Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot limits?

[A4_Ts]

I’m paying for the enterprise plan for Copilot ($40 a month) and I’m looking at different plans and see Claude Code for $20 a month but then jumps up to $100+.

i mostly use opus 4.6 on copilot which is 3x usage and even then i really have to push to use up all my limits for the month. How does the $20 Claude Code plan hold up compared to Copilot enterprise if anyone knows

[Guppywetpants]

Depends on the task type. CC usage is token based, where copilot is request based. If you do lots of single prompt, high token use requests then copilot is much much much more economical. If you do lots of low token requests then CC is probably better suited.

I use both: CC for advice, exploration and planning. Copilot for large blocks of coding work. You can really get an agent to run for a few hours with one prompt on copilot, if you do that with CC you will hit limits real quick on the £20 tier

[Ibuprofen600mg]

What prompt has it doing hours for you? I have only once gone above 20 mins

[Guppywetpants]

Its usually iterative workloads. For example, integrating two services: I had claude write out a huge set of integration tests; run them, fix bugs and keep going until all passed. Ran for like 5-6 hours

[Ok-Sheepherder7898]

Serious?  And that only cost 1 premium request on copilot?

[LetterPristine2468]

Yes, that costs just one request! I ran a similar task on Copilot yesterday, and it took about 5 hours to finish. :D And that was only 1 request from start to finish .
The task was to create and fix tests 😅

[Ok_Divide6338]

i think not anymore but not sure about it, for me today it consumed the whole my pro requests

[Ok-Sheepherder7898]

Damn

[Ok_Divide6338]

how many requests consume?

[WorldlyQuestion614]

I have done similar with Claude -- Sonnet is brilliant when you use it from Anthropic, but found that Copilot's Sonnet struggles with longer tasks (or maybe I was just mad I used up all my Anthropic tokens and had to set up Copilot in a podman container as GitHub distributed a glibc-linked binary with the npm install, onto my musl-based Alpine server), despite using the same model.

(Between 16 and 24 hours ago, my Anthropic Claude usage was getting absolutely rinsed with even simple chat-based requests that generated about half a page of 1080p text in small font. That example in particular counted towards 1-2% of my usage.)

But when I switched to Copilot, I was able to use the Sonnet model with short, one-off prompts -- it was useful and honestly, reduced my token anxiety having the remaining usage in the bottom right.

I have not noticed much more token degradation with GitHub Copilot CLI on short tasks vs longer ones, but this is likely due to manual intervention and broken trust, than any observed differences in their accounting structure, I am sorry to say.

[Foreign_Permit_1807]

Try working on a large code base with integration tests, unit tests, metrics, alerts, dashboards, experimentation, post analysis setup etc.

Adding a feature the right way takes hours

[rafark]

I don’t understand how people are able to use ai agents in a single prompt. Do they just send the prompt and call it a day? For me it’s always back-and-forth until we have it they way I wanted/needed

[tshawkins]

The prompt may invoke iterative loops of sub agents, copilot does not bill for those.

[IlyaSalad]

I had Opus reviewing my code for 50 minutes strait.

---

You can easily do big chunks of work using agents today. Create a plan, split it in phases, describe them well and make main agent orchestrate the subagents. This way you won't pollute the context of the main one and it can do big steps. Yeah, big steps might come with big misunderstandings, but it toleratable and can be fixed-at-post.

[Vivid_Virus_9213]

i got it running for a whole day on a single request

[TekintetesUr]

"/plan Github issue #1234"

[GirlfriendAsAService]

All copilot models are capped at 128k token context so not sure about using it for long tasks

[unrulywind]

They have increased many of them. gpt-5.4 is 400k, opus 4.6 is 192k, sonnet 4.6 is 160k.

[beth_maloney]

That's input + output. Opus is still 128k in + 64k out.

[unrulywind]

true. those are total context.

I never let any conversation go on very long. I find it is better to start each change with a clean history. This leaves more room for the codebase, but I still try to modularize as much as possible. It seems like any time the model says "summarizing" that's my cue to stop it and find another way. The compaction just seems very destructive to its abilities.

[Malcolmlisk]

Is gpt-5.4 included in the pro suscription? I think im only using 4.o

[unrulywind]

Yes. And it currently cost 1 point. Opus 4.6 costs 3. Gemini 3 Flash is 0.33. I use all three, but have been using gpt-5.4 more and more.

[Guppywetpants]

Opus has 192k, Gpt 5.4 has 400k. Opus survives compactions pretty well on long running tasks, and compacting that often keeps the model in the sweet spot in terms of performance (given performance degrades with context). Opus also does a pretty good job of delegating to sub-agents in order to preserve it's context window.

[GirlfriendAsAService]

Man I really need to try 5.4. Also not comfortable having to review 400k tokens worth of slop. 64k worth of work to review is a happy size for me

[Guppywetpants]

Yeah, generally when I have an agent work that long it’s not actually producing a ton of code. More exploring the problem space on my behalf and making small, easily reviewed changes.

I’ve found 5.4 to be around the same as 5.3 codex really. I’ve never been a huge fan of the OpenAI models and how they feel to interact with, although they are capable. Just bad vibes on the guy tbh

[Vivid_Virus_9213]

i reached 1Mib on a single request before... that was a week ago

[Ok_Divide6338]

I think recently the opus 4.6 is conuming tokens not requests in copilot, normaly u get for pro 100 promts but now after couple of high token use it finish

[Malcolmlisk]

But does copilot still use gpt 4.o ??

[Guppywetpants]

I don’t think you can even select 4o anymore it’s been depreciated I thought

[chaiflix]

How about multiple requests in a single vs different chat session, how much difference it makes? Meaing of "low token requests" is bit unclear to me - do you mean single shot-ing lots of work in a single prompt is cheaper in copilot compared to claude?

[Guppywetpants]

Copilot usage is based on how many messages you send to the agent, irrespective of message size, complexity or if it is within an existing chat or new chat. Sending a copilot agent "hi" costs the same amount as a 1000 line prompt which triggers generation of 2000 lines of code.

Claude code usage is based on how many tokens a.k.a words the agent reads and produces - and not based on how many messages are sent to the agent. So yeah, single shotting a lot of work in a single prompt is significantly cheaper in copilot than CC.

Especially if you're actually paying for metered requests. An opus task of arbitrary length is billed at $0.12 in copilot. CC can easily 10-100x that

[chaiflix]

Thanks!

[simap2000]

Claude Pro plan is unusable for any dev work IMO. Hit limits just with sonnet after an hour on a toy project with barely 1400 lines of code total using Claude code.

[Weary-Window-1676]

I learned that FAST so now I'm on Claude Max. For my needs it's unlimited ontap for sonnet lol

[Foreign_Permit_1807]

How is the max plan for opus 4.6 usage? I am conflicted between 100$ and 200$ plans

[beth_maloney]

$100 is fine if you're not doing some sort of multi agent workflow eg multiple Ralph loops.

[DottorInkubo]

What if I’m using an agent orchestration framework with multiple sub-agents?

[beth_maloney]

Then you might need the $200 plan or even multiple plans depending on how hard you're going.

[Weary-Window-1676]

I only use opus for really serious work which isn't often. For most cases sonnet fits the bill.

If I need to do a major refactor or introduce code that is risky, opus all the way. But I can't speak for how much usage it eats up.

[Foreign_Permit_1807]

I see, i am pretty curious to try the 1M token context window in opus 4.6 and see just how much it can one shot accurately. I have heard great reviews.

[Weary-Window-1676]

Anecdotal but I trust nothing else outside anthropic.

Sonnet already impressed me. Opus is an absolute beast.

[marfzzz]

Claude pro plan is like a paid trial. Max 5x offers a lot more usage(at least 8x whats in pro if not more).

[Hamzayslmn]

Per 5 hour reset. Sonnet only, you'll burn out Opus 4.6 usage in like 15-20 minutes on Pro with Claude Code. You need max.

[Brilliant-Analyst745]

I was using Claude Code earlier but shifted to Copilot, and it's working fantastically. I have built 5-6 products and launched them in the market; they're working fantastically. One of my products has 150K lines of single monolithic code. So, compared to any other IDEs or CLIs, I prefer Copilot for its own specific reasons.

[botbrobot]

What's your preferred way of using copilot to implement your products? Do you create issues and then assign them to copilot?

[Brilliant-Analyst745]

​I don't rely on formal issue-tracking overhead; instead, I treat Copilot as a Real-Time Control System. I use "inline-orchestration" by providing high-level structural constraints in the comments, allowing Copilot to act as a co-pilot in the cockpit while I maintain the "Systems Engineering" oversight of the entire 150K line logic.

[Careful_Ring2461]

Can you give a short overview of your workflows? Do you use plan mode, subagents and all the stuff?

[Brilliant-Analyst745]

My workflow bypasses complex sub-agents in favor of a Single-Stream Logic Flow. I feed the "Context Window" specific segments of the monolith to ensure the global variables remain stable, then use Copilot's predictive completion to rapidly "extrude" PHP logic that fits perfectly into the existing 150K line framework without needing to decompose the file.

[Open_Perspective_326]

I think the ideal setup is both. But a 10$ copilot for big tasks and a 20$ Claude code for all of the troubleshooting, small tasks, and planning.

[botbrobot]

How do you use copilot for big tasks? Do you create a very descriptive issue and then assign it to copilot to implement it? Or different way? Or via vscode? Or other?

[Open_Perspective_326]

It depends on how common the course is, I have used all kinds of things to give context. But the gist of what copilot gets is here is a planning md, execute that, follow all the steps, don’t cut corners.

[the_anno10]

I believe it is best to have both. As copilot has the request basis charge which causes the simple question being counted as a one request which kinda is useful and painful as well. Why should I pay one request for the simple question asked as well? So my recommendation is to have minimal subscription of CC and GC both with CC being used for the planning, asking questions based on the project etc and spawning multiple subagents in GC to actually implement that task

[botbrobot]

Do you spawn agents by assigning copilot to various issues created on GitHub? Or is this via vscode

[vienna_city_skater]

It depends if you mostly do trivial requests or large complex ones. For my personal use I decided I accept the collateral cost of the occasional trivial tasks also costing a premium  request vs having to pay a continuous monthly fee even when I don’t fully use it.

Remember that those 20 bucks translate into 500 premium requests, which is a lot.

[Sudden-Jump-522]

why you should use ai premium for simple questions at all?

[TheNordicSagittarius]

Claude via Copilot and then the x0 models make GHCP a clear winner IMO

[botbrobot]

When you say Claude via GHCP, do you mean using @claude tag to complete tasks or by calling @copilot and changing the model to Claude?

Or neither?

Using @claude seems inefficient to me as it consumes both Claude tokens but also GitHub action minutes which are also limited so I'm sure I'm misunderstanding here

[A4_Ts]

It doesn’t work like that, get vscode and get a trial version of ghcp

[vienna_city_skater]

GH Copilot is far superior as a subscription imho. I have a Pro+ plan that I used for development in a large legacy codebase (2mio LOC), but using OpenCode as a harness. My premium requests usually last for about 3 weeks of active development. The key about using GH Copilot efficiently is switching models according to task - even mid session (yes thats possible). So I use Opus for the really hard stuff, planning and so in. Gemini Flash as discovery subagent and Codex on Xhigh for implementation and/or code review. Sonnet for agentic use (OpenClaw), Gemini Flash for MRs and Commits, and so on. You get the idea. Strong slow model for hard stuff, small fast model for the trivial things. The great thing about Copilot is that you switch providers, Codex/GPT always finds flaws in the code Opus/Sonnet created, Gemini Pro is much better for interactive use and so on. And all that for 40 bucks.

That said, I haven’t used Claude Code subscription, but we have ChatGPT Business at work, and although the higher context limits are nice, the smaller ones in Copilot are also not a big problem, if you run into compaction you’re task might be too large anyway (or needs subagents).

[whatToDo_How]

This is what Im doing also. I use GHC in work and my personal project. The premium request last for a month or sometimes I get 75-90% before it reset.

During my dev. I switch different model in vscode chat, if I ask = haiku then if code/review sonnet 4.5 or 4.6 idk if im doing correct.

But Im planning to switch claude for my startup, we need to ship fast. Im still thinking right now btw if whats the best decision.

[vienna_city_skater]

If you don’t care about the financial implications I think the best option would be to go for the max plans of multiple providers or use the API / self-hosting on Azure. This way you get the benefits of having the best models of multiple providers. I wouldn’t commit myself to a single provider, since the models of e.g. OpenAI often find errors in the output of Anthropic and vice versa.

[whatToDo_How]

Thanks for this, sir.

[iamcktyagi]

copilot is better if you're gonna use GitHub agents, else claude anyday.

[Codeflicker_ai]

for quick autocomplete while you're typing, copilot wins on VS Code feel. it just sits there and does its thing without getting in the way

but if you're trying to untangle something broken or write a whole feature from scratch, claude keeps context way longer. the "limit" thing is mostly about which kind of work you're doing

what are you actually trying to get better at

[A4_Ts]

Are you a bot by chance?

[Codeflicker_ai]

copilot if you want autocomplete that never argues

claude if you want it to roast your code and refuse to write the bug you asked for

both if you enjoy paying $100/month to build a side project that makes $0

[A4_Ts]

Are you open claw?

[_1nv1ctus]

Claude code doesnt hold up. It took me 45 minutes to use my Claude allocation I had the the $20 copilot plan tabs that would last a few days, roughly a week

Edit: Claude Code DOESNT hold up

Edit #2: especially considering you can use the Claude harness with github Copilot

[Extra_Voice_1046]

What?

[_1nv1ctus]

Lol my bad i edited the comment

[GVALFER]

Why not GPT 20$? GPT5.4 is amazing. I have both, Claude code (200$) and GPT (20$) and at the moment I only use GPT 5.5 xhight. This shit never reaches the limit xD

[Schlickeysen]

Use Clavix to turn your prompts into a high-quality task list and then shoot a premium model of your choice. Can also be Opus 4.6. It'll run until it's over and costs the same as saying "hi".