GitHub Copilot is an AI code completion and pair programming tool powered by OpenAI Codex and GPT-4, integrated into VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, and other editors. It suggests line-by-line completions, entire functions, tests, and documentation as developers type — dramatically reducing boilerplate and routine coding time. Copilot Business and Enterprise add code review, Copilot Chat, and security scanning across team repositories.
GitHub Copilot
AI pair programmer embedded in your IDE by GitHub.
Best for: Professional developers who spend hours daily in their IDE and want the most widely supported AI coding assistant.
- Free plan
- Free trial
- $0
4.5/5 ratingEditorial score 88/100github.com
The editorial note
What to know about GitHub Copilot
Is it right for you?
Who GitHub Copilot suits
Choose it if
- Professional developers who spend hours daily in their IDE and want the most widely supported AI coding assistant.
Look elsewhere if
- Developers wanting full local privacy and no cloud data transmission — Continue.dev with local models (Ollama) keeps all code on-device
What you get
Key features
- AI code completion (line and multi-line)
- Copilot Chat for code explanation and debugging
- Test generation from function signatures
- Code review suggestions in pull requests
- Copilot Workspace (issue to PR automation)
- Multi-file context awareness
- Security vulnerability detection
- CLI integration
Works with
Integrations8
What it costs
Pricing
| Plan | Price | What it includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited chat and agent usage; CLI and agent mode supported. |
| Pro | $10 / monthBilled monthly | $10 base credits plus a $5 flex allotment each month; adds pull request reviews, assigning work to Copilot and the cloud agent. |
| Pro+ | $39 / monthBilled monthly | $39 base credits plus a $31 flex allotment each month. |
| Max | $100 / monthBilled monthly | $100 base credits plus a $100 flex allotment each month. |
| Business | $19 / user / monthBilled monthly | Team policies, audit logs, and IP indemnification |
| Enterprise | $39 / user / monthBilled monthly | Personalized models, custom knowledge base, and fine-tuning |
Prices are recorded from the vendor's public pricing page and can change. Check before you buy.
The trade-off
Pros and cons
Pros
- Context-aware code completion from the current file and related code in the repository
- Copilot Chat explains code, suggests fixes, and answers programming questions inline
- Supports 50+ languages including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, Rust, and Java
- Copilot Workspace can turn GitHub issues into pull requests autonomously
- Studies show 55% faster task completion and higher developer satisfaction
Cons
- $10/month per developer — adds up for large engineering teams
- Occasionally suggests outdated patterns or code with subtle security issues
- Performance in niche languages or proprietary codebases is weaker than mainstream stacks
- Requires GitHub account — incompatible workflows may prefer Continue.dev or Cursor
Quick read
At a glance
- Category
- AI Tools
- Pricing model
- Subscription
- Entry plan
- $0
- Free plan
- Available
- Free trial
- Available
- Website
- github.com
Head to head
GitHub Copilot compared
The verdict
Our take on GitHub Copilot
The industry-standard AI coding assistant with the deepest IDE integration and broadest adoption.
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Mentioned in
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