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Cursor vs GitHub Copilot in 2026: What You Actually Pay
Copilot Pro is $10 and Cursor Plus is $8, but credits and model limits decide the real bill. Every plan, limit and team price compared, sourced and dated.
7 min read
Cursor prices checked Oct 24, 2026 on Cursor’s pricing help and pricing page. Copilot plans checked Oct 15, 2026 on GitHub Copilot’s plans page and GitHub’s Copilot plans docs. All are linked under Sources. This page has no affiliate links (how we work).
On paper, this one looks easy. Cursor Plus is $8 a month, Copilot Pro is $10, done. Except that’s not what either of them costs once you actually use it. Copilot now runs on AI Credits. Cursor now runs on weekly allowance multiples and a Grok-only entry plan. The price on the plan card is the minimum, not the bill.
Here’s every plan side by side, how the limits really work, and which one to pay for based on how much you code.
We haven’t benchmarked either tool. Everything below comes from Cursor’s and GitHub’s own pages.
TL;DR: which to pay for, by user
- Light user (a few hours a week, mostly autocomplete): Copilot Pro at $10. Code completions and next-edit suggestions are unlimited on paid Copilot plans and don’t use credits. If you’re fine with Cursor models only (Grok and Composer), Cursor Plus at $8 ($80/yr) is cheaper.
- Daily user (chat and agent every day): compare Copilot Pro+ at $39 (7,000 credits, worth $70) with Cursor Premium at $30 (4x Plus usage). On Cursor Premium, Claude and GPT cost extra at API prices.
- Heavy user (agents all day): Copilot Max at $100 (20,000 credits, worth $200) against Cursor Super at $100 (15x Plus) or Ultra at $200 (50x Plus).
- Team: Copilot Business is $19 per granted seat and Enterprise $39, per GitHub’s docs. Cursor Teams seats are $30, $100 or $200 per user.
- Free: Copilot Free gives you 2,000 completions a month plus an AI-credit allowance GitHub doesn’t size (details). Cursor Free has limited agent and chat requests.
Cursor vs Copilot: price table
USD per month (Cursor annual prices in the caption), as listed Oct 24, 2026 for Cursor and Oct 15, 2026 for Copilot.
| Tier | Cursor | Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 |
| Entry | $8 Plus | $10 Pro |
| Mid | $30 Premium | $39 Pro+ |
| High | $100 Super | $100 Max |
| Top | $200 Ultra | None listed |
| Team | $30 / $100 / $200 per seat | $19 Business |
| Enterprise | Custom | $39 per seat |
Sources: Cursor pricing help (Oct 24, 2026; annual: Plus $80/yr, Premium $300/yr, Super $1,000/yr, Ultra $2,000/yr), Cursor pricing, Copilot plans and GitHub Copilot plans docs, Copilot checked Oct 15, 2026. Copilot Business and Enterprise prices are in GitHub’s docs. Copilot still lists no annual price for these individual plans.
For each tool on its own, see GitHub Copilot cost and Cursor pricing.
Credits and limits: where the real bill hides
Copilot: AI Credits
Every paid Copilot plan comes with a monthly pool of AI Credits, and 1 credit is worth $0.01. Each plan’s pool has two parts: base credits, which match the price and “never change”, and flex credits, which GitHub says “may change over time” (Copilot plans docs, checked Oct 15, 2026).
| Plan | Price | Credits | Worth |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro | $10 | 1,500 | $15 |
| Pro+ | $39 | 7,000 | $70 |
| Max | $100 | 20,000 | $200 |
| Business | $19/seat | 1,900 pooled | Not stated |
| Enterprise | $39/seat | 3,900 pooled | Not stated |
Source: Copilot plans and plans docs, checked Oct 15, 2026. Totals include flex credits.
What uses credits: chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent, the CLI, Spaces and Spark. What doesn’t: code completions and next-edit suggestions, which are unlimited on paid plans. How many credits a request uses depends on the model and how complex the task is (usage-based billing docs, checked Oct 15, 2026).
Unused credits don’t roll over. They reset at 00:00 UTC on the 1st of each month (5:30 AM IST), not on your billing date. Extra usage costs $0.01 per credit, and budget alerts fire at 75%, 90% and 100%. Since Jun 1, 2026, code review workflows also use GitHub Actions minutes.
Of the 1,500 credits on Pro, 500 are “flex” credits that GitHub says “may change over time”. So the number you compare on the plan card is partly a promise that comes with an asterisk.
Cursor: weekly multiples, plus API prices for other labs
Cursor sizes every plan against Plus: Premium is 4x Plus usage, Super 15x and Ultra 50x, and Teams 4x to 50x. The allowance “refreshes weekly”, so it comes back every week rather than once a month (Cursor pricing, checked Oct 15, 2026).
Third-party models, such as Claude and GPT, are billed at API list price on top of your plan. Cursor’s paid plans also share one Grok usage pool with the Grok app and the Grok tab on X, because Cursor is now sold inside The X Subscription (xAI, checked Oct 14, 2026).
Models: Cursor Plus is Grok-only
This is the line in the comparison people miss. Cursor’s $8 Plus plan says “Only Grok models”. If your workflow depends on Claude or GPT, Plus isn’t an $8 option for you, and on Premium and above those models cost extra at API prices.
Copilot’s credit system works across the models it offers, with each model drawing credits at a different rate. So on Copilot you pick a model and watch the credit meter. On Cursor you either stay with Grok inside your allowance, or pay per token for everyone else’s models.
Teams
- Copilot Business: $19 per granted seat a month, with 1,900 credits per user going into a shared pool. Copilot Enterprise: $39 per seat, 3,900 credits per user, pooled. Usage beyond the pool costs $0.01 a credit, admins set limits, and if paid overage is off, Copilot pauses. Business and Enterprise data isn’t used for training (Copilot plans docs and plans page, checked Oct 15, 2026).
- Cursor Teams: from $30 per user a month, with 4x to 50x Plus usage. Enterprise is custom.
One note: Copilot’s features page doesn’t show the Business or Enterprise seat prices, so we’ve cited them from GitHub’s docs. GitHub hasn’t published annual pricing for those plans.
Data note for individuals: GitHub says interactions on Copilot Free, Pro and Pro+ may be used for training unless you opt out.
Can you use both?
Yes. Nothing stops you running Copilot in one editor and Cursor in another, for example Copilot for unlimited completions and Cursor for agent work. Just add the two plan prices together and decide if the overlap is worth it. For more options, see our Copilot alternatives and the AI coding tools compared page.
The verdict
Mostly autocomplete? Copilot Pro at $10. Unlimited completions on a paid plan is hard to beat for that use.
Grok is fine and you’re on a budget? Cursor Plus at $8 is the cheapest paid plan of the two.
Daily agent work with frontier models? Price it both ways. On Copilot it’s credits per model. On Cursor Premium ($30) it’s API list prices for Claude or GPT on top of the plan. Watch your first month’s usage meter before committing either way.
Team buying for 10+ developers? Copilot Business at $19 a seat is the lower list price, with pooled credits and admin controls. Cursor Teams starts at $30.
Plan-level detail for each side: Cursor Pro vs Pro+ and Copilot Pro vs Pro+.
Rolling Copilot out to a team? Copilot Business vs Enterprise explains what Enterprise adds over Business.
FAQ
Is Copilot cheaper than Cursor? At entry level Cursor Plus is $8 against Copilot Pro at $10, but Cursor Plus is Grok-only, and for teams Copilot Business at $19 a seat is below Cursor Teams at $30.
Can I use both Cursor and Copilot? Yes, they’re separate subscriptions, so you could use Copilot for completions and Cursor for agent work and pay for both.
Which has a better free tier? Copilot Free states 2,000 completions a month plus an unsized AI-credit allowance, while Cursor Free lists limited agent and chat requests without a number.
Do Copilot code completions use AI Credits? No, GitHub says completions and next-edit suggestions don’t use credits and are unlimited on paid plans.
Can I use Claude in Cursor Plus? No, Plus is Cursor models only (no third-party), and Claude is available on Premium and above at API list prices.
When do Copilot credits reset? At 00:00 UTC on the 1st of each month, which is 5:30 AM IST, and unused credits don’t roll over.
Sources
- Cursor pricing help (monthly + annual): https://cursor.com/help/account-and-billing/pricing (verified 2026-10-24) 1b. Cursor pricing page: https://cursor.com/pricing (verified 2026-10-24)
- GitHub Copilot plans: https://github.com/features/copilot/plans (checked 2026-10-15)
- GitHub Copilot plans docs: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans (checked 2026-10-15)
- GitHub usage-based billing for individuals: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing/usage-based-billing-for-individuals (checked 2026-10-15)
- xAI, The X Subscription: https://x.ai/news/x-subscription (checked 2026-10-14)