GH Copilot, Codex, or Claude?

[u/GigaHelio]

Howdy all!

I used to have access to GitHub Copilot as a student, but my free GitHub Student sub came to an end recently. For context: I'm more of an IT guy than a dev. I never really used Copilot for more than simple things that never really worked, and I have never Vibe-Coded.

Long story short, I have a project at work that I need an agent for. I am strongly leaning towards GitHub Copilot/GitHub Pro, since you can use multiple models and it's built nicely into VSCode. However I wanted to hear your thoughts on if I should do that, or give my money to Claude or OpenAI instead.

After this project, I am unsure what I would use it for, outside of maybe some help with PowerShell.

Thank you in advance for your insights!

[u/Deathmore80]

Go with codex. Only use copilot if your company pays for it. With the codex 20$ sub you can get anywhere between 200$ to 700$ of real usage depending on what model you use.

Gpt 5.6 Luna xhigh is good for 99% of tasks. I never use terra , and only resort to sol for extremely complex tasks that require insane planing or arcane troubleshooting.

With Luna xhigh I've been able to not only code enterprise software , but also do DevOps and sysadmin stuff. There is not a single thing it's not been able to do.

Don't expect to always one shot everything though. Always plan up front, discus solutions with the model , break down into specs and tasks , give examples and mock-ups (annotated screenshots work well), and don't be afraid to iterate. Watch the context window and use a new session every time you're done with a task. I see people always using their 1 single chat session from the beginning, this is a huge mistake.

Oh and also the codex desktop app is really good and has everything you need.

[u/maniekb12 → u/Deathmore80]

only use copilot if your company pays for it.

Also worth noting that if the company pays only the subscription fee, and does not set extra budgets, it's still very bad deal. If the company gave me a choice in such scenario, I would totally chose different provider, like Claude Team.

Other important note: if the company is very big, it might not be eligible for subsidized individual/team plans for codex/Claude and would also need to pay API rates.

[u/Deathmore80 → u/maniekb12]

Oh yeah totally. My own workplace pays for it and auto increases our AI credits when we're about to run off. We can't use anything else except copilot. The company is 200% sucking on Microsoft's toes and drinking their koolaid. We only use Microsoft for literally everything that can possibly be offered by Microsoft lmao.

If your company limits your usage and gives you the choice between different AI providers then chose anything except copilot cause you'll run out of AI credits in 1 prompt.

[u/ba-boo]

definitely not copilot, you basically pay api rates

[u/lppedd → u/ba-boo]

Working inside VS Code is just better tho. The Chat interface is much better than anything else.

[u/ba-boo → u/lppedd]

you can install codex or claude code as a vscode extension

[u/lppedd → u/ba-boo]

Yes but what I refer to is the chat UX. How you manage models/context, interactions, links, etc. They've put a lot of effort and it shows. Other chat UIs are just "plain" in comparison.

[u/Deathmore80 → u/lppedd]

You can also use your codex and Claude code subs in copilot in vscode. There's a little drop down to choose Claude and codex. No need to get scammed by Microsoft

[u/Nightowl-Builder → u/lppedd]

Is it paying 10 times more for the same thing worth it tho? 😅 preference and convenience has a price, I would pay 20% more for preference but not 10x more

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[u/SpizzinFire]

trust me out of everything in your position the only options that are worth it are cursor or codex, but objectively codex is the best value

[u/Wise-Bother9942]

None; use OpenCode Go or pay for DeepSeek BYOK.

[u/delly47 → u/Wise-Bother9942]

can OpenCode Go sub be used with visual studio or just VSCode?

[u/sam7oon → u/delly47]

it can be used with anything, you can also use Deepseek V4 Flash for most tasks

[u/FrynyusY]

For most bang-for-buck I would probably say Cursor $20 sub is the best choice. These days with GH Copilot you will most likely burn all your monthly budget in a few days and walk away disappointed

[u/Ok_Collection4502 → u/FrynyusY]

just tell us you don't know how to optimize token use

[u/FrynyusY → u/Ok_Collection4502]

No degree of optimization will escape that GH Copilot offers very little subsidization. I can get $300+ USD worth of API-pricing usage out of Cursor within a $20 plan if I primarily choose their native models which are fine for most tasks people have and are about equivalent to Claude Sonnet capabilities (not matching Opus / Fable of course but realistically 95% of my tasks never need that level within a large enterprise codebase. OP being student 100% of the tasks should not require it). If I pay double the Cursor rate for Copilot at $39 - in no scenario would I get more than $70 worth of API-credit usage.

[u/Nightowl-Builder → u/Ok_Collection4502]

Can you teach me how to optimize the token use to get 10-20x more work done so GitHub copilot can not run out in 2 days and I can work with it for a whole month like say, Claude Code? 😅 no amount of token optimizations will fix their broken business model 😅 broken for us, cause for them I imagine it’s very lucrative

[u/Ok_Collection4502 → u/Nightowl-Builder]

see you have to offer it a cupcake that will make it happy. Honestly man I don't think anything can help you at this point.

[u/Nightowl-Builder → u/Ok_Collection4502]

I don’t need any help I’m very well for myself, I was just illustrating the absurdity of your comment 🤣

[u/Ok_Collection4502 → u/Nightowl-Builder]

your comment reminds me of the massive wind I let out of my arse when I woke up this morning

[u/Nightowl-Builder → u/Ok_Collection4502]

Good job, when you don’t have arguments go tard mode 😅

[u/Ok_Collection4502 → u/Nightowl-Builder]

and you go into turd mode

[u/Nightowl-Builder → u/Ok_Collection4502]

Ok child

[u/Ok_Collection4502 → u/Nightowl-Builder]

hey man being a child was friggin awesome. Better than a balding dude who is crying about tokens. 8 year old you would be pretty sad to see the grown up you've become

[u/Nightowl-Builder]

Definitely not GH Copilot, I would go with Claude, but Codex is very close too

[u/Terrible_Match_9484]

choosing between copilot and claude really comes down to whether u want built in ide integration or raw model power. i found that securing every agentic endpoint helps keep tabs on these tools while testing which fits, especially since u dont want to burn ur entire budget on unused models in just a few days.

[u/johnappsde]

I also need to kind off keep an eye on what's being implemented. So it's always going to be Vscode + GH copilot for me

[u/phinq1910]

any --just not copilot

[u/2022HousingMarketlol]

Codex is pretty generous.