The verdict: Cursor wins for anyone doing serious development. Copilot is a good autocomplete plugin. Cursor is a different category of tool.
I know people who've been on Copilot since it launched. Smart developers. They switched to Cursor and said the same thing: "I didn't realise how much I was still doing manually."
Let's break it down.
Inline Suggestions: Cursor Wins
Both tools offer inline completions. Cursor's are better — more contextually aware, more likely to understand what you're about to write across the whole file rather than just the current line.
The real difference becomes obvious when you're mid-function. Copilot suggests the next logical thing. Cursor anticipates the whole pattern. It's the difference between autocomplete and a model that understands your intent.
Copilot has improved significantly. It's not bad. But Cursor is noticeably ahead in the quality of suggestions when you're writing anything non-trivial.
Winner: Cursor
Agent Mode / Composer vs Copilot Chat: Cursor, Massively
This is where the comparison stops being close.
Cursor's Composer (and Agent mode) lets you describe a change in plain English, and it executes across multiple files. It edits your code. It creates files. It understands the existing structure and makes changes that fit.
I had Cursor rewrite an entire component from scratch based on a description — migrated from class component to functional, typed the props correctly, updated the imports, and handled the edge case I mentioned offhand. It got the TypeScript types right on the first pass. With Copilot Chat, getting to the same result would've taken ten back-and-forth messages, three paste-and-fix cycles, and me manually stitching the pieces together.
Copilot Chat is a chat window. Cursor Composer is an agent that operates on your codebase.
Winner: Cursor, not close
Codebase Context Awareness: Cursor Wins
Cursor understands your project. It reads your files, your types, your patterns. When you ask it to add a feature, it follows your existing conventions rather than inventing new ones.
Copilot's context is improving — it can reference open files and has gotten better at understanding the workspace. But Cursor's approach to indexing and understanding your codebase is fundamentally more thorough. It treats context as a first-class problem.
The practical effect: Cursor makes fewer "that doesn't fit our codebase" mistakes. It suggests patterns consistent with what you've already built. Copilot sometimes suggests perfectly correct code that's architecturally inconsistent with everything around it.
Winner: Cursor
IDE Integration: Cursor Wins (By Design)
Copilot is a plugin. It lives inside VS Code, JetBrains, or whatever editor you already use. That's also its weakness — it's constrained by what the plugin API exposes.
Cursor is the IDE. It's a fork of VS Code, so you get everything you already know, but the AI integration is first-party and deeply embedded. There's no abstraction layer. No plugin API limitations. The AI can see and modify anything the IDE can see and modify.
For someone deeply invested in JetBrains or a non-VS Code editor, this matters. Cursor requires you to change your editor. That's a real switching cost.
But if you're already on VS Code — and most web developers are — the transition is nearly zero friction. All your extensions, all your keybindings, all your settings. Cursor feels like VS Code with the AI unlocked.
Winner: Cursor (for VS Code users) / Copilot (if you're not on VS Code)
Cost Comparison: Roughly Equal, Cursor Has More Value
Copilot runs $10/month for individuals, $19/month on the Business tier. GitHub Copilot Business has the compliance features, audit logs, and policy management that enterprise teams need.
Cursor Pro is $20/month. You get more capable models (it runs Claude and GPT-4) and the full Composer/Agent feature set.
The raw cost is close. The value isn't. At $20/month, Cursor's Agent mode alone is worth multiples of Copilot's price if you're shipping code daily.
Winner: Copilot (on raw price) / Cursor (on value per dollar)
The Workflow Difference: This Is What Actually Matters
Here's the real thing Copilot users don't realise until they try Cursor.
With Copilot, you're still doing the work. You're writing the code; Copilot is filling in lines. The workflow is: you write → AI suggests → you accept or reject → repeat.
With Cursor Agent mode, the workflow is: you describe → AI executes → you review and adjust.
That's not a marginal improvement. It's a different relationship with your codebase. You become the reviewer and director rather than the primary typist. For straightforward features and refactors, you can move three to five times faster.
This is the thing that's hard to communicate until you've used it. Copilot makes you a faster typist. Cursor makes you a more productive developer.
Winner: Cursor
Where Copilot Still Wins
Enterprise and team standardisation. If your organisation has standardised on GitHub Copilot Business, the compliance features, SSO, and policy controls are mature. Cursor's enterprise offering is newer. For large engineering teams with real procurement requirements, Copilot's track record is an advantage.
Non-VS Code users. If you're on JetBrains, Neovim, or Emacs, Copilot integrates. Cursor doesn't.
Tight GitHub integration. Copilot is native to GitHub. If your workflow is deeply in the GitHub ecosystem — Copilot Chat in pull requests, code review suggestions, the upcoming features in GitHub — that integration is real value.
The Verdict
Use Cursor if: You're a solo developer or on a small team, you're on VS Code, and you care about shipping faster. Cursor's Agent mode will change how you work. Not incrementally — categorically.
Use Copilot if: Your team has standardised on it, you're in an enterprise environment with procurement requirements, or you're on a non-VS Code editor where Cursor doesn't work.
The one legitimate reason to stay on Copilot is team standardisation. If everyone needs to be on the same tool and your org has already bought Copilot Business, the switching cost is real. A better tool that only half your team uses is worse than a good-enough tool that everyone actually uses.
But for anyone making the decision fresh? Cursor. It's not a close call.
Copilot got developers used to the idea of AI-assisted coding. Cursor is where that idea matures into something that actually ships.