GitHub Copilot vs Cursor: Price and What Each Plan Includes

Short answer. On October 19, 2026, GitHub Copilot Pro cost $10 a month and Cursor Plus $8, both in US dollars. Cursor Plus offers only Grok models, while Copilot Pro lists models from several makers. The middle plans are Copilot Pro+ at $39 and Cursor Premium at $30. Each tool counts usage in its own unit.

In plain words. Both tools help you write code with AI. Cursor’s cheapest paid plan costs less, but it only uses Grok models. Copilot’s lists models from several companies. Each tool limits use in its own way, so the price alone does not show how much you can do.

GitHub Copilot and Cursor both sell a free plan, a cheap plan for one person, larger plans for heavier use and plans for teams. Their pages were read by a script on October 19, 2026, and both showed US dollars, so the prices can sit side by side. What the plans include, and how each tool counts usage, cannot be lined up as easily. This post quotes each page on both.

The plans side by side

Each row pairs the plans by their place in each list, not by what they include. Prices are as each page printed them.

On tax, the two pages differ. Cursor’s footer says: “Prices shown do not include applicable taxes or fees (e.g. VAT).” GitHub’s Copilot plans page does not say whether its prices include tax. Both were read on October 19, 2026. Copilot’s business prices come from GitHub’s documentation, read the same day.

How each tool counts usage

The two pages measure use in different units, and they are not converted into each other here. Each is quoted on its own.

GitHub Copilot counts credits: “GitHub AI Credits are how you pay for AI usage in GitHub Copilot. Every plan includes a monthly allowance: 1 AI credit = $0.01 USD.” Its documentation gives each plan’s allowance in a table headed “Plan | Price per month | Base credits | Flex allotment | Total monthly AI credits |”, with the rows “Copilot Pro | $10 USD | 1,000 | 500 | 1,500 |”, “Copilot Pro+ | $39 USD | 3,900 | 3,100 | 7,000 |” and “Copilot Max | $100 USD | 10,000 | 10,000 | 20,000 |”. Some use is outside the credits: “Code completions and next edit suggestions don’t use credits. They remain unlimited with every paid plan.”

Cursor counts a shared pool: “Every tier includes a pool of AI usage shared across Cursor and Grok. Within Grok, the pool covers Chat, Imagine, Voice, and Bot. Higher tiers include larger pools, and usage costs vary by product. Your allowance refreshes weekly, so one heavy day never wipes out your whole month.” The size of each pool is given as a multiple of Plus, in the row “Usage | Limited | Basic | 4x Plus | 15x Plus | 50x Plus | 4-50x Plus | Pooled |”.

So a Copilot plan names a number of credits a month, and a Cursor plan names a multiple of another plan, refreshed weekly. Neither figure says how many requests a person will get.

Which models the entry plans include

Cursor Plus, at $8, says: “*Only Grok models are available on this plan”. From Premium up, the plan lists “Third-party models at API list price”, and the footer adds: “Third Party model usage in Cursor is not included in the monthly prices shown and must be purchased separately.”

GitHub’s documentation describes the Copilot plans in an overview table headed “Plan | Pricing | GitHub AI Credits | Agents | Models |”. Its row for the free plan reads “Copilot Free | Free | An allowance of GitHub AI Credits | Limited | Auto model selection only |”, and for Pro “Copilot Pro | $10 USD per month (free for some users) | Base: 1,000 | | A selection of models |”. The plans page, for its part, lists models under each plan, among them “Anthropic Claude Sonnet 5.5”, “OpenAI GPT-6.1 Sol”, “Google Gemini 4 Argon” and “xAI Grok 4.7”. It adds: “Model options may vary by feature.”

What the middle plans include for coding

On Copilot, the plans page lists features with one line per plan. Code review and the cloud agent start at Pro, and third-party agents at Pro+. In the table below, the feature names and the cells are the page’s own words:

On Cursor, Premium is the first plan whose card lists “Cloud agents & automations”, “Code hosting & AI code reviews” and “Third-party models at API list price”. Its comparison table shows the same start, for example “AI code reviews via Bugbot | — | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |”.

If you only want one of them

If you only want GitHub Copilot to write code, its page says the free plan is limited: “GitHub Copilot Free users are limited to 2000 completions and 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits).” Pro, at $10, is the first plan with code review and the cloud agent, and its completions do not use credits. Delegating to third-party agents starts at Pro+.

Update, October 23, 2026: GitHub’s Copilot plans page, read again on October 23, 2026, no longer says “50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits)”. It now says “GitHub Copilot Free users are limited to 2,000 completions and access to entry level models per month.” Its plan card still says “Free plan Limited chat and agent usage”. Prices and AI credit allowances were unchanged.

If you only want Cursor to write code, the page lists “Limited agent requests” on the free plan. Plus, at $8, uses Grok models only. Premium, at $30, is the first with cloud agents, code reviews and other companies’ models, which are billed on top of the plan. More on Cursor’s plans, which also include Grok and X features, is in Cursor’s pricing with Grok and X.

Every plan of both tools, with its quotes, is on the GitHub Copilot page and the Cursor page. Eight more coding tools are priced the same way on AI coding tools.

How we checked

GitHub’s Copilot plans page, its Copilot plans documentation and Cursor’s pricing page were read by a script on October 19, 2026, from a server in Finland. All three showed US dollars, so no currency is converted. Every price, table row and line quoted above comes from the saved text of those readings, and a test checks each quote against it. Copilot’s credits and Cursor’s usage pool are quoted as each page defines them and never turned into one another. Nothing here says which tool is better: the pages describe different plans.

Frequently asked questions

Is GitHub Copilot cheaper than Cursor?

Not at the entry plan: Cursor Plus is $8 a month and GitHub Copilot Pro $10, both in US dollars as read on October 19, 2026. At the middle plan, Cursor Premium is $30 and Copilot Pro+ $39, and the two count usage in different units.

Which plan includes Claude or GPT models?

GitHub's plans page lists Anthropic Claude and OpenAI GPT models under every Copilot plan, and its documentation describes Pro as 'A selection of models'. On Cursor, Plus says 'Only Grok models are available on this plan', and Premium and above list 'Third-party models at API list price', billed separately.

How do GitHub Copilot credits compare with Cursor's usage?

They are not converted into each other here. GitHub says '1 AI credit = $0.01 USD' and gives each plan a monthly allowance, while Cursor gives usage as multiples of Plus, from a pool shared with Grok.

Do GitHub Copilot and Cursor prices include tax?

Cursor's page says 'Prices shown do not include applicable taxes or fees'. GitHub's Copilot plans page does not say whether tax is included.