GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot was launched in 2021 by GitHub and Microsoft, trained on public code repositories. It is built into VS Code and available as an extension for JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, Xcode, and others. It is the most widely used AI coding assistant today.

# Features

Copilot offers autocomplete suggestions as you type, a chat panel for questions and inline edits, and an agent mode that can perform multi-step tasks across files. The agent mode can read your entire workspace, run terminal commands, and iterate on a task with minimal manual steps.

The experience is most polished inside VS Code, where Copilot has deep integration with the editor's diff view, context picker, and terminal.

# Model selection

Copilot supports multiple underlying models, including OpenAI's GPT-4o, o3, and Anthropic's Claude. You can select which model powers your session in the chat interface. The available models depend on your subscription tier.

# Pricing

Copilot requires a paid GitHub subscription. A free tier is available with limited monthly completions and chat interactions. The individual plan is a monthly subscription. Teams and enterprise plans add policy controls and audit logging. It is included in GitHub Education for students and educators.

# Privacy

Code context is sent to GitHub's servers. GitHub states that it does not use Copilot Business or Enterprise inputs to train models. For individual accounts, check the current data handling settings in your GitHub account preferences. Copilot can be configured to block suggestions that match public code.