AI coding tools
Cursor vs GitHub Copilot (2026): Full Price Comparison
Short answer
- GitHub Copilot is cheaper at every comparable tier, on a single listed price per tier: Pro $10/mo vs Cursor Pro $20/mo ($16 yearly), Pro+ $39 vs $60 ($48 yearly), Max $100 vs Cursor Ultra $200 ($160 yearly).
- Copilot's September-2026 pricing now runs on GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01) with a monthly allowance and flex billing — a significant shift toward usage-based pricing that narrows the "Cursor charges by usage, Copilot doesn't" argument.
- Cursor's pitch stays the same: a full agent-first editor with 20x Pro limits on Ultra and deeper agent defaults; Copilot's pitch is price plus the deepest IDE integration.
- If you're picking on price alone, Copilot is the cheapest option at the entry tier. If agent-heavy daily work is your baseline, the decision is closer than the seat prices suggest.
Both tools raised the stakes this year, and both official pricing pages have quietly changed since most comparison posts were written. We pulled every tier from cursor.com/pricing and GitHub's Copilot plans page directly — including the tiers the Cursor site hides behind tabs — with the latest cross-check on . Here is the full picture.
Seat prices, side by side
Cursor bills Individual plans monthly or yearly; yearly saves 20% (verified via the billing toggle). GitHub Copilot lists one price per tier with no yearly discount track — what you see is the monthly rate. All figures below are straight from the official pages.
| Tier | Cursor | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Hobby — Free (limited agent requests) | Free (limited chat and agent usage) |
| Entry paid | Pro — $20/mo, or $16 yearly | Pro — $10/mo |
| Middle | Pro+ — $60/mo, or $48 yearly (3× Pro agent limits) | Pro+ — $39/mo |
| Top | Ultra — $200/mo, or $160 yearly (20× Pro agent limits) | Max — $100/mo |
| Teams | Teams — $40/user/mo | Business — $19/user/mo |
Read that table twice and you'll spot the interesting part: Copilot undercuts the equivalent Cursor tier at every rung — half price at the entry tier ($10 vs $20) and at the top ($100 vs $200), 35% off at Pro+ ($39 vs $60). Even against Cursor's discounted yearly rates ($16/$48/$160), Copilot still comes in 19-38% lower. And because GitHub doesn't play the yearly-discount game, there's no billing toggle to game the comparison with — the sticker is the sticker.
The bigger change: Copilot now meters usage too
For most of its life, Copilot's selling point was "unlimited-ish usage for one low price" while Cursor's bill grew with your agent habit. That distinction has officially eroded. Every Copilot plan now includes a monthly allowance of GitHub AI Credits, where 1 credit = $0.01 — consumed by chat, agent mode, and CLI usage. Each plan's base credit allowance mirrors its sticker price ($10, $39, and $100 of credits per month on Pro, Pro+, and Max), and when the base runs dry, flex allotments kick in automatically: $5/mo worth on Pro, $31/mo worth on Pro+, and $100/mo on Max — $15, $70, and $200 of total monthly credit value respectively. Usage continues without interruption.
The clearest signal is the Max tier: it "includes $100/month in GitHub AI Credits" as its base allowance (with another $100/mo in flex on top, per the plans page), and GitHub's own copy positions Max for "sustained agent-driven workflows." That is usage-based pricing with a credit skin, converging toward what Cursor has done all along. Cursor's own model: every plan includes a set amount of model usage, and on-demand usage billed in arrears kicks in when you exceed it.
Which tier for which developer
Cursor's own FAQ recommends Pro+ for daily agent users and Ultra for power users — the 3× and 20× limit multipliers tell you how fast the entry tier runs dry in agent workflows. If you run long autonomous coding sessions daily, budget for Pro+ ($48 yearly) at minimum on Cursor's side.
Copilot's equivalent logic: Pro at $10 is excellent value for in-IDE completion and moderate chat; Pro+ at $39 unlocks more frontier-model headroom (plus $31/mo of flex credits); Max at $100 is the first tier explicitly built for sustained agent work — its credits total $200/mo of value ($100 base + $100 flex).
One more factor that doesn't show up in the table: editor lock-in versus editor neutrality. Copilot works inside the IDE you already use, including Cursor itself; adopting Cursor means adopting its editor as your daily driver. Some developers pay Cursor's premium precisely because the editor is the product. Our earlier cost breakdown of what AI coding assistants really cost per month covers the usage-billing mechanics in depth, and if you're weighing against other editor-based tools, see Cursor vs CodeBuddy.
Checked . Cursor prices from cursor.com/pricing (monthly and yearly toggles, including Pro+/Ultra tiers verified via the page's billing tabs); GitHub Copilot prices, base/flex AI Credit allowances, and the Business seat price from GitHub's Copilot plans page. No affiliate links; we pay for neither service on your behalf.
Sources: Cursor official pricing · GitHub Copilot plans