GitHub Copilot is a plugin, not an editor. It works inside VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Neovim, and Xcode. The $10/mo Pro plan includes unlimited code completions, unlimited chat, access to o3-mini and Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and Copilot Edits for multi-file changes. The free tier gives 2,000 completions and 50 chats per month, which is genuinely enough to test it out.
Who GitHub Copilot Suits
Developers who have already invested time in VS Code and don't want to switch to a new editor. If your IDE is already dialed in, Copilot slides in cleanly. The free tier alone is worth trying if you're using GitHub at all. It also works across more editors than Cursor does (Cursor is VS Code only), so if you use JetBrains IntelliJ or RubyMine, Copilot may be your only option for first-party AI assistance.
Where It Falls Short
Copilot Edits, the multi-file editing feature, is less reliable than Cursor's equivalent for complex refactors. The feature exists, but it often requires rewrites or multiple attempts. Tab completion quality also lags slightly when dealing with tricky context. MCP support launched in preview and is less mature than what Cursor offers. If agentic editing is your primary use case, Cursor's $20/mo is worth it.
Alternatives Worth Considering
Cursor is the main competitor and costs $20/mo, but it requires switching to a new VS Code fork and has stronger multi-file agentic capabilities. Windsurf is another fork-based option with similar tradeoffs. Both are covered in comparisons at /compare/github-copilot-vs-cursor and /compare/github-copilot-vs-windsurf.