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Cursor vs GitHub Copilot: which is worth paying for?

The current plans and our verdict on each tool, side by side. Prices come from each vendor's own pricing page and are checked every day.

Prices, verdicts, test results or user reports behind this comparison changed on Sep 28, 2026. We are re-checking it; the plan table below always shows the current prices.

The short answer

Choose Cursor if…

Our pick for most people

  • you need extended agent limits and frontier models for daily use
  • you want a free plan with Composer access and limited agent requests
  • you prefer paying $20/month for generous Grok limits and cloud agents

Choose GitHub Copilot if…

  • you only need unlimited inline suggestions for $10/month
  • you want to use GitHub AI Credits and agent mode in VS Code
  • you need enterprise-grade security with SSO and pooled usage

Bottom line: Cursor is the better paid choice for developers who rely heavily on AI agents and need generous usage limits.

Key differences

  • Cursor offers a free plan with limited agent requests and Composer access. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (cursor.com), checked Sep 26, 2026.Go to sources ↓
  • GitHub Copilot's free plan limits chat requests to 50 per month. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (github.com), checked Sep 25, 2026.Go to sources ↓
  • Cursor Pro costs $20/month and includes extended agent limits and frontier models. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (cursor.com), checked Sep 26, 2026.Go to sources ↓
  • GitHub Copilot Pro costs $10/month and provides unlimited inline suggestions. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (github.com), checked Sep 25, 2026.Go to sources ↓
  • GitHub Copilot Pro+ costs $39/month. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (github.com), checked Sep 25, 2026.Go to sources ↓
  • GitHub Copilot Max costs $100/month. pricing pageSource · vendor pagePricing page (github.com), checked Sep 25, 2026.Go to sources ↓

Plans and limits side by side

PlansCursorGitHub Copilot
Free planHobby $0Agent requests Limited, Access ComposerFree $0Inline suggestions 2,000 per month, Chat requests 50 per month
Paid plansPro $20/moAgent limits Extended, Grok limits Generous, Models Access to frontier models, Grok Bot A…Pro+ $60/moUltra $200/moPro $10/moInline suggestions UnlimitedPro+ $39/moMax $100/mo
Business plansTeams Standard $40/user/moBilling Centralized team billing and administration, Marketplace Team marketplace for int…Teams Premium $120/user/moEnterprise CustomUsage Pooled usage, Billing Invoice/PO billing, Management SCIM seat management, Access c…—

From each vendor's own pricing page · Cursor checked Sep 28, 2026 · GitHub Copilot checked Sep 27, 2026.

Our tests

We have not run our task suite on Cursor or GitHub Copilot yet, so this comparison has no test scores.

What users say

Cursor

One Reddit user notes that Cursor is worth it because Grok 4.6 offers usage similar to Opus 4.6 but with much more allowance HNUser report · positive · Hacker NewsPosted Sep 3, 2026See the report ↓. Another user loves Cursor as a great IDE but finds it becomes really expensive due to the Cursor Token Rate HNUser report · mixed · Hacker NewsPosted Aug 29, 2026See the report ↓. Some users report hitting limits quickly, with one noting an audit found engineers hitting the cursor limit very quickly RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/cursor, posted Jan 29, 2026See the report ↓. A user on Hacker News states they do not care about limits with Cursor Ultra at all HNUser report · positive · Hacker NewsPosted Aug 18, 2026See the report ↓. Conversely, one user cancelled their subscription because most interesting features only work with per-token pricing HNUser report · negative · Hacker NewsPosted Aug 18, 2026See the report ↓. Another user complains that Cursor charges the Cursor Token Rate for BYOK HNUser report · mixed · Hacker NewsPosted Aug 29, 2026See the report ↓.

Reports cited (6)
  1. Positive · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    Cursor is worth it because Grok 4.6 is around Opus 4.6 but you get much more usage with it than with Claude Code.
  2. Positive · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    … Oh yeah and I do not care about limits with cursor ultra at all . Unlike with you .
  3. Negative · Reddit · r/cursor · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    … It turns out that a few weeks before there was an audit going on because the engineers were hitting the cursor limit very quickly (and look, it's $200) and when auditing the cursor data, they saw that there were people using the cursor in other projects. …
  4. Negative · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    I’ve finally cancelled my Cursor subscription. It was an interesting product, but the fact that most interesting features only work with per-token pricing, not Cursor and Codex subscriptions, is a bummer. …
  5. Mixed · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    I use Cursor at work and love it. It's a great IDE, the best IMHO. But it becomes really expensive. Since the introduction of the Cursor Token Rate, my company tells us to use Claude and Codex directly with Anthropic (or Vertex AI) and OpenAI, respectively. I'm now using Grok 4.6 most of the time. …
  6. Mixed · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    Cursor charges the “Cursor Token Rate” for BYOK

GitHub Copilot

One Reddit user cancelled their Copilot Pro plan after running out of credits quickly RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/GithubCopilot, posted Jun 2, 2026See the report ↓. Another user cancelled their Pro + plan RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/GithubCopilot, posted Jun 1, 2026See the report ↓. A user reports that GitHub Copilot increased costs by 900% for Claude models RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/ClaudeAI, posted Apr 27, 2026See the report ↓. Another user states they will be cancelling GitHub Copilot RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/GithubCopilot, posted Jun 10, 2026See the report ↓. One user notes their enterprise employer disabled Opus models citing the pricing change RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/GithubCopilot, posted Jun 3, 2026See the report ↓. A user on Hacker News mentions switching from Codex to GitHub Copilot due to pricing HNUser report · mixed · Hacker NewsPosted Sep 9, 2026See the report ↓. Another user says GitHub Copilot just got worse in every possible way after an update RedditUser report · negative · Redditr/GithubCopilot, posted Apr 21, 2026See the report ↓.

Reports cited (7)
  1. Negative · Reddit · r/GithubCopilot · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    … *(this is not about self-promotion, feel free to also make new "cancel copilot" posts of your own!)* I canceled my Copilot Pro plan yesterday after running 2 requests for 15% of my credits.
  2. Negative · Reddit · r/GithubCopilot · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    Watch me cancel my Pro + plan [18+ restricted][Satisfying]
  3. Negative · Reddit · r/ClaudeAI · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    GitHub Copilot 9x price increase for Claude models So it seems that GitHub Copilot is increasing their costs by 900% for Claude models starting in June: See for the details, and for the full press release with all their fancy words trying to hide that it’s just a 900% increase. …
  4. Negative · Reddit · r/GithubCopilot · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    I will be cancelling Github Copilot Please send upvotes
  5. Negative · Reddit · r/GithubCopilot · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    My big enterprise employer have just disabled the Opus models, citing the pricing change. Had a great few months with Opus 4.6 and accelerated my development a lot but now I must return back to the business as usual.
  6. Negative · Reddit · r/GithubCopilot · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    … GitHub Copilot just got worse in every possible way, here's everything that changed I've been on Pro+ ($40/mo) for a while now. I opened VS Code and Claude Opus 4.6 told me to "upgrade my plan". I AM on the max plan. Had to dig into their blog post to understand what happened. …
  7. Mixed · Hacker News · · Open thread ↗ ↩ text
    We have groups in our company that do not have access to LLMs yet, due to company beuracracy. Also, token usage is capped, so developers need to be strategic about their usage. This could of course all change. We are swithing from Codex to Github Copilot due to pricing (I think).

Questions people ask

Which tool is better for free users?

Cursor offers a free plan with limited agent requests and Composer access. GitHub Copilot's free plan limits chat requests to 50 per month.

How much does the paid plan cost?

Cursor Pro costs $20/month. GitHub Copilot Pro costs $10/month.

Does GitHub Copilot have a free plan?

Yes, GitHub Copilot has a free plan with limited chat and agent usage.

What is the most expensive plan for GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot Max costs $100/month.

Sources

Drafted with AI from these pages, our tests and the linked user reports, and checked automatically against them before publishing: every price, score and report above is tied to the tool it is about.

Cursor

GitHub Copilot

Each tool's verdict and plans

Cursor

DEPENDS DEPENDS — worth it for some people Re-checking after a price change

Paying $20/month unlocks extended agent limits and frontier models, but per-token costs can make it pricey for heavy users.

Based on pricing, docs & user reports — not yet tested by us

Cheapest paid
$20/mo
What's free
$0
Our test score
—

Hobby

$0

Pro

$20/mo

Pro+

$60/mo

Ultra

$200/mo

Teams Standard

$40/user/mo

Teams Premium

$120/user/mo

Enterprise

Custom
Visit Cursor(opens in a new tab) Full Cursor verdict →

GitHub Copilot

DEPENDS DEPENDS — worth it for some people

Paying is worth it if you need unlimited inline suggestions or advanced agent features; otherwise, the free plan or a cheaper alternative may suffice.

Based on pricing, docs & user reports — not yet tested by us

Cheapest paid
$10/mo
What's free
$0
Our test score
—

Free

$0

Pro

$10/mo

Pro+

$39/mo

Max

$100/mo
Visit GitHub Copilot(opens in a new tab) Full GitHub Copilot verdict →

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