Cursor is a full IDE built around AI with native Claude integration and superior code editing, while GitHub Copilot is a lightweight autocomplete extension that works across any editor and integrates with GPT-4 and o1. Cursor is better for AI-first development workflows; Copilot is better for developers who want AI assistance without switching tools.
Cursor vs GitHub Copilot — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose Cursor if you want an AI-native IDE with advanced agent capabilities, superior context awareness, and seamless Claude integration for complex refactoring and multi-file edits. Choose GitHub Copilot if you prefer affordability, cross-editor flexibility, broad language model support (GPT-4/o1), and integration with your existing development environment without switching tools.
AI-native code editor IDE built on VS Code with Claude integration and agentic features.
AI code assistant by Microsoft/OpenAI with GPT-4 integration and enterprise-grade accuracy.
Agentic Capabilities (Auto-fix, autonomous edits)
Cursor vs GitHub Copilot — Comparison Data
Structured comparison data for Cursor vs GitHub Copilot with 291 attributes.
Primary AI Model Quality (MMBENCH score)
Code Suggestion Accuracy (Python/JavaScript)
Average Response Time for Code Suggestion
Cursor vs GitHub Copilot — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Cursor vs GitHub Copilot.
No, Cursor is built around Claude integration and does not support GitHub Copilot as a backend. However, Cursor allows you to select alternative models (GPT-4, o1) through API keys if desired. Copilot only works with VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, and other external editors.
Cursor has a 200KB context window vs Copilot's 120KB, giving Cursor 67% more context. Cursor's codebase indexing and @-mentions also help it understand large projects better. For projects exceeding 10K lines, Cursor's agents are more reliable at multi-file refactoring.
GitHub Copilot is free for students and open-source contributors. For individual developers, it costs $10/month or $100/year. GitHub Copilot Business (teams) is $30/month per user. Cursor offers a free tier with limited requests and 200K tokens/month; Pro is $20/month.
Output quality depends on model choice and use case. Cursor's Claude 3.5 excels at code explanations and refactoring. Copilot's GPT-4o is stronger at boilerplate and API generation. Copilot's o1 model (reasoning) outperforms both on algorithmic problems. Both score ~85% on HumanEval benchmarks.
Can I use Cursor with VS Code extensions?
Cursor is built on VS Code's architecture and supports most VS Code extensions. However, extensions specifically tied to VS Code's core (like remote development) may have limited functionality. Cursor maintains 95%+ compatibility with the VS Code extension ecosystem.