GitHub Copilot CLI vs Claude Code
GitHub Copilot CLI (GitHub (Microsoft)) and Claude Code (Anthropic) side by side on public data, as of Oct 6, 2026.
Claude Code has 8.6x the weekly package downloads of GitHub Copilot CLI (14.8M against 1.7M). Claude Code has 13.3x the GitHub stars of GitHub Copilot CLI (150K against 11.2K). Over the last 30 days downloads moved -36% for GitHub Copilot CLI and -36% for Claude Code. Claude Code shipped 74 stable releases in the past 90 days.
Side-by-side numbers
| Metric | GitHub Copilot CLI | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Score | 46 | 80 |
| Overall rank | #52 | #3 |
| Downloads, last 7 days | 1.7M | 14.8M |
| Downloads, 7-day change | up 19.1% | up 11.6% |
| Downloads, 30-day change | down 36.3% | down 36.4% |
| VS Code installs | — | 27.1M |
| Marketplace rating | — | 3.7 / 5 (894) |
| GitHub stars | 11.2K | 150K |
| Homebrew installs, 30 days | 9,170 | 30.1K |
| Hacker News mentions, 30 days | 11 | 1,350 |
| Latest stable release | 1.0.92 · yesterday | 2.1.290 · yesterday |
| Stable releases, 90 days | 74 | |
| Terminal-Bench (best run) | — | 57.9% · v4.0 |
| Price | Free + $10/mo | $20/mo |
| License | Proprietary | Proprietary |
| First released | September 2025 | February 2025 |
| Interfaces | CLI, SDK | CLI, IDE extension, Desktop, Web, Mobile, SDK |
| Models | Models offered through GitHub Copilot, selectable with /model; BYOK for OpenAI-compatible endpoints, Azure OpenAI, Anthropic and local models | Anthropic Claude models via Claude plans, a Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers |
Trends
GitHub Copilot CLI
GitHub's standalone terminal coding agent (`copilot`, npm @github/copilot) that plans and edits code, runs commands and works with GitHub from the terminal. It runs on a Copilot plan and also supports bring-your-own model providers.
Pricing: Included in all Copilot plans: Free $0 (limited), Pro $10/month, Pro+ $39/month, Max $100/month; usage is metered in GitHub AI Credits (1 credit = $0.01) shared with chat, agent and CLI use. Business and Enterprise plans are not priced on the individual plans page.
Latest release 1.0.92:
- Add copilot config subcommands to list, read, set, and remove settings.
- Add a pre-conversation Ctrl+E environment picker to switch between local and cloud runs
- Entra-protected MCP servers can silently renew access-token-only credentials.
- Legacy HTTP+SSE MCP connections no longer hang indefinitely when a message POST is never acknowledged; the acknowledgement is bounded by the server's configured timeout
Claude Code
Anthropic's agentic coding tool that reads a codebase, edits files and runs commands from the terminal, with VS Code and JetBrains integrations plus desktop, web and mobile access. It runs Claude models through a Claude subscription, an Anthropic Console API key or supported third-party cloud providers.
Pricing: Included in paid Claude plans: Pro $20/month ($17/month billed annually), Max from $100/month (5x and 20x tiers), Team standard seat $20/seat/month annual ($25 monthly) and premium seat $100 annual ($125 monthly). The Free plan does not include it; pay-as-you-go API credits via a Console account are an alternative.
Latest release 2.1.290:
- Added serverToolUses to the result of a mod's turn.step hook: the tool calls the API ran itself (the advisor), each with its id, name, input, start and end
- Added agentId to the tool.check event of plugin hooks, so a hook can tell a subagent's permission check from the main session's
- Added ceiling to the question and verdict a mod's tool.check hook reads, naming the approval an organization requires for a tool
- Added ThemeKey and Color types to the plugin hooks typings, so an editor lists the theme colors a mod's drawing can name