GitHub Copilot vs Continue
Copilot is a hosted, paid-tier service from GitHub; Continue is an Apache 2.0 open source extension whose main repository is now read-only.
Pick GitHub Copilot if…
You want a maintained, supported service with a free tier, many editor options and organisation controls on paid plans.
Pick Continue if…
You want open source code you can inspect, no Continue subscription, and you are prepared to connect your own model provider and accept that the repository is not actively maintained.
Price
- Freemium
- Free
- Open source
Starting price
Free plan
Open source
Works on
| Feature | GitHub's AI assistant for code completion, chat and agent tasks in editors, the terminal and github.com. | Open source AI coding agent as a VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin and CLI, using models you configure. |
|---|---|---|
| Price |
|
|
| Starting price | $10 per month (Copilot Pro) | — |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | No | Yes |
| Works on | Web, Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Try GitHub Copilot (opens the GitHub Copilot website in a new tab) | Try Continue (opens the Continue website in a new tab) |
Copilot is proprietary and runs on GitHub's plans: Free (2,000 completions per month), Pro $10, Pro+ $39 and Max $100 per month. It works in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse, Xcode and Vim/Neovim. Both Copilot and Continue work with VS Code, according to their official pages.
Continue is licensed under Apache 2.0 in its official repository. It ships as a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin and an npm CLI, with agent, chat, edit and autocomplete modes listed in the docs.
The Continue README states that the continuedev/continue repository is no longer actively maintained and is read-only for all users, and some docs pages are marked Deprecated. That matters if you need fixes or new features.
Continue itself has no price on the pages read, but model usage costs depend on the provider you connect. Copilot's cost is the plan price, with extra usage metered in GitHub AI Credits.
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Last updated 16 October 2026. How we make money