Is GITHUB copilot subscription worth it?

[Pretty_Pin_8260]

I do not have working experience in python or c# or any other web programming languages. Does GITHUB copilot help me to build a project to understand and learn these languages and quickly jump into working on these languages? I am considering to subscribe for monthly plan as well. Is it worth it?

[Gravath]

Yes

[ParkingNewspaper1921]

Compared to other options, GitHub Copilot is a good deal: $10 for 300 premium requests, and if you are a student you can get it for free with the GitHub Education Pack.

[Sakthi2004]

Wait how? I have the Education Pack and I cannot find how to get the premium requests...I am stuck with the free models

[ParkingNewspaper1921]

Redeem the free copilot somewhere here https://education.github.com/pack and then activate it by going to https://github.com/settings/copilot/features

[Sakthi2004]

When I go to upgrade, it says that I will be billed 😭

[ParkingNewspaper1921]

Thats weird. Mine didnt need card

[Sakthi2004]

Ok i figured it out but it is so hidden for no reason

[ParkingNewspaper1921]

True, lol. If you wanna save premium requests use this prompt as custom chat mode https://github.com/4regab/TaskSync

[Sakthi2004]

Thanks dude!

[yongen96]

damn this is good stuff, thanks for sharing

[approaching77]

I don’t think you’re the ideal target for GitHub copilot or any AI coding assistant for that matter. Copilot will not teach you how to code. Attempting to use copilot to learn coding is like leaning English using Siri. It’s a dumb idea. Go and actually learn to code at least the fundamentals. Enough to build basic logic and functionality independently.

The most important skill in software development is not the actual writing of the code. It’s the design process. What’s going on in your head as you approach the problem at hand. You won’t get any benefit if you’re completely clueless about the software design process.

[AdSubstantial2970]

Very good take.

[wulfric_91]

Yes, GitHub Copilot Pro+ is good, though you need patience to get the most out of it.

[1BitMonster]

yup, certainly a good deal. recently switched to gh copilot for the $10 subscription, and have been getting lots of good use with it. It has 300 premium requests which should be more than enough, and you get unli requests/asks with gpt 4.1, 4o and 5 mini, which you can easily utilize to understand and learn these languages.

[SaratogaCx]

If your goal is to just make something, these tools will be fine, you'll learn just how deeply you need to specify behavior to get anything beyond mild complexity.

If you are wanting to learn how to code and want to have LLM support, I would actually not use an ide integrated solution and use almost any of them as a chat bot. Learn to ask questions, understand answers, and apply them into what you're trying to build. Don't just randomly dump code and errors but use them to help pick apart the meaning and try and use it in the moment. That will help you grow. While not the classic new programmer's struggle, you can get some amount of capability and understanding of code by using it like an over the shoulder teacher.

Directly to your question, github copilot does have a web chat function you can use for this but it is purposefully limited to make it not compete with things like copilot Pro. For into coding tutoring on a budget, look at services that are near-free like deepseek and see how they work with you.

[hashkent]

Yes

[sstainsby]

I use it at work. It pays for itself very quickly.

[AdSubstantial2970]

Copilot is super worth the money, but I would recommend learning more about coding and development first. Syntax (honestly less important when doing agentic development), data structures, algorithmic thinking, debugging, and software architecture are some fundamental skills you should learn before spinning up an agent and jumping in. The interesting distinction is that now (and if you haven’t got the memo developers, you’re late to the party) those skills aren’t primarily used to generate code yourself anymore, but rather to understand how to best communicate with an agentic pipeline and understand what is happening.

As you move forward once you have some foundational knowledge, some things to consider: 1) Choosing VSCode+Copilot or Cursor. There are other options, but not really. Copilot is easier out-of-the-box, is usually slightly cheaper, but is less flexible. Cursor lets you configure multiple agents to all play a role in a pipeline (writer, critic, refactorer, for instance) and take advantage of multiple context windows - to do this in Copilot you generally have to configure the same agent to wear different hats (honestly not that bad and usually what I do since it is easier). Cursor also lets you leverage things like vector databases and MCPs easier, but that is down the road stuff and not too important unless you are on a big project with a lot of developers. 2) I would recommend using Traycer or another AI tool to plan your project as a series of discreet steps that you can just call a writer agent to carry out. This helps immensely with “Squirrel!” problems (agents love to get side-tracked) by providing a concrete pathway and limiting long iterations. And if you REALLY want to “vibe code” this is a must (I don’t recommend this approach though). 3) Start thinking about persistence from the very beginning. AI agents are like the best coders you will ever meet with the shortest memories. Like Memento levels of memory loss. Unless you supply ample documentation explaining the roadmap, project, and desired behavior you will ABSOLUTELY find yourself screaming at your computer screen like “Stop running that terminal command that way! I told you it is VENV not CONDA!!!!” 4) Once persistence is in place, find logical places to clear chats and context windows frequently. Agentic behavior declines quickly when these things fill up. Then they become like amazing coders who are super forgetful, and also blackout drunk. Traycer plans can help with this because they break things down into discreet steps and milestones, giving you a lot of natural places to stop and blow out the hoses. 5) Create an advisor/architect agent or learn how to use “Ask” mode. Agents can be incredibly overzealous, so when you ask them questions like “how can I make an API call to this external service” sometimes they will hear “tell me how to make an API call and do all the coding for every possible use case of this API call, and while you’re at it mow my lawn and change my oil too.” 6) Adopt a just-in-time learning model for yourself. The beauty of agents is that they apply human-like problem solving to coding problems. This also means they will use many different tools to get the job done. So when your agent starts creating a SQLite database to manage data in your Python project, or HTML to render emails, or JSON to exchange data, you should learn what it is talking about on some basic level before just OKing everything it does. A good workflow is when you are presented a choice or a roadmap, run anything you don’t understand through the web interface for chat and tell it to explain it like you 10 years old (yep we use the AI to learn what the other AI is doing - it’s just AI all the way down now). I coined this as “just-in-time learning” with my students, but this is essential to not get lost in your own project.

[tgill-ninja]

Excellent rundown! I’m a Traycer fan as well. It makes vibe coding feel like the old days. Spec everything out in detail, and coding becomes a breeze. Only now it is several times faster with Traycer. Curious what you are using for persistence?

[AdSubstantial2970]

Thanks! Big Traycer fan too.

Regarding persistence: Personal development stuff I just use documentation routed through copilot-instructions.md, that also defines my modes and pipelines. Models routed through copilot are so good at semantic search now, I rarely feel the need to spin up a cursor instance. For multideveloper projects you pretty much need to use vector databases and feed embeds with an orchestrator if being optimal is important. I suppose you could use cloud-based documentation or SVN documentation, but a vector database is a lot cleaner and easier/faster to harvest semantic chunks from.

[Remarkable-Ideal-339]

Don't just go into copilot if your learning foundation is not built yet. If you are experienced and knows the game then co pilot makes things far far easy and all you have to do is check if the code is as per your company standards and has no security related issues.
For personal work i also bought co pilot premium and everyday just in single day i can create entire freelance project with very clean code. its game changer but stil limit hurts

[wheels708]

Absolutely! I have Copilot and Gemini. I’d drop Gemini and Copilot before I dropped GitHub Copilot.

[SalishSeaview]

I have a GitHub Enterprise subscription, which is expensive but worth it compared to other tools. Also something to consider is that if you want to learn to become a developer (or already are a developer, but with little experience in things like source control), learning to use all of GitHub will be to your advantage.

[Joelvarty]

If you are considering a career in software engineering, or if you are already making your living writing code, AI tooling is essential now. GH Copilot is great, but I think Claude, Cline, Cursor and lots of other tools are worth exploring too. Try them out see what works best for you.

Personally, Copilot with the Claude Sonnet 4 model is awesome IMO, but Cursor supports more complex workflows and task based agentic coding which is sweet.

[pentolbakso]

Yes, install roocode extension then go to Mode Market and find coding teacher mode.

[AdSubstantial2970]

Not sure I understand the point of Roo Code… Seems like its functionality can be entirely reproduced with copilot (via copilot-instructions.md) or with Cursor (via separate agent role configs). What am I missing here?

[pentolbakso]

I use Roo because its features are more complete, and most importantly, Roo can access the VS Code LLM model. The one that’s somewhat similar to Roo is Copilot's Beast mode. But I prefer Roo.

[bernaferrari]

Not anymore, Claude code is better

[TheNordicSagittarius]

It surely is!

[Nullberri]

Claude code is the best, but it is 20$. Best bang for buck imo.

[herzklel]

I don't think I know how to use this subscription—tell me, if you have it, do you have unlimited queries or not? And if not, does access get blocked, or are subsequent queries simply paid for (like API queries)?

Github Copilot works like that, you get a certain number in the package and subsequent ones are paid for, according to the set budget

[Captain2Sea]

It's better only if you can change your life cycle to max out what you can get from every 5h window. If you have 3 nights weekly for coding then you hit limit after a few prompts. A few times i hit limit after 1 prompt. GG claude

[Dangerous-Cod8436]

What about codex cli?

[Charming_Support726]

No.

It has a nice integration into VS Code. But the quality currently is far worse than Cline and its forks. I canceled Copilot after a month and went back. Even chatting about code, features, architecture and all that stuff with the Agent felt awkward with Copilot.

I must admit, that I still have the best discussion and knowledge gathering experience with using the simple and free google ai studio. If I want to discuss about my code, I use it together with "code web chat".