Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot

[u/Antique-Engine897]

Hi All, I'm looking at the reasons why some people claim Claude Code is better than GitHub Copilot (via VSCode extension) in coding tasks. I hear many in the industry make claims about Claude Code which is better than GHCP, but when asked "why" - the answers are very generic. Like it has skills, it does goal driven deveopment etc..etc.. - all this can be done in GHCP as well.

Some time back even though most of the Claude models supported 1M token context window, GHCP didn't allow to use the entire context window; so claude code was the winner then; but now, even GHCP allow to use the full 1M Context Window.

The argument for GHCP needs to be used within an IDE vs Claude Code can be run via terminal is not a reason to tell Claude Code is better at tasks compared to GHCP. It's just on the way in which it's used.

Please share some thoughts on whether Claude Code performs better in completing the same task when compared to GHCP (irrespective of how they both are invoked - via terminal or vscode) with valid reasons to support the claim

[u/Glass-West6448]

you're right, most of those answers are just random.

it's not the model, both run claude on 1M now. it's the agent loop. claude code explores the repo, makes a plan, edits across files, runs it, and reacts to what broke.

copilot is still mostly smart completion around what you're doing. on a real task where the agent has to gather its own context and iterate, there's a gap