Copilot vs. Cursor vs. Codex: A Complete Guide to AI Coding Tools

From code completion to a complete Agent platform

• Ghost Text: Use gray text to predict subsequent content when entering code, suitable for function implementation, template code and repetitive logic.
• Next Edit Suggestions: Not only predicts the next piece of code, but also predicts the location and content of the files that may need to be modified next.
• Agent Mode: Ability to read projects, find files, make plans, modify multiple files, adjust dependencies, perform installation and testing, and continue repairing after failure.
• Engineering capabilities: Support MCP, custom instructions, custom Agent, workspace index, checkpoints, CLI and code review.

Copilot has become the entrance to third-party Agents

Copilot is no longer limited to its own models and agents. Tasks can be initiated from a GitHub Issue, Pull Request, Agents page, or VS Code and handed off to Copilot Agent, OpenAI Codex, or Anthropic Claude. In this way, Copilot is more like an IDE AI platform rather than just a plug-in for a separate model.

Personal Plans and AI Credits

In the billing system, 1 GitHub AI Credit is worth approximately $0.01. Chat, Agent, code review and CLI will consume credits; code auto-completion and Next Edit Suggestions in the paid version do not consume AI Credits.

The advantage of Copilot Pro is that the monthly fee of about $10 also covers unlimited auto-completion, Next Edit, Chat, Agent, CLI, code review, GitHub Cloud Agent and multiple model selections. It is suitable for ordinary developers who want to have less trouble and continue to receive assistance.

The core positioning is different from Copilot

The point of Codex is not to fill in half a line of code as you type, but to receive a complete task. It can search the repository, understand the structure, modify files, execute shells, run tests, continue repairing based on errors, and finally generate checkable differences. Login troubleshooting, cross-module refactoring, regression testing and large-scale features can better utilize its advantages.

Editor integration and usage

• The extension is available for VS Code, VS Code Insiders, Cursor and Windsurf, and has integration methods such as JetBrains and Xcode.
• Ability to directly generate diffs and inspect them next to the editor, using the currently open file, selected code, and recent conversations as context.
• Complex tasks can be handed over from local to the cloud for continued execution, which is suitable for tasks that require long autonomous working links.
• The shortcoming is that native Tab auto-completion is not a core experience, so it is more suitable to be paired with completion tools such as Copilot.

Codex in ChatGPT scheme

Plus works with Codex Web, CLI, IDE Extension and GPT-5.6 Sol, Terra, Luna. Usage is not a fixed number per day but is affected by context length, amount of inference, tool calls, and caching.

Division of labor among Sol, Terra and Luna

• GPT-5.6 Sol:Used for complex architectures, difficult bugs, large-scale refactorings, ambiguous requirements, and high-intensity reasoning.
• GPT-5.6 Terra: Developed for daily production, a middle ground between quality, speed and consumption.
• GPT-5.6 Luna: Fast, low consumption, suitable for simple modifications, small functions, repetitive work and batch tasks.

Plus Within a window of about 5 hours, Sol can handle approximately 10 to 100 items, Terra about 25 to 200 items, and Luna about 250 to 2000 items. Actual scope will vary significantly from task to task.

Credits converted by Token

The consumption of Sol is about 25 times that of Luna. Using Luna for simple CSS modifications, Terra for common business code, and Sol for complex errors is usually more reasonable than choosing the strongest model for all tasks.

Capabilities and applicable tasks

Claude Code also focuses on complete tasks rather than traditional auto-completion. VS Code integration supports inline diffs, file references, plan reviews, and conversation history, as well as the ability to read projects, modify multiple files, execute shells, run tests, perform Git operations, connect to MCP, and call external tools.

Differences from Codex

The actual difference between the two will change as the model is updated. What is more worthy of comparison is the Agent shell, the current model and the specific project type, rather than making the results of a certain version permanent.

Claude Code personal price

• Pro: Approximately $20/month; annual payment is equivalent to approximately $17/month.
• Max 5x: About $100/month.
• Max 20x: About $200/month.

Claude Pro already includes Claude Code, so it is in direct competition with Codex Plus which costs about $20/month.

Cline: Agent shell with the highest degree of model freedom

Cline itself is not a model, but the open source VS Code Coding Agent Runtime. It can connect OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, OpenRouter, various open source models and Ollama local models, and supports creating and modifying files, running commands, browsing the web, MCP, Plan/Act, terminal and CLI.

• The biggest advantage: Models can be replaced at any time and will not be locked by a single manufacturer; strong models, cheap models and local models can be switched according to tasks.
• Basic price: The plug-in is free for individuals, and the model inference fee is borne by the user.
• ClinePass: Approximately $10/month, providing usage plans different from the standard API rates for some open models.
• Main risks:Agent task may contain dozens of rounds of reading, calling, modifying and testing. When using a high-priced model with an extremely long context, the cost may significantly exceed a fixed subscription of approximately $20/month.

Roo Code: Emphasis on custom modes and permissions

Roo Code is also an open source VS Code Agent that supports multi-file editing, code base indexing, MCP, Shell, API Profiles, Skills, context compression and automatic approval. Its Custom Mode can create roles such as Architect, Coder, Debugger, Reviewer, DevOps, and Security respectively, and limit analysis, modification, or terminal permissions for each role.

If you are familiar with BYOK, OpenRouter, Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, local models and custom workflows, Roo Code is very attractive; for those who just want to open VS Code and write code immediately, Copilot is more worry-free.

Continue: Local AI capabilities are still there, but the priority has changed

Continue supports Agent, Chat, Edit, Autocomplete, MCP, Ollama, and multiple cloud models. The combination of VS Code, Continue, Ollama, and Qwen Coder can keep the code from leaving the local environment. Its open source code is still retained, but after the product ownership changes, when creating a new long-term workflow, Cline and Roo Code are usually compared first.

Gemini Code Assist: More suitable for heavy Google Cloud users

After the shrinkage of personal free routes, the main plans are: Standard is about $22.80/month, and the annual payment is equivalent to about $19/month; Enterprise is about $54/month, and the annual payment is equivalent to about $45/month. It still supports autocompletion, chat, Agent, MCP, local repository awareness, terminal context, checkpoints, and diff.

When compared directly by individual developers, the Standard of about $22.80 is not as good as the Copilot Pro of about $10 in terms of price; when the project is highly dependent on Google Cloud services such as GCP, Firebase, BigQuery, Cloud Run, etc., ecological integration is more valuable.

Tabnine: The focus is enterprise security and private deployment

Tabnine has moved from a general autocomplete product to an enterprise AI Coding Platform. Code Assistant is about $39/user/month, and Agentic Platform is about $59/user/month. The main selling points include private deployment, on-prem, isolated network, enterprise context engine, MCP, compliance and own LLM Endpoint.

Banks, healthcare organizations, large enterprises, and teams whose code cannot leave the intranet will value these capabilities more. Most individual developers do not need to pay $39–$59 a month for these enterprise features.

Augment Code: For cross-warehouses and very large code bases

The core of Augment is the Context Engine, which aims to continuously understand multiple warehouses, dozens of services, dependencies, historical code, architecture and organizational knowledge. The product direction has also gradually expanded from ordinary Coding Assistant to Agent Orchestration, Cosmos and context engines.

The Business plan is about $100/month, with a maximum of 50 seats, and includes about $100 usage quota. The positioning is obviously biased towards teams and large projects, rather than ordinary individual programmers.

Cursor: The editor itself is designed around AI

Cursor is not the original VS Code plug-in, but an independent AI IDE. It provides editor-level control over Tabs, Agents, Contexts, Diffs, Terminals, Cloud Agents, MCPs, Skills, Hooks, and Subagents. Supports multiple models such as OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and Cursor's own models, and some model contexts can reach up to 1 million Tokens.

The advantage is not that a certain model is necessarily stronger than Codex, but that Tab, Agent, application differences, context retrieval and multi-Agent capabilities are designed around AI workflow from the beginning.

• Hobby:Free.
• Pro:About $20/month.
• Teams: About $40/user/month.
• Pro+ / Ultra: Provide approximately 3 times and 20 times Pro Agent usage respectively, and the third-party model pool is consumed according to the model API cost.

Devin Desktop: A multi-Agent IDE evolved from Windsurf

After Windsurf was renamed and integrated into Devin Desktop, the direction further shifted towards Multi-Agent IDE. Multiple Agents can implement the backend, write tests, troubleshoot errors, and conduct code reviews in parallel.

Plan A: Copilot Pro, about $10/month

Responsible for auto-completion, Next Edit, simple chat and daily modifications. It’s less expensive and natural to use, making it suitable for developers who still want to write most of the code themselves and just let AI speed up input and routine work.

Plan B: Copilot Pro + Codex Plus, totaling about $30/month

Copilot is responsible for Tab auto-completion, Next Edit and daily coding; Codex is responsible for debugging, reconstruction, large-scale functions, testing, terminal and long-term Agent tasks. The division of labor between the two is clear, and it is a powerful combination of completion and complex Agent in the original VS Code.

Plan C: Copilot Pro+, about $39/month

Pro+ itself contains approximately $70 worth of AI Credits, Premium Models, Third-Party Agents, and Copilot Agents. Codex VS Code Extension can also be logged in with a Copilot Pro+ or Max account, gradually forming a subscription model that also covers Copilot autocomplete, Copilot Agent, Claude, Codex and other models.