i have been using co pilot pro and and curosr ai free agent mode chat gpt 4.1 for creating web tools like calcualtor but cursor ai working far better even free version when compared to pro version of co pilot.
Cursor AI, even its free version, often outperforms GitHub Copilot Pro for certain tasks, especially those requiring deeper project context and agentic capabilities.
Here’s a breakdown of why you might be experiencing this, particularly for creating web tools like calculators:
Why Cursor AI (Free Agent Mode, GPT-4.1) might feel superior:
- Deeper Context Understanding: This is Cursor’s core strength. While Copilot Pro is improving, Cursor was built from the ground up as an “AI-first IDE” with the ability to index and understand your entire workspace. When building a web tool like a calculator, which often involves HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files interacting, Cursor’s ability to see the whole picture (all relevant files, dependencies, and existing code) leads to more coherent and accurate suggestions and changes. Copilot, traditionally, has been more focused on the immediate file and its surrounding code.
- Agentic Capabilities: You specifically mentioned “agent mode.” Cursor’s Agent Mode is designed for more complex, multi-step tasks. It can reason about changes across multiple files, execute terminal commands (with your approval), and iterate through errors to reach a solution. For creating a calculator from scratch or adding new features, this agentic approach means Cursor can take on more of the heavy lifting, rather than just offering inline suggestions. Copilot’s agent mode is newer and, while rapidly improving, may not be as mature or performant for all scenarios yet.
- Model Flexibility (Even in Free Tier): While Copilot Pro gives you access to powerful models like GPT-4, Cursor often allows you to explicitly choose and leverage specific models (like GPT-4.1, Claude, etc.) even in its free tier for a limited number of “slow requests.” This means you might be tapping into the raw power of a top-tier LLM in Cursor’s agent mode, whereas Copilot’s integration might abstract this away or have different usage allocations for its “premium” models. GPT-4.1, if that’s the model you’re using in Cursor, is a very capable model for coding.
- Targeted for AI Workflows: Cursor’s UI and workflow are specifically designed for interacting with an AI. Features like
@symbol for referencing files, integrated chat that can directly modify code, and the Composer for multi-file generation make it feel more natural for AI-driven development.
Where Copilot Pro excels (and where it might fall short for your use case):
- Seamless Inline Completion: Copilot’s bread and butter is its incredibly fast and accurate inline code completion. For speeding up typing and generating boilerplate code within a single file, it’s often unmatched.
- IDE Integration: Copilot integrates as an extension into your existing VS Code setup, which is great for developers who don’t want to switch IDEs. However, this also means it’s limited by the extension model, potentially preventing the deep, IDE-level context awareness that Cursor offers.
- Pricing Predictability (but sometimes less power per dollar for agents): While Copilot Pro offers “unlimited completions,” its “premium requests” for more advanced chat and agent functionalities might be more limited or costly if you’re heavily relying on them for complex tasks. Cursor’s pricing for its paid tiers can be more complex, but its free tier might be giving you access to more powerful agentic features than Copilot’s free/basic Pro tier for those specific, complex interactions.
In summary:
Your observation is perfectly valid and highlights the different philosophies of these tools.
- Cursor AI is aiming to be your AI-powered development environment, where the AI is deeply integrated and capable of understanding and modifying your entire project. This makes it very strong for tasks that require a holistic view and multi-step changes, like building web tools from concept.
- GitHub Copilot (especially the Pro version) is an excellent AI assistant that integrates into your existing IDE, primarily focusing on accelerating individual coding tasks, inline suggestions, and conversational assistance. Its agentic features are growing, but Cursor had a head start in that area.
For something like a calculator, where the AI needs to understand the interplay between different files and generate multiple components, Cursor’s “AI-first” approach and robust agent mode naturally shine. If you’re consistently getting better results from Cursor’s free agent mode with GPT-4.1, it suggests that for your specific web tool creation workflow, Cursor’s architecture and AI integration are a better fit.
Choosing between Cursor AI (free or paid) and VS Code with GitHub Copilot Pro involves weighing their distinct approaches to AI-powered development. Both aim to boost your coding efficiency, but they differ in integration, features, and pricing models.
Here’s a breakdown to help you decide:
Cursor AI
Cursor is designed as an “AI-first” IDE. It’s built on the VS Code foundation, so it will feel familiar to VS Code users, but its AI integration is much deeper.
Key Features:
- Deep Context Awareness: Cursor excels at understanding your entire project’s context. It indexes your whole workspace, allowing for highly relevant suggestions that consider definitions and usages across multiple files. This is a significant advantage for refactoring or adding features that span many files.
- Built-in AI Chat and Commands: Cursor integrates an AI chat interface directly into the IDE. You can ask questions about your code, get explanations, and even instruct the editor to make changes, which Cursor can apply directly to your codebase. It can also execute terminal commands using natural language.
- Agent Mode: Cursor’s “Agent Mode” can take on more complex tasks, like making changes across multiple files or fixing lint errors automatically, while keeping you in the loop.
- Multi-Line Edits & Smart Rewrites: Its autocomplete can suggest entire blocks of code and even fix typos or optimize your code as you type.
- Proprietary Models: Cursor leverages a mix of proprietary models and APIs (like GPT-4 and Claude) for its AI capabilities.
- Ease of Context: It’s easy to reference specific files or code symbols (using
@symbols) as context for the AI.
Pricing (as of June 2025):
- Hobby Plan (Free):
- 2-week trial for Pro features.
- Limited AI completions (reported as 200 or 2000/month, with some conflicting information).
- 50 “slow requests” per month (for more resource-intensive operations).
- Limited access to premium models (e.g., 50 GPT 4.1 Fast requests).
- 500 Fast requests for free models (like Cursor Small, Deepseek v3, Gemini 2.5 Flash, GPT-4o mini, Grok 3 Mini Beta).
- Pro Plan ($20/month or $16/month billed yearly):
- Unlimited AI completions.
- 500 “regular” (fast) requests per month + unlimited “slow requests” after fast requests are exhausted.
- Access to “Max Mode” (token-based pricing for advanced models).
- Business Plan ($40/user/month): All Pro features, plus organizational features like centralized billing, admin dashboards, and enhanced privacy options.
- Ultra Plan ($200/month): A new tier for power users with 20x more usage than Pro, offered in collaboration with model providers.
Pros of Cursor AI:
- Deeper AI integration and context understanding.
- Powerful agentic capabilities for complex tasks.
- Integrated chat that can directly modify your code.
- Often praised for its speed and “magic” autocomplete.
Cons of Cursor AI:
- A standalone IDE, meaning you might need to adjust your workflow if you’re deeply entrenched in VS Code extensions.
- Pricing model can be complex with “requests,” “slow requests,” and “Max Mode” leading to potential confusion or unexpected costs if not managed carefully.
- Some users report inconsistency in model performance compared to Copilot.
VS Code + GitHub Copilot Pro
GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that integrates as an extension into various IDEs, with a particularly seamless experience in VS Code.
Key Features (Copilot Pro):
- Inline Code Completion: Provides intelligent ghost text suggestions as you type, often for whole lines or functions. It’s generally excellent for common coding patterns.
- Copilot Chat: An integrated chat interface in your IDE (like VS Code) where you can ask coding-related questions, get explanations, and receive code suggestions.
- Copilot Coding Agent (Preview): An autonomous AI agent that can make code changes for you, linked to GitHub issues and pull requests.
- Copilot in the CLI: Allows you to ask questions and get command suggestions directly in your terminal.
- Code Review & Pull Request Summaries: AI-generated suggestions for code review and summaries of pull request changes.
- Access to Multiple Models: Copilot Pro provides access to a range of models, including Claude 3.5 Sonnet, GPT-4.1, and Gemini 2.5 Pro. Copilot Pro+ offers even more advanced models.
- Cross-platform Flexibility: Works across VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, Vim, and more.
Pricing (as of June 2025):
- Copilot Free: Limited features (e.g., 50 agent/chat requests, 2,000 completions per month). Not suitable for organizations.
- Copilot Pro ($10 USD/month or $100 USD/year):
- Unlimited completions in IDEs.
- Unlimited Copilot Chat interactions with included models.
- Up to 300 “premium requests” per month (for more advanced models/features), with additional requests at $0.04 USD each.
- Free for verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open-source projects.
- Includes access to code review and the coding agent (preview).
- Copilot Pro+ ($39 USD/month or $390 USD/year):
- Everything in Copilot Pro, plus full access to all available models (including Claude Opus 4, o3, GPT-4.5) and significantly higher premium request limits (up to 1,500 per month).
- Copilot Business ($19 USD/user/month): For teams and organizations, offering centralized management, billing, and advanced security features.
- Copilot Enterprise: For larger enterprises requiring comprehensive features and management.
Pros of VS Code + GitHub Copilot Pro:
- Seamless integration into existing VS Code workflows and a wide range of other IDEs.
- Predictable monthly pricing for unlimited completions and chat (with a generous premium request allowance).
- Backed by GitHub and Microsoft, implying strong support and continuous development.
- Good for inline completion and generating standard code patterns.
- Growing agentic capabilities.
Cons of VS Code + GitHub Copilot Pro:
- Historically, less comprehensive project-wide context awareness compared to Cursor (though this is improving with Copilot X and agent modes).
- Chat integration for direct code modification was initially less mature than Cursor’s, though it’s catching up.
- “Premium requests” might become a factor for very heavy users of the most advanced models.
Comparison Summary
Which one is right for you?
- Choose Cursor AI if:
- You prioritize deep project context and agentic capabilities that can make sweeping changes across your codebase.
- You want a truly “AI-first” development experience where the AI is an integral part of the IDE.
- You’re comfortable with (or prefer) a standalone IDE that’s heavily optimized for AI.
- You’re a power user willing to potentially navigate a more complex pricing structure for advanced features.
- You find yourself frequently asking the AI to refactor large sections of code or implement features spanning multiple files.
- Choose VS Code + GitHub Copilot Pro if:
- You’re already deeply integrated into the VS Code ecosystem and want to add powerful AI capabilities as an extension.
- You prefer a more predictable pricing model for unlimited completions and chat.
- You work across multiple IDEs and need a consistent AI assistant.
- You’re primarily looking for intelligent inline code completion, chat assistance, and some agentic capabilities.
- You want the robust backing and ongoing development from GitHub/Microsoft.
Regarding the “free” aspect:
- Cursor AI Free (Hobby Plan): Offers a good taste of Cursor’s capabilities but is quite limited in terms of “fast requests” and premium model access. It’s best for trying it out or for very light personal use.
- GitHub Copilot Free: Also provides a limited experience and is mainly for individual exploration before committing to a paid plan.
Ultimately, both tools are powerful and constantly evolving. Many developers find significant value in either, and the “best” choice often comes down to individual workflow, project complexity, and personal preference. If possible, try out the free tiers of both to see which one aligns better with your coding style and needs.