exclusive of tax, again without a euro figure. Cursor sells subscriptions only directly through its own website.

Important for costs: both providers now bill by usage. With Copilot, each plan includes a monthly allowance of AI credits, for example 1,500 on Pro and 7,000 on Pro+. With Cursor, an allowance is included, after which you pay the model providers’ prices. Cursor itself says people who use the agent daily typically end up at 60 to 100 dollars a month.

What you get and where it runs

GitHub Copilot is an extension for editors you may already use: according to GitHub these include VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains programs, Xcode, Neovim, Eclipse and Zed. On top of that there is a command-line version, a cloud agent that works through tasks on its own and turns them into a proposed change, and automatic code reviews from Pro. The free version offers 2,000 code suggestions a month and limited chat.

Cursor is its own code editor that you download and use instead of your current editor. According to Cursor, Pro, Pro Plus and Ultra include unlimited tab completions, extended agent usage and cloud agents. They also give access to Bugbot, the tool for automatic code review; according to Cursor, Bugbot is billed by usage. There is also a command-line version and integrations with JetBrains and Xcode. With a paid Cursor plan, Cursor says you can use its agent directly in JetBrains programs such as IntelliJ IDEA or PyCharm.

Our assessment: if you want to keep your usual editor, Copilot is easier to fit in; with JetBrains programs, Cursor’s agent works too. The full range of features, however, comes in Cursor’s own editor, which is designed entirely around working with AI.

Which AI models are included

Both offer models from several makers. According to GitHub, Copilot offers Claude models from Anthropic, GPT models from OpenAI, Gemini from Google, Grok from xAI and Kimi, among others. Each model uses a different number of credits.

According to its documentation, Cursor has two separate pools: one for Cursor’s own models, including Composer and Grok, with much more included usage, and one for third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini, which are billed at the respective model provider’s price. That applies to the personal plans: on Teams and Enterprise, Cursor says third-party models cost an extra 0.25 dollars per million tokens, including for included usage and your own API keys. Tokens are the text pieces into which the AI splits inputs and answers. So the model you choose also decides how quickly your allowance runs out.

Privacy and business use

GitHub: according to its blog, since 24 April 2026 GitHub uses inputs, outputs and code snippets from Copilot Free, Pro and Pro+ to train its AI models unless you opt out. You can opt out in the Copilot settings under Privacy. GitHub says Copilot Business and Enterprise are not affected. Business features such as SSO sign-in, user management and indemnity against copyright claims are missing from the personal plans.

Cursor: in Privacy Mode, Cursor says your code is not used for training by Cursor or by the model providers. On Teams, Cursor says it is on by default for all members, and admins can make it mandatory. If you use Cursor privately, check the setting yourself. No training does not mean no storage, though: even in Privacy Mode, Cursor temporarily keeps encrypted file contents on its servers, and cloud agents get an encrypted copy of your code repository while they work. Some models, currently Claude Fable 5 and 5.1, have inputs and outputs stored by the provider, though according to Cursor not for training; in Privacy Mode this must be approved first. If Privacy Mode is off, Cursor’s own overview says it may store code and prompts and use them for training. US-only data processing is available to Enterprise customers at a 10 percent surcharge on the prices of eligible models; for the EU, Cursor so far only offers on request that the AI processing itself (inference) runs in the EU and Iceland. Storage and other processing are not covered; Cursor says broader EU support is in development.

The warning from the BSI and ANSSI applies to both: inputs can be confidential, and generated code can contain security flaws. Do not put passwords or customer data into the chat, and check changes before accepting them.

Which tool for whom?

The following is an editorial recommendation based on the providers’ information, not our own performance test.

GitHub Copilot suits you if you want to keep your editor, already keep your code on GitHub or want a cheap start. For companies, Copilot Business at 19 dollars per user provides a clear framework without training on your data.

Cursor suits you if you are willing to switch editors or already use a JetBrains program, work a lot with agents and want to choose between many models. With daily agent use, expect to pay considerably more than the base price.