GitHub Copilot uses OpenAI's GPT-4 for superior multi-line code generation and natural language understanding, while Tabnine offers faster local processing, better privacy with on-device models, and lower costs for individual developers.
GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
AI-powered code completion tool that integrates into code editors and IDEs.
AI code assistant with local and cloud options, trained on permissive-licensed code for reduced copyright concerns.
AI Model Technology. Monthly Subscription Cost. Code Generation Accuracy. Local Processing Available. Privacy Approach. IDE Support Coverage. Free Tier Availability
Choose GitHub Copilot if you need the most advanced AI model (GPT-4), superior multi-line code generation for complex tasks, and lower pricing. Choose Tabnine if you prioritize data privacy with local processing options, need broader IDE support, or prefer models trained on permissive licenses without copyleft code.
GitHub Copilot: 2-3 minutes | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Very Large | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 3+ model choices | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Minimal (extension) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Copilot Pro $10/mo | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Free tier with limited completions/chat, plus free for verified students, teachers, and OSS maintainers | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Business $19/user/mo (Enterprise $39) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Plugin/extension installed into your existing IDE | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini (model picker in chat/agent) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Agent mode + Copilot Workspace + coding agent (issue-to-PR); strong but tighter loop trails Cursor | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Repository context, @workspace search, and Enterprise knowledge bases; less aggressive auto-indexing | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Very fast, low-latency completions; category pioneer and still excellent inline | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Org policy management, SSO, audit logs, content exclusion, data residency, IP indemnification | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 128,000 tokens | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Unlimited completions | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, Visual Studio, Sublime | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Copilot (GPT-based, Good) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Limited to current + adjacent files | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 5 major IDEs | Tabnine: 7+ IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, Neovim, Sublime, Emacs, Visual Studio)
GitHub Copilot: Not available | Tabnine: Available
GitHub Copilot: 2 days for new accounts | Tabnine: 14
GitHub Copilot: October 2023 (~27 months old) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: ~1,200,000 | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Yes (OpenAI servers) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Deep (PR, commits, issues) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 180 code completions | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 15+ editors (VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, Neovim, etc.) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Suggestion-based only, no autonomous execution | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: OpenAI GPT-4 / Anthropic Claude | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: ~1200ms average completion | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $10/month individual, $19/month business | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: ~5-10 visible files in editor | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: GitHub Copilot (proprietary, Codex-based) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 5+ (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Vim, Neovim) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: No—suggestions only, manual edit required | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 1 (IDE-native, like autocomplete) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: No (cloud-only) | Tabnine: N/A
Average Response Time for Code Suggestion
GitHub Copilot: 0.5-1 (inline suggestion) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 4+ (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Neovim) | Tabnine: 20+ (includes Vim, Emacs, Sublime Text)
GitHub Copilot: Native PR reviews, CLI, GitHub.dev, Copilot X | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Data exclusion available (enterprise only) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $252/year | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $10/month | Tabnine: $15
GitHub Copilot: $120 (monthly) or $100 (annual with 17% discount) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 40+ | Tabnine: 20+ integrations
GitHub Copilot: Up to 150 lines | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: April 2024 | Tabnine: 2024
GitHub Copilot: ~15 MB extension | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 27% of developers | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 2-5 seconds per suggestion | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 5 IDE integrations | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 20-40% faster on routine tasks | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Yes (GitHub Copilot Free) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 2 (GPT-4, Claude) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 4 major (VS Code, Visual Studio, GitHub.com, JetBrains Beta) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 1.5+ million (GitHub official, 2024) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Yes (GitHub Enterprise available) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 2–5 min (GitHub sign-in) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Mandatory (cloud-based) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 30-day trial only | Tabnine: Yes (limited completions)
GitHub Copilot: Not available | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 27 million | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 4+ years (2021) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Plugin only (requires VS Code/JetBrains) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Limited to referenced files | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 5+ (VS Code, JetBrains suite, GitHub.com, etc.) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $20/month | Tabnine: $12/month
GitHub Copilot: 10+ (VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Neovim, etc.) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: GPT-4o / o1 (OpenAI) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $10 or free with GitHub Pro | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 150-250ms per suggestion | Tabnine: 80-120ms
GitHub Copilot: 80+ languages | Tabnine: 22 primary languages
GitHub Copilot: 8,000 tokens (~6,000 words) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 8+ (VS Code, JetBrains Suite, Vim, Visual Studio, etc.) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: April 2024 | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 72% correct on HumanEval benchmark | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 2-5 seconds (in-editor, no switching) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 8,000 tokens | Tabnine: 128K tokens
GitHub Copilot: Code may be retained (opt-out available) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Limited (logs code references) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Limited (generic suggestions) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $100/year or $120 with GitHub Pro | Tabnine: $144/year
GitHub Copilot: Cloud-only | Tabnine: Available (on-device models)
GitHub Copilot: 2,000 completions | Tabnine: Limited (varies by plan)
GitHub Copilot: 340ms average | Tabnine: 290ms average
GitHub Copilot: 8,000 | Tabnine: 30,000 tokens
GitHub Copilot: Cloud (GitHub servers) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 250,000,000 | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 100 chat prompts | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 1-2 (GPT-4o primary) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: No, single-file awareness | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: $10 (Pro) or $0 (Limited) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 0.5 minutes | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 90+ languages | Tabnine: 30+ languages
GitHub Copilot: Integration with VS Code | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: 50-100ms per suggestion | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Fixed $10 (Copilot Individual) or $19 (Copilot Pro) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Single file at a time | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: None: requires manual git commands outside Copilot | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: No: GitHub Copilot model is fixed and proprietary | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: ~8,000 (estimated Copilot context) | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001 | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: Available in all tiers | Tabnine: N/A
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Free + $15 Pro
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes (SAML 2.0)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes (optional)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Proprietary closed-source
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Limited (Pro required for unlimited)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 200-300ms
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, ISO 27001
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Enterprise tier only
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Full offline support
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Not supported
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 5-10 minutes
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes, full offline support
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 7+ years in production
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: $12/month
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes (hybrid mode)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Basic AWS SDK suggestions
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 6 GB (locally downloadable)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes (Enterprise plan)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 22+ languages
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Free (unlimited)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: 3 (Cloud, VPC, On-premise)
GitHub Copilot: N/A | Tabnine: Yes - fine-tuning on private repos
How to choose between GitHub Copilot and Tabnine
GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine — Structured Comparison Data
Machine-readable comparison dataset for GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine. Contains 169 attribute comparisons, 5 FAQ pairs.
GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine.
Does GitHub Copilot send my code to Microsoft?
Yes. GitHub Copilot sends code snippets to Microsoft and OpenAI servers for processing. Both companies claim they don't use code to train models (as of 2026), but sensitive proprietary code may present security concerns. If data privacy is critical, Tabnine's local processing option keeps code entirely on your device.
Yes. Tabnine offers on-device models that work completely offline with no internet connection required. GitHub Copilot requires constant cloud connectivity. This makes Tabnine suitable for secure environments, classified work, or areas with poor internet access.
Which is better for open-source contributions?
Tabnine is safer for open-source work because it trains exclusively on permissive-licensed code (MIT, Apache 2.0, BSD), avoiding GPL and copyleft concerns. GitHub Copilot was trained on all public GitHub code including GPL-licensed projects, raising potential licensing questions if similar patterns appear in generated code.
What's the accuracy difference between them?
GitHub Copilot achieves 92% relevance on multi-line code generation (its primary strength), while Tabnine reaches 87%. For single-line completions, they're nearly identical (Copilot 88% vs Tabnine 87%). Copilot excels with complex, multi-file contexts; Tabnine matches it on basic line-by-line suggestions.
Which offers better team/enterprise features?
GitHub Copilot integrates deeply with GitHub for organization-wide rollouts and seat management. Tabnine's enterprise plan ($30/user/month) includes custom model fine-tuning on your codebase, which Copilot doesn't offer. Choose Tabnine if you need personalized models trained on your team's code patterns.
How to Choose Between GitHub Copilot and Tabnine
AI Model Technology: GitHub Copilot has OpenAI GPT-4 (cloud-based), while Tabnine has Proprietary models (local + cloud options).
Monthly Subscription Cost: GitHub Copilot has $10/month (individual), while Tabnine has $12/month (individual).
Code Generation Accuracy: GitHub Copilot has 92% relevance (multi-line contexts), while Tabnine has 87% relevance (single-line focus).
Local Processing Available: GitHub Copilot has Cloud-only (requires internet), while Tabnine has Yes (on-device models available).
Privacy Approach: GitHub Copilot has Code sent to Microsoft/OpenAI servers, while Tabnine has Local-first option keeps code on device.
IDE Support Coverage: GitHub Copilot has VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim (15+ editors), while Tabnine has VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio (20+ editors).
Free Tier Availability: GitHub Copilot has Yes (limited to 2,000 completions/month), while Tabnine has Yes (limited code completions).