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It's a split decision.
Choose GitHub Copilot for codebase work, issue-linked agent sessions, and code review inside GitHub. Its Pro plan is $10 per user per month, and the free plan includes 2,000 completions monthly. Microsoft Copilot suits web searches, summaries, content, and image creation; its free tier has 15 daily image boosts, with exact message caps not published. Paid Microsoft options start at $16.67 per month with annual billing, but the products are not direct substitutes.
01Side by side
| GitHub Copilot | Microsoft Copilot | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting paid price | Pro: $10/user/month | Microsoft 365 Premium: $16.67/month annually |
| Free plan | 2,000 completions/month | Free AI access; 15 image boosts/day |
| Best for | Coding, code review, and GitHub workflows | Web answers and everyday tasks |
| Core strength | Issue-linked coding agents and pull request review | Web search, summaries, content, and images |
| Learning curve | Not published | Not published |
| Integrations and data | Issues, pull requests, and repository history | Web, work and personal accounts, files |
| Team and seat costs | Business price not published | $18 annual promo; qualifying license; up to 300 seats |
| Support | Free plan: community support only | Not published |
GitHub Copilot Choose GitHub Copilot if
- Choose GitHub Copilot if you write, review, and ship code in GitHub.
- Choose GitHub Copilot if you want issue-linked coding agents.
- Choose GitHub Copilot if $10 monthly coding access fits.
Microsoft Copilot Choose Microsoft Copilot if
- Choose Microsoft Copilot if you need web answers and everyday content help.
- Choose Microsoft Copilot if you want image generation and summaries.
- Choose Microsoft Copilot if your team already has qualifying Microsoft 365 licenses.
02Pricing compared
GitHub Copilot has a free plan with 2,000 completions per month. Its Pro plan costs $10 per user per month and includes unlimited completions, code review, cloud Copilot access, and $15 in monthly AI credits. Pro+ is $39 and Max is $100 per user per month. The pricing page lists no annual discount; Business pricing is not published there.
Microsoft Copilot’s free tier includes 15 Designer image boosts per day, but exact message caps are not published. Microsoft 365 Premium is $19.99 monthly or $199.99 yearly, equivalent to $16.67 per month on annual billing. Copilot Pro costs $20 monthly. Business and Enterprise plans require qualifying Microsoft 365 licenses, so their listed prices are not the whole software cost. The products solve different problems, so the lower sticker price does not make them direct substitutes.
03Features and depth
GitHub Copilot is built for software work inside GitHub’s workflow. Its sessions can carry task, discussion, and repository context from an issue, while separate sessions let users delegate and track parallel tasks. The feature list also includes recurring agent tasks, continuity across the app, CLI, editor, github.com, and mobile, plus code review for local changes and pull requests. Users can choose a model or let Copilot balance quality, speed, and cost.
Microsoft Copilot is a general-purpose assistant rather than a codebase agent. It can answer questions, search the web, summarize information, draft content, and generate images. Its work and personal accounts keep chats, files, and protections tied to the appropriate account. The published feature list does not describe issue-linked coding sessions or repository-aware pull request review for Microsoft Copilot. If the job is shipping changes from a GitHub codebase, GitHub Copilot is the closer fit; for research, writing, and everyday questions, Microsoft Copilot covers more general tasks.
04Ease of use and learning curve
Microsoft Copilot is the simpler starting point for general questions: it is available on web, desktop, and mobile, and the free tier requires a signed-in Microsoft account. Some capabilities have usage limits, and exact message caps are not published.
GitHub Copilot makes more sense when the user already works in GitHub or a supported coding surface. Its sessions, repository context, model choices, and usage credits add more decisions than a basic chat, but they map to coding tasks rather than general conversation. The pricing page says the free plan needs no credit card and includes community support only. Choose by workflow: Microsoft Copilot for everyday assistant tasks, GitHub Copilot for codebase work.
Questions people ask
Is GitHub 100% owned by Microsoft?
The product and pricing information provided here does not state GitHub’s ownership structure, so we can’t verify that claim from these sources. It does describe GitHub Copilot as built into GitHub’s workflow, while Microsoft Copilot is a separate general-purpose assistant.
Is anyone still using GitHub Copilot?
The published material does not include current user counts or adoption data. Its review summary notes that Reddit users questioned whether Copilot’s value had eroded in 2026, but that does not establish how many people use it. The free and paid plans remain listed in the published pricing information.
Is Copilot as good as ChatGPT?
The published sources do not compare Microsoft Copilot with ChatGPT or provide benchmark results, so we can’t call one better. They describe Microsoft Copilot as a general assistant for web search, summaries, writing, and images, while GitHub Copilot focuses on coding tasks in GitHub.
Is GitHub Copilot open-source?
The published product and pricing information does not say whether GitHub Copilot is open-source. It describes Copilot’s coding features and plans, but does not provide licensing or source-code details. We can’t establish its open-source status from these materials.