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GitHub Copilot

GitHub's AI coding assistant for code completion, chat, agent mode, code review and cloud agents across editors, the CLI and GitHub.

Verified Freemium
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What GitHub Copilot does

GitHub Copilot is GitHub's AI assistant for writing, understanding and shipping code. In the editor it offers code completions and next edit suggestions, chat, and an agent mode that makes multi-step edits. On GitHub, you can assign an issue to Copilot's cloud agent, which researches, plans and writes code in the background and can open a pull request. Copilot also reviews pull requests on GitHub and file diffs in the editor.

It runs in many places. GitHub lists Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, Neovim, Eclipse and Raycast, along with github.com, GitHub Mobile, the Copilot CLI in the terminal and a GitHub Copilot desktop app for Apple Silicon Macs. Users can pick from models by Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI and others, connect MCP servers, and write custom instructions and agents. Some paid plans can also hand tasks to third-party coding agents such as Claude by Anthropic and OpenAI Codex.

Paid usage is measured in GitHub AI Credits. Chat, agent mode, code review, the cloud agent and the CLI draw on these credits, and the rate varies by model. Each paid plan includes a monthly credit allowance, and extra credits can be bought.

Copilot fits developers who already keep their code on GitHub and want one assistant across the editor, the terminal and pull requests. The Business and Enterprise plans add pooled credits, access and budget controls, audit features and IP indemnity for organizations.

  • Get code completions and next edit suggestions while typing in a supported editor.
  • Assign a GitHub issue to the cloud agent and review the pull request it opens.
  • Run automated pull request reviews on GitHub.
  • Use Copilot from the terminal with the Copilot CLI, including a programmatic mode.
  • Delegate tasks to third-party coding agents such as Claude or Codex on plans that include them.

Who should use it

  • Developers whose code and pull requests already live on GitHub.
  • Organizations that want pooled credits, budget controls and IP indemnity.

Who should look elsewhere

  • Heavy chat and agent users who want to stay on the Free plan, which has limited chat and agent usage.
  • Teams that need to sign up for Business or Enterprise right away, since GitHub says it is enabling new sign-ups gradually.

Strengths

  • Works across a long list of editors, the CLI, github.com and GitHub Mobile.
  • Cloud agent can take an issue and produce a pull request without local setup.
  • Large model catalog including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and xAI models.
  • Business and Enterprise data is not used to train GitHub's models.

Limitations

  • The Free plan has 2,000 completions per month and limited chat and agent usage, with no code review or cloud agent.
  • Chat, agents, code review and the CLI consume AI Credits at rates that vary by model.
  • GitHub says Business and Enterprise sign-ups are being enabled gradually.
  • Free, Pro and Pro+ interactions may be used for model training unless the user opts out.

Privacy notes

GitHub says it does not use Copilot Business or Enterprise data to train its models. For Free, Pro and Pro+ users, GitHub may use inputs, outputs, code snippets and context to train models unless they opt out in account settings.

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