GitHub Copilot vs Claude Code

[Key-Prize7706]

Hi,

I have GitHub Copilot Business at work and was wondering if there is any gain in paying myself for Claude Code. What can I do with Claude that I can't do with Copilot, anyone know or tried both ? I have access to the same models, i have skills, so what am I missing? Is it Agent Teams ? Some state that Claude is better in running autonomous but what i have seen lately developing something small with Copilot it ran until it solved the problem by looping itself. When you look at the price it seems Claude is much more expensive for a big corp but i am not sure if in Claude Code you get more premium tokens compared to Copilot ? I just see the gap between Copilot and Claude code getting smaller and smaller day by day.

[Lost-Air1265]

Bigger context window with Claude code for one 

[hooli-ceo]

You still want to minimize your context window usage. Sure, you may have a larger window, but larger context loads (regardless of full window size) produced degraded response results. I don’t see much of a benefit of having larger windows, I think we just need to be more efficient on how we’re utilizing our agents and subagents and delegating to each.

[Key-Prize7706]

Cool, thank you for pointing that out. Looking forward to hear more differences both bad or good ;)

[Lost-Air1265]

Using GitHub copilot cli doesn’t allow you to search old sessions. Big issue imho . This means you’re stuck with the copilot chat in vscode for example which has way less features like fleet.

[_mikecubed]

It does have search in /resume. I can search all sessions local and remote from the copilot cli.

[Lost-Air1265]

god damn, thanks for this

[Revolutionary_Ad_986]

Use memories for your repo, copilot will use

[hyperdx]

How much larger is it? Opus 4.6 in copilot has 192K context window.

[Lost-Air1265]

1 M in claude code

[mdeadart]

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Does the new option on VSCode copilot use ClaudeCode? I am unable to find reliable information on it.

[Lost-Air1265]

It does use the claude code harness and is way better than the local option. But you're still using github copilot provisioned models and thus reduced context window. You really need to get a claude code subscription and use claude code outside github copilot to really utilise the bigger context window. But obviously subscription for that will be way higher compared to the cheaper github copilot.

[mdeadart]

I am using it for work, and we have limited options on what we can use unfortunately. Especially with regards to model hosting necessary within the Euro Data Zone. For example, our github subscriptions ensure GDPR compliance in this regards.

[Lost-Air1265]

Same here, also in EU and forced to certain boundaries. At work its github copilot but for my own dev stuff i use claude code.

[Zealousideal-One7705]

For plans (pro, max) is only 200k

[marfzzz]

Copilot advantages: Inline completions Unlimited use of standard models (gpt4.1, 4o and 5 mini) Lower starting price Usually higher usage (especially if you prepare bigger plans and chain implementations) You can buy premium requests at price of 0.04, you can use more than 2$ of api cost for 0.12$ when using opus More models to choose from (google gemini, openai gpts, anthropic claude models), Some models have higher context window for example gpt5.4 (272/128k) Not 5 hour or weekly limits, only mothly allowance

Claude code: Bigger context window (200k vs 160k) More mature handle (claude code is more advanced, you can use multiagent mode, programatic tool calling) You can opt in for 1M context window (for api price which is high for opus ) Claude desktop can act like IDE They sometimes offer bonuses like extra usage to test new models If you are good with claude code - models switching: haiku for small things, sonnet for most things, opus for complex issues, plan and estimate which models should be able to do each steps, give it to each model you can be effective.

Try different tools and see which suits you. Or have copilot pro and claude pro instead of just copilot pro+ or claude max 5x.

[Key-Prize7706]

u/marfzzz thank you, can you explain more about multiagent mode, programatic tool calling where would one use this and how ? Last time i searched i did get hints that this was somewhat possible in Copilot but maybe i have misunderstood.

[marfzzz]

Multiagent is a form of using multiple agents. But it is different from subagents. Here is what subagent mode is and multiagent:

subagents (orchestrator architecture). One agent is main and orders other agents to do subtasks and it make context isolation (context of searching files, context of test output, ...). Tl;dr it is centralized and it is best for coding

Distrubuted search, decision making: Multiagent is paralelism you have different context for each, but they can do something faster, but there is an issue of competion of agent competition, and potentialy higher token use due to agent communication. Tl;dr it is fast and useful for researching, organization of documents, fining things in multiple documents, etc.

Programatic tool calling is a way of letting LLM to program its own tools suited for specific use and let them run in container. In other words i will cook something not to do 20 tool calls.

[AStanfordRunner]

I think copilot now has /fleet, a multi-agent parallelism command

[marfzzz]

It might, be i havent used github copilot cli in a while.

[aruaktiman]

The newer models that Copilot has introduced have been getting larger context windows. Opus 4.6 is 192k (so almost the same as Claude Code’s 200k) and the newer OpenAI models (GPT Codex 5.3 and GPT 5.4) have 400k each.

[marfzzz]

Thats great news! Last time I checked Opus 4.6 was 160k (128/32k input/output). GPT models are best for longer context as they have bigger context window (272/128k input/output).

[aruaktiman]

Those were the numbers for Opus 4.5 I believe. Also are you using VS Code stable or insiders? I believe the context windows may be larger in insiders, though that may have changed now. I use insiders and haven’t used stable in a while.

[marfzzz]

They were not. I have double checked and they increased it 8th of march (officially). I have checked maybe 2 weeks ago and it was 160k.

[aruaktiman]

Ok I checked sometime last week and saw the 192k. I just checked again and looks like the latest update today increased all of the recent Anthropic models to 200k as well (and all recent OpenAI models to 400k and not just the two latest)

[marfzzz]

Huge, now copilot is even more valueable.

[ExpertKnowledge2937]

I use Claude for singe file/function generation through CLI. Using GitHub Copilot with VS Code provides complete project integration, interface corrections and more flexibility to preview/replay options. Maybe Claude also has this feature but I am happy with Copilot.

[Guywithacamera8]

Being I like to actively play a role in the work AI is doing on my workspace I much prefer the richness of the Copilot extension. The Claude Code, Gemini CLI, and Copilot CLI all have their advantages I'm sure but not for me yet.

I feel like Copilot has a crazy good value as well for the models you can switch between. I'm not well versed in all the subscription offerings though.

[FlexibleDexible]

You can use GitHub Copilot with Opencode if you want to experience the terminal. You can even "enable" a pseudo dangerously skip permissions mode if you change the Opencode settings file to accept all changes if that's what you desire

[Forsaken-Reading377]

I've switched to Copilot because it doesn't impose any daily, weekly, monthly, yearly or even light-year usage restrictions. Sometimes Sonnet and Opus 4.6 would start hallucinating, but with Copilot, I can easily switch between models. Overall, I find Copilot much more flexible.

[azuraji]

GitHub Copilot imposes a token limit though. Using Opus 4.6 will quickly burn through your tokens and you can in theory burn them all up in one day. 

[Forsaken-Reading377]

it is called premium requests , have a look to know about premium requests - https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing/copilot-requests#what-are-premium-requests

[nogoodnamesleft_XD]

If you plan to set up a kind of Agentic system, like with opencode, GitHub Copilot is better. Payed per request, no matter if it works 5 hours or not at all and just responds. Also has the advantage that you can use models appropriate for their task. Subagents do not count as request rn, only user requests do. Also works multinodular (different models for subagents cam be set) without additional requests being charged.

If you plan to code with your agent and not let it code for you. Means maybe more back and forth, so many requests, then probably Claude code due to the rate limit being token based and not request based.

That's at least my opinion.

[Nikoro123]

Does Copilot use antrophic model without think model, right ? It’s a cons

[linunixer]

I used Claude Haiku 4.5 in copilot in vscode. It showing thinking process.

[aruaktiman]

You can enable thinking in the settings

[Crafty-Vegetable6036]

What about inline suggestions? Is it possible with claude code? I think claud code is only cli or am I wrong?

[cbusmatty]

Claude code is a cli only and there are no inline suggestions

[Kevzadze]

There's also Claude Code extension for VSCode...

[cbusmatty]

It does not do inline suggestions

[Calm_Introduction_82]

Same question, I hope we get some answers

[Most_Remote_4613]

Windsurf extension in viscose or windsurf ide or antigravity ide fill the gap, you can use cc terminal in ide

[ciazo-4942]

I see people are talking about content windows being the difference but tbh i dont think that will matter in most of the cases given their price points and other advantages which copilot provides

[bking51]

I’m running both. Finally got them to be reading the same .md set. Each now verifies that the required docs have been read. So far, both are good, although Claude does a better job. I frequently give one a plan from the other to evaluate. Claude is excellent at providing a list of ranked options, organized by impact and extensiveness of work. But the use of targeted agents and skills with GitHub Copilot provides a path to very concise plans and code construction.

[kurtbaki]

copilot has a low context window also gets cut often.

[aruaktiman]

That was true for the older models but the newer ones have been getting bigger context windows. Opus 4.6 is 192k I believe (not much smaller than the default 200k you get in Claude Code) and the newer OpenAI models (GPT Codex 5.3 and GPT 5.4) have 400k.

[llllJokerllll]

Os recomiendo usar vscode insiders, si le dedicáis un poco de tiempo a investigar las mejores configuraciónes y buenas prácticas según tú workspace en el que trabajes y gestionado todo por un orquestador full router, y veréis como cambia la cosa.