1. Should you try GitHub Copilot? Overview

What it is	GitHub Copilot — Multi-IDE AI Pair Programmer With Agent Mode, PR Review & 20+ Model Picker (Microsoft/GitHub, Active, Not Shut Down) Not shut down.
Country / HQ	San Francisco, USA
Best for	Teams already on GitHub + VS Code/JetBrains wanting one governed seat
Check before buying	Watch out: Agent-maximalists doing 10+ file cross-repo refactors daily (Cursor+Claude Code sharper)
Editor rating	4.5 / 5
Pricing signal	Free tier + paid from $10/mo

2. Features What it does

Feature	What it does
Completions	Inline + Next Edit Suggestions, 40+ langs, unlimited on all paid plans, zero credits — Free = 2,000 completions/mo cap
Chat	IDE inline / GitHub.com / Mobile / CLI / Windows Terminal / slash commands / skills — Free = limited chat, auto-model only
Agent Mode	Multi-file plan-edit-test loop in IDE; cloud agent (issue→branch→PR) on Pro+ — Pro+ can delegate to Claude Code / Codex
Code Review	PR diff analysis, inline comments, catches unhandled promises/null checks, GA Mar 2026 — Consumes AI credits + GitHub Actions minutes
Model picker	GPT-5.6 Sol/Luna/Terra, Claude Opus 4.8/5/Sonnet 4.6, Gemini 3.7 Flash/3.5/3.1 Pro, Grok 4.6, Kimi K3, MAI-Code-1.1, o4-mini — Free/Student = auto-select only, no pick
Workspace / Spark	Browser agentic dev env (issue→plan→PR), GitHub Spark (public preview) — Pro+ and Enterprise
Spaces	KB replacement (Nov 2025), ground chat/agent in repo docs/specs — Ent-first, Pro+ gets it
Integrations	100+ via MCP, GitHub Actions, Linear/MS Teams/Azure Boards hooks, CLI, Copilot App — No native Figma/Notion
Governance	SSO/SAML, audit logs, IP indemnity (Biz+), content exclusions, block public-code match, BYOK (Ent), budget caps + pooled credits (Biz/Ent) — SOC 2; Biz/Ent no-train contractual

Plan	Price / mo	Key limits & who it fits
Free	$0	limited (not published) 2,000 completions, auto-model chat only, no agent/workspace/Spaces, no credit picker
Student	$0 (verified)	limited Like Free, unlimited completions, no third-party agents
Pro	$10	1,500 (1,000+500) Unlimited completions, agent mode, cloud agent, 3rd-party agents, model pick, $15 value on $10
Pro+	$39	7,000 (3,900+3,100) Premium models (Opus 4.8 etc), 4×+ Pro usage, audit logs, Spaces
Max	$100	20,000 (10,000+10,000) Priority new models, sustained agent herds
Business	$19/seat	1,900/seat pooled Org policy, budget caps, IP indemnity, no Pro+ Max individual headroom
Enterprise	$39/seat	3,900/seat pooled (+ promo 7,000 through Aug 2026) SAML, BYOK, codebase indexing, Spaces, priority models

Access type	Details
Access	access_type: ide-plus-github-web-plus-cli-plus-mobile access_display: 🖥️ VS Code / JetBrains / Visual Studio / Neovim / Xcode / Eclipse / Zed · GitHub.com PR/issue/chat · 📱 iOS/Android · 💻 Copilot CLI + Windows Terminal · 🔌 MCP + 3rd-party agents (Pr

Source	Rating	What it says
G2	4.5/5 (370+ rev) — praise: kills boilerplate, tab-to-accept flow, PR review catches real bugs; gripes: confident-wrong imports, loses thread in 1k-line files, June 2026 credit drain
Capterra	~4.4/5 — “most convenient because it’s already in the editor+GitHub”, caution on over-reliance
Dev survey (400 ppl Feb 2026)	Satisfaction 52% (vs Cursor 78%, Claude Code 84%), dissatisfaction 18%; market share 24% (down from 28% 2025)
Community threads	Post-June-1 2026: “allowance that lasted a month gone in 4 days on cloud agent” → some migrated to Claude Code/Cursor
Enterprise buyers	Gartner/Peer Insights: governance+audit+contractual no-train beats technically stronger rivals; productivity real but needs human review

✔ Suitable	✘ Not suitable
• Teams already on GitHub + VS Code/JetBrains wanting one governed seat • Enterprise with audit/SSO/IP-indemnity/SOC2 needs • Java/Kotlin/Scala backend on IntelliJ (no Cursor equiv) • Maintainers wanting PR review agent on every diff • Pro devs using mixed models per task (cheap Luna for boilerplate, Opus for debug)	• Agent-maximalists doing 10+ file cross-repo refactors daily (Cursor+Claude Code sharper) • Privacy-paranoid orgs banning cloud egress (Tabnine airgap / Continue+local model) • VS Code-only solo who wants editor-native Composer (Cursor $20) • Lightweight script writers who’ll never exceed Free 2,000 completions • People who won’t watch credit dashboard (surprise overage)

Competitor	How it differs	Best for
Cursor	VS Code fork, Composer 2 agent, deepest editor-native	$20/mo
Claude Code	Autonomous agent, strongest multi-file rep, no JetBrains	~$40–100 usage / Max $100
Codeium / Windsurf	Cheaper ($15), fast codebase chat, lighter governance	$15/mo
Tabnine	Privacy-first, airgap, enterprise on-prem	custom
JetBrains AI Assistant	IntelliJ-native, no VS Code	$10/mo w/ IDE
Replit AI	Browser IDE + agent	$15/mo
Continue.dev + local LLM	Zero egress, OSS	$0

Who should pick it	Teams already on GitHub + VS Code/JetBrains wanting one governed seat
Who should skip it	Agent-maximalists doing 10+ file cross-repo refactors daily (Cursor+Claude Code sharper)