The free option you installed years ago is now the Windsurf plugin, in maintenance mode. The paid option costs $10. We ran both for three days on the same repository to find out what the $10 actually replaces.
by GitHub · Pro $10/mo, 300 premium requests
Winnernow the Windsurf plugin · free tier, no completion cap
GitHub Copilot is the better tool in 2026; Codeium is the better free tier, and the gap between them is narrower than the price suggests. We ran both for three days on the same 12,400-line TypeScript service with 240 Jest tests. Copilot Pro ($10 a month, 300 premium requests) won three checks of four: it completed nine files for a six-endpoint idempotency-key feature with 11 of 12 tests passing first run, it named the stale closure behind a flaky retry wrapper without a hint, and it works inside the GitHub pull request flow rather than beside it. Codeium — still the install name on millions of machines, now the Windsurf plugin after two renames — won the price column outright: unlimited Tab completions and unlimited inline edits for individuals, no card, and 24 of 30 completions accepted unmodified against Copilot’s 27 of 30.
Two facts decide this for most people. First, Codeium’s plugins are listed by Cognition as being in maintenance mode after the June 2026 rename of the Windsurf editor to Devin Desktop, so the free autocomplete still works but it is no longer where the investment goes. Second, Copilot Pro costs $10 and is free for verified students, which makes “free versus paid” a smaller decision than it used to be. If you want a free unlimited completion layer in JetBrains, Vim or Emacs, Codeium is still the right answer; if you want an agent that finishes a six-endpoint feature, pay the $10.
October 5 to 8, 2026. Both tools worked on the same checkout of a 12,400-line TypeScript and Node API with 240 Jest tests, all passing at the start. GitHub Copilot ran as the extension in VS Code on the $10 Pro plan with agent mode enabled; Codeium ran as the free individual plugin in the same editor, signed in with no card on file. Same prompts, same order, one machine, no repository instructions file. Completion quality was measured by an acceptance rule we fixed in advance: a suggestion counted only if we accepted it with the Tab key and did not edit it afterwards. Three days of ordinary tickets were logged to see what each plan charged and when it slowed down.
| Metric | GitHub Copilot | Codeium |
|---|---|---|
| Task 1 — completions accepted unmodified (of 30) | 27 ✓ | 24 |
| Task 2 — named the stale closure without a hint | Yes, first answer ✓ | Yes, after a follow-up question |
| Task 2 — explanation names why the second retry fails | Yes ✓ | Corrected answer once asked |
| Task 3 — files changed for six endpoints | 9 — middleware, store, schema, tests ✓ | 6 — handlers only |
| Task 3 — Jest tests passing first run | 11 of 12 ✓ | 9 of 12 |
| Task 3 — work left for us to finish by hand | One failing test ✓ | Schema, migration and test helpers |
| Task 4 — cost of the three days | $10/mo Pro; 41 of 300 premium requests | $0 — free tier, no completion cap ✓ |
| Task 4 — usable without a card on file | No — Pro needs payment details | Yes ✓ |
| Winner | 🏆 GitHub Copilot — agentic multi-file work, root-cause diagnosis, GitHub workflow | Codeium — price, no completion cap, widest editor support |
Side-by-side breakdown across key categories
| Feature | GitHub Copilot | Codeium | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is in 2026 | GitHub’s assistant across VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim, Xcode and the GitHub site | The plugin formerly known as Codeium, now shipped under the Windsurf plugin name | Tie |
| Ownership and roadmap | Actively developed, agent mode and pull-request review shipping regularly | Listed as maintenance mode by Cognition after the June 2026 Devin Desktop rename | GitHub Copilot |
| Free tier | 2,000 completions and 50 chats a month | Unlimited Tab completions and unlimited inline edits, no card | Codeium |
| Paid entry tier | $10/mo Pro with 300 premium requests; free for verified students | No paid plugin tier — agent work moved to Cognition’s Devin plans | GitHub Copilot |
| Editor coverage | Broad, centred on VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim and Xcode | Widest of the two — also Vim, Emacs, Eclipse, Jupyter and more | Codeium |
| Multi-file agent editing | Agent mode plans, edits and runs tests across the repository | Not in the free plugin; the former Cascade agent was deprecated | GitHub Copilot |
| Pull request and code review | Review comments and PR summaries inside GitHub | None | GitHub Copilot |
| Best when | The work spans files and lands as a pull request | You want free completions in an editor Copilot does not cover | Tie |
| Tier | GitHub Copilot | Codeium (Windsurf plugin) |
|---|---|---|
| Free | 2,000 completions + 50 chat messages per month | Unlimited Tab completions and unlimited inline edits, no card |
| Entry paid | $10/mo Pro — unlimited completions plus 300 premium requests | No paid plugin tier; free for individuals, with agent work moved to Cognition’s plans |
| Students | Free Pro for verified students and teachers | Free tier already covers individual use |
| Higher tier | Pro+ at $39/mo for full model access | Devin Pro at $20/mo if you want the agent lineage; legacy Windsurf subscribers keep $15 |
Copilot prices are the published GitHub plans as checked in October 2026. On the Codeium side the trail is worth following yourself: codeium.com now returns a redirect to windsurf.com, which redirects again to devin.ai/desktop — one product under three names in fourteen months, which is why the free plugin and the paid editor no longer share a pricing page. The plugin’s free individual tier is the part that survived every rename unchanged: unlimited completions, no credit card. Our method is documented on the How We Evaluate page.
This is not really a contest between two equal products any more. One of them is a maintained platform with an agent, a review bot and a $10 price; the other is a free completion layer that quietly does its job and is no longer being invested in. Both are worth installing.
Nine files for a six-endpoint feature with 11 of 12 tests green first run, the real cause of a flaky retry, and $10 a month — free for students.
Unlimited completions and inline edits at $0 with no card, and 24 of 30 suggestions accepted unmodified. There is no cheaper way to get real help.
JetBrains, Vim, Neovim, Emacs, Eclipse, Jupyter — if Copilot does not officially support your editor, this is the answer, and the JetBrains plugin kept its own name through the rename.
Copilot earned the $10 in three days: it finished the six-endpoint change and named the bug’s cause without a hint. Codeium costs nothing and matched it closely on plain completion, so it is the obvious first install. Run the idempotency task above in your own repository before you decide which one you are paying for at the end of the month.
Still deciding? Check out these related comparisons and best-of guides.