Cursor vs VS Code with Copilot: A Practical Comparison

I’ve been using VS Code with GitHub Copilot for nearly two years. When Cursor started gaining traction, I was skeptical. Another AI editor? But after spending three months using Cursor full-time on production projects, I have a grounded perspective on how these two actually compare in day-to-day work.

The Editor Experience

Let’s start with the obvious: Cursor is a fork of VS Code. That means your extensions, keybindings, and settings transfer over almost seamlessly. I imported my VS Code profile in under a minute, and everything just worked. If you’re worried about losing your setup, don’t be.

The core editing experience is identical because it is VS Code under the hood. Where things diverge is in how AI is integrated into the editing workflow. VS Code treats Copilot as an add-on. Cursor treats AI as a first-class citizen baked into every interaction.

Code Completion Quality

Both tools offer inline code completion, and honestly, the raw suggestion quality is comparable. They’re both using frontier models. Where Cursor pulls ahead is context awareness. Cursor’s tab completion understands your entire codebase, not just the current file. It picks up on patterns from files you haven’t even opened.

VS Code Copilot has improved here with its workspace indexing, but Cursor still feels more aware. When I’m writing a new React component, Cursor suggests prop types that match my existing component patterns. Copilot tends to suggest more generic TypeScript patterns.

Chat and Inline Features

This is where the gap widens. VS Code’s Copilot Chat works well for asking questions and getting code suggestions. But Cursor’s inline editing with Cmd+K is genuinely transformative. You highlight code, describe what you want, and it rewrites it in place with a clean diff view.

Cursor’s Composer feature takes this further. You can describe changes that span multiple files, and it generates edits across your project. Need to rename a component and update all its imports? Describe it in natural language and Composer handles the multi-file refactor.

VS Code’s Copilot Edits feature is catching up here, but in my experience, Cursor’s implementation is more reliable and handles complex multi-file changes better.

Multi-File Editing

This is Cursor’s killer feature. When I’m building a new feature that touches a route, a component, a hook, and a test file, I can describe the entire feature in Composer and get coherent changes across all four files. The AI understands the relationships between files because it indexes your whole project.

With VS Code Copilot, I find myself working file by file more often, manually ensuring consistency. It’s not that you can’t do multi-file work, it’s that the experience requires more hand-holding.

Price Comparison

Here’s the practical breakdown as of early 2026:

• GitHub Copilot Individual: $10/month. Includes completions, chat, and Copilot Edits.
• Cursor Pro: $20/month. Includes everything plus premium model access and more Composer requests.
• Cursor Business: $40/month. Adds admin controls, privacy mode, and team features.

Cursor costs more, but if you’re doing significant multi-file editing, the time savings justify it quickly. I estimate Composer saves me 30-45 minutes per day on a typical feature-building day.

Migration Experience

Switching from VS Code to Cursor took about five minutes. Import your profile, sign in, done. The bigger adjustment is learning the new AI workflows. I’d recommend spending a week forcing yourself to use Cmd+K and Composer for everything, even when it feels slower. Once the muscle memory develops, you won’t go back.

One gotcha: some VS Code extensions that deeply integrate with the editor internals can behave slightly differently. I had one issue with a custom debugger extension, but 99% of my extensions worked perfectly.

Who Should Use Which

Stick with VS Code + Copilot if:

• You primarily need inline completions and occasional chat help
• You’re cost-conscious and the $10/month tier covers your needs
• Your work is mostly single-file edits and you don’t need multi-file AI editing
• You’re in an enterprise environment where tool approval is slow

Switch to Cursor if:

• You’re building features that regularly span multiple files
• You want AI deeply integrated into your editing flow, not bolted on
• You’re willing to invest time learning the Composer workflow
• You value speed of iteration over cost savings

My honest take: Cursor is the better tool for serious AI-assisted development right now. VS Code is closing the gap, and Microsoft has the resources to eventually match these features. But today, if you’re writing code professionally and want the best AI editing experience, Cursor is worth the extra $10/month. It’s one of the few tools where I felt an immediate, measurable productivity boost.