GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is an AI coding assistant developed by GitHub (owned by Microsoft) in collaboration with OpenAI. Launched in 2021, it was one of the first widely adopted AI coding tools, bringing large language model-powered code suggestions directly into the editor. It works as an extension in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Neovim, and other editors, offering real-time inline completions as developers type.

Copilot started as a code completion tool powered by OpenAI's Codex model but has expanded significantly. Copilot Chat provides a conversational interface for asking questions about code, generating functions, and debugging. Copilot Workspace offers an agentic experience for planning and implementing changes across repositories. The tool uses context from the current file, open tabs, and repository structure to generate relevant suggestions, and it supports virtually every programming language.

As the first mainstream AI coding tool, GitHub Copilot established the category and set user expectations for what AI-assisted development looks like. It benefits from GitHub's massive distribution advantage, with over 100 million developers on the platform. However, it now faces intense competition from Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Code, and Codex, each offering different approaches to AI-assisted development ranging from editor-native experiences to terminal-based agentic workflows. Microsoft has responded by integrating multiple AI models into Copilot, including Claude and Gemini alongside OpenAI's models.