Cursor vs GitHub Copilot：Standalone AI IDE vs Plugin Workflow
One is a standalone AI-native editor; the other is the broadest IDE plugin ecosystem. Compare features, pricing, and free tiers side by side.
Feature Comparison
Cursor 
GitHub Copilot 💰 Price
Free: 2000 completions + 50 premium/month
Pro: $20
Free: 2000 completions + 50 chats/month
Pro: $10
代码补全
2000 次/月 无限
2000 次/月 无限
高级请求 (GPT-4o/Claude)
50 次/月 500 次/月
50 次聊天/月 无限
代码库索引
基础 完整
❌ ✅
自定义 API Key
✅ 支持 ✅ 支持
❌ 不支持 ❌ 不支持
多模型切换
✅ 有限 ✅ 全部
✅ GPT-4o + Claude ✅ 全部
终端集成
✅ ✅
- -
VS Code 扩展兼容
✅ ✅
- -
多 IDE 支持
- -
✅ 全部 ✅ 全部
代码审查
- -
❌ ✅
Free Pro
📝 Summary
Choose Cursor if you…
- Are willing to switch editors for deep AI integration
- Need custom API keys to control cost with openllmapi
- Mostly use VS Code and want low migration cost
- Need repository-level AI context understanding
Choose GitHub Copilot if you…
- Do not want to switch editors (JetBrains / Neovim / Xcode)
- Are a student or open-source maintainer with free Pro eligibility
- Need pull request review support
- Prefer a mature and stable ecosystem
💡 Students should start with Copilot Free Pro. Non-students can save with Cursor + openllmapi, using custom keys for more flexible usage.