Continue vs GitHub Copilot | A Complete Comparison to Help You Choose【2026 Edition】
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What You'll Learn in This Article
Important Notice: Continue was acquired by Cursor in June 2026, and development has since ended. This article summarizes a historical feature comparison along with reference information for those considering GitHub Copilot as an alternative.
Continue was an open-source AI coding extension for VSCode and JetBrains. Its biggest selling point was the freedom to choose any AI model you liked — OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, Ollama, and more. It could be used offline and was popular with privacy-conscious organizations. The final version, v2.0.0, was released on June 19, 2026, after which Continue was acquired by Cursor.
GitHub Copilot, on the other hand, is an AI coding assistant developed by Microsoft and OpenAI. Its strength lies in deep integration with GitHub, and it supports a wide range of editors beyond VSCode — including Visual Studio, JetBrains, Neovim, and more. As of 2026, it remains under active development and offers a rich set of enterprise-oriented features.
| Feature | Continue (Discontinued) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Code Completion | ◯ (78% accuracy) | ◎ (78% accuracy) |
| Chat | ◯ | ◎ |
| Multi-file Editing | △ (limited) | ◯ |
| Supported Editors | VSCode, JetBrains | VSCode, JetBrains, Vim, and many more |
| AI Model Selection | ◎ (freely selectable) | △ (GitHub-provided only) |
| Offline Use | ◎ (possible) | × (not possible) |
| Privacy | ◎ (local execution available) | ◯ (controllable via settings) |
| GitHub Integration | △ | ◎ (deep integration) |
In a 30-day test conducted in May 2026, code completion response times were p99 60 ms for Continue and 55 ms for GitHub Copilot. Accuracy was reported at 78% for GitHub Copilot and 70% for Continue.
Continue was free at its core, with paid plans starting at $10/month. The Team and Company plans included features such as shared team agent functionality, access controls, SSO (Single Sign-On), and BYOK (Bring Your Own Key — using your own API key). Being open-source, it was also possible to continue using it entirely for free.
GitHub Copilot pricing is $10/month for individuals (or $100/year on an annual plan) and $19/user/month for businesses. Students and maintainers of OSS projects can use it for free. An Enterprise plan with enhanced security and compliance features is also available for organizations. For those with a paid JetBrains license, JetBrains AI Assistant is available at no additional cost and is worth considering as an option.
Continue excelled for teams that prioritized privacy and developers looking to keep costs down. Because you could choose your own AI model, using a locally running Ollama meant zero network costs. It was also valued by organizations that didn't want sensitive internal information sent externally, as it could run entirely on-premises (within the company's own servers). Being open-source, it also offered a high degree of customization freedom.
GitHub Copilot shines for teams that use GitHub and for developers who work across multiple IDEs. It integrates smoothly with code reviews and Issues (task management), and features like automatically generating pull request (PR) descriptions are genuinely convenient. It strikes a good balance between accuracy and response speed, and its ease of use means even beginners can get started right away. The backing of Microsoft's support structure also provides peace of mind for enterprise adoption.
Users of Continue frequently said things like "being able to choose my own AI is the best" and "I feel secure running it locally with Ollama." On the other hand, some noted that "the setup is a bit complex" and "completion accuracy is slightly lower than GitHub Copilot." The flexibility inherent in an open-source tool came at the cost of time spent on initial configuration.
GitHub Copilot receives praise for being "ready to use right after installation" and offering "convenient GitHub integration." In particular, its ability to understand the context of an entire repository when suggesting code is well-regarded. That said, drawbacks include the inability to choose an AI model and the lack of offline support. Some users also express concern about the ongoing monthly cost over the long term.
You should choose GitHub Copilot if you are:
If you're looking for a Continue alternative:
Continue's code remains publicly available under the Apache 2.0 license, so technically anyone can fork it and continue development. However, official support has ended, and cloud data has been deleted as of July 15, 2026.
As of August 2026, Cursor is seeing rapid growth in the AI coding assistant market (with ARR of $2 billion as of February 2026), while GitHub Copilot maintains a stable share. If you want to keep costs down, Codeium with its generous free plan is a practical option; if you prioritize quality and GitHub integration, GitHub Copilot is the realistic choice.
This article is a cross-post from AI Friends.
