5 Free Alternatives to GitHub Copilot in 2026
GitHub Copilot caps free users at 2,000 completions/month. These 5 alternatives — some unlimited — work directly in your editor.
| Tool | Free Plan | Editors | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | 2,000 completions + 50 AI chats | Full AI IDE | VS Code fork |
| Codeium | Unlimited | Drop-in replacement | 40+ editors |
| Supermaven | Unlimited | Speed | VS Code, JetBrains |
| CodeWhisperer | Unlimited | AWS projects | VS Code, JetBrains |
| Continue.dev | Unlimited (local) | Privacy | VS Code, JetBrains |
1. Cursor
#1 PickA VS Code fork with AI built into the core. Free plan matches Copilot's free tier, but the codebase-aware chat is miles ahead of anything Copilot offers.
What you get
- 2,000 completions/month
- 50 slow GPT-4o/Claude requests/month
- Full VS Code compatibility
- Codebase-aware chat
What's missing
- Fast AI requests need Pro ($20/mo)
- You switch editors (not a plugin)
2. Codeium
Unlimited FreeUnlimited free AI completions with no monthly cap — ever. Plugs into 40+ editors. Easiest drop-in replacement for Copilot.
What you get
- Unlimited completions (no cap)
- Chat in VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, Neovim
- 70+ programming languages
- Context from open files
What's missing
- Weaker model than GPT-4o/Claude
- Team features are paid
3. Supermaven
FastestBuilt by an original GitHub Copilot engineer. 300K token context window, noticeably faster completions than any competitor.
What you get
- Unlimited completions
- 300K token context (huge)
- VS Code + JetBrains
What's missing
- No chat on free plan
- Fewer integrations than Codeium
4. Amazon CodeWhisperer
Best for AWSCompletely free for individual devs. Especially strong for AWS code. Includes a free security scanner Copilot charges extra for.
What you get
- Unlimited completions
- Free security vulnerability scanner
- AWS service suggestions
- VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio
What's missing
- Weaker outside AWS/Java/Python
- Requires AWS account
5. Continue.dev
Privacy FirstOpen-source plugin for VS Code and JetBrains. Connects to any AI model — including local models via Ollama. No data ever leaves your machine.
What you get
- Completely free & open source
- Any model: GPT-4o, Claude, Llama 3
- Run 100% locally with Ollama
- Tab completions + chat + inline editing
What's missing
- Requires setup (not plug-and-play)
- Local model quality depends on hardware
Why look for free alternatives to GitHub Copilot?
GitHub Copilot is Microsoft's AI coding assistant, integrated directly into VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, and other editors. It was the first mainstream AI code completion tool and remains one of the most capable, with deep GitHub integration for code suggestions based on your existing repositories.
How much does GitHub Copilot cost?
GitHub Copilot is now free for individual developers with GitHub accounts — this changed in late 2024. Free gives 2,000 completions and 50 chat messages per month. Copilot Pro costs $10/month for unlimited completions and chat. Copilot Business is $19/user/month with organization management. Copilot Enterprise is $39/user/month.
Our verdict
With GitHub Copilot Free now available to all GitHub users, the main free alternative decision is whether to use Copilot or Codeium (truly unlimited, no message limits). Both integrate with the same editors. For heavy users who exceed Copilot Free's limits, Codeium is the best no-cost option. Copilot Pro at $10/month is reasonable for professionals who hit the free tier limits regularly.
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