Compare Cursor vs. GitHub Copilot vs. JetBrains AI Assistant

Cursor is an AI-native integrated development environment (IDE) engineered to transform how software is written, reviewed, and deployed. Trusted by millions of professional developers, it merges human creativity with machine intelligence through features like Agent, a fully autonomous collaborator that turns ideas into executable code, and Tab, an adaptive autocompletion system that predicts your next move with precision. Cursor’s deep codebase indexing allows it to instantly understand large and complex repositories, enabling smart search, refactoring, and context-aware suggestions across files. With multi-model flexibility, developers can choose from leading AI models—OpenAI’s GPT-5, Anthropic’s Claude 4.5, Google’s Gemini 2.5, or xAI’s Grok Code—to match specific performance and reasoning needs. Cursor integrates effortlessly into existing workflows, acting as a teammate in GitHub, Slack, and other key tools. Its interface balances autonomy and control, letting users decide whether to perform quick edits, plan-mode changes, or let the agent operate end-to-end. Designed for individual creators and large enterprises alike, Cursor improves velocity, reduces cognitive load, and enhances collaboration across distributed teams. It’s more than an editor—it’s the next frontier in developer productivity.

GitHub Copilot represents the next evolution of intelligent software development, combining AI-driven coding, collaboration, and automation in a single ecosystem. It seamlessly integrates with GitHub and leading IDEs, transforming natural language prompts into working code, tests, and documentation. The new Agent Mode allows developers to delegate tasks—Copilot autonomously writes, executes, and validates code using GitHub Actions, delivering ready-to-review pull requests. Developers can interact through Copilot Chat, switch between models like GPT-5, Claude Sonnet 4, and Gemini 2.0 Flash, and refine results with contextual feedback. Next Edit Suggestions and automated code review ensure project-wide consistency, helping teams catch bugs before they reach production. With Copilot Spaces, teams can organize shared context—code, notes, and knowledge—to produce tailored, high-quality results. Available in Free, Pro, and Pro+ plans, Copilot scales from individuals to enterprises with flexible model access and premium capabilities. Ultimately, GitHub Copilot transforms development from manual iteration to AI-augmented collaboration, enabling engineers to focus on innovation instead of boilerplate.

The JetBrains AI Assistant integrates your integrated development environment (IDE) with both third-party and proprietary large language models (LLMs) that are tailored for specific functionalities. This integration allows the AI Assistant to deliver accurate and context-sensitive support, assisting with tasks such as generating code snippets, completing intricate code structures, and developing automated tests efficiently. We prioritize the security of your data and code! JetBrains AI Assistant guarantees that your code snippets remain confidential and are neither stored nor shared, irrespective of whether they come from public repositories, private repositories, or local files. Adhering to the JetBrains AI Terms of Service is fundamental to our practices, ensuring that neither we nor our affiliated service providers utilize your data or code for the purpose of training any generative AI models. Additionally, this commitment to privacy and data integrity fosters a trustworthy environment for developers.