Github and Google both offer code assistants fed by artificial intelligence supposed to improve developer productivity. Comparison of the main differences.
In 2025, Github Copilot and Gemini Code Assist became essential tools for developers. After several months of successive evolution, they truly transform the productivity of development teams. To help you choose between one and the other, we have compared the main features, the native compatible FDI, the underlying models, and the pricing of the two offers.
IDE: 1 point for Github Copilot
This is one of the main criteria of choice: the availability of the AI assistant in its development environment (IDE). Gemini Code Assist is still quite limited. Natively, AI is available in the Google code ecosystem. Namely in Cloud Sheell Editor, Cloud Workstations and in Android Studio. However, it is possible to use it in Visual Studio Code (Microsoft) and in all Jetbrains IDE (Intellij Idea, Pycharm, Goland, Webstorm, Clion, Datagrip, Phpstorm, Rider, Rubymine).
On the GitHub Copilot side, the choice is wider. The AI is natively available with Visual Studio Code (VS code), Visual Studio Ide, Les Ide de Jetbrains (Intellij Idea, Pycharm, Goland, Webstorm, Android Studio, Appcode, Clion, Datagrip, Dataspell, Jetbrains Customer, MPS, Phpstorm, Rider, Rider, Rustrover, Writers) Studio, Vim and Neovim, Eclipse (Oracle) and Xcode (in chat mode only). Github Copilot therefore largely wins on versatility thanks in particular to many partnerships.
Features: 1 Everywhere
Gemini Code Assist uses the entire active code in the IDE with open files to have a global view of the context. The AI allows you to generate code blocks from a quick, to make automatic completion, generate unit tests and question a cat. Notable point, AI also cites the sources used when it uses existing source code or web pages.
On the GitHub Copilot side, it is also possible to make automatic completion and generate code blocks. The AI also has a cat, such as Gemini Code Assist, to question the code, explain extracts or generate unit tests. It is also possible to modify several files at a time. Finally, the code generated can be filtered to use only new code and not available publicly on Github. Correspondence with code already produced on GitHub can also be displayed.
Models: 1 point for Gemini Code Assist
This is the main difference between GitHub Copilot and Gemini Code Assist: The engine model used by AI. As its name suggests, Gemini Code Assist directly takes advantage of the Gemini family of Deepmind. If Google does not communicate the exact version of the model, it is a safe bet that the tool uses Gemini 2.5 Pro, currently the best model for code generation in benchmarks (number one on the webdev Arena in particular). The most interesting being that the model used supports up to 1 million context tokens. Enough to include already quite heavy development projects (from 50,000 to 100,000 lines of code).
Github Copilot was initially based on the Codex model of Openai. But with the progress of GPT-4O of the same Openai, Github has changed its engine model. The tool now uses GPT-4O COPILOT, a fine-tuned version by GPHUB from GPT-4O Mini. The chat version of the tool (used to ask questions or generate code blocks) can request the choice: the GPT-4 family (4o, 4.1, 4.5), the Claude d’Anthropic family (3.5 Sonnet, 3.7 Sonnet, 3.7 Sonnet Thinking), Gemini 2.0 Flash, Gemini 2.5 Pro and new models of Openai reasoning (O1, O3, O3, O4-mini). The choice is therefore potentially more important, even if the version of Gemini used is surely not fine-tuned for the code (by remaining very efficient, however).
Prices: It all depends on the profile!
Github as Google offer affordable prices. But depending on your profile (occasional non -professional use, professional use or business use), the price can quickly vary from single to double.
Google offers three different formulas:
- Gemini Code Assist for Individuals (free) with 6,000 requests related to the code and 240 cat queries per day. The data (prompt, code) is collected to cause Google AI models. The use is therefore not suitable for professional use.
- Gemini Standard Assist Code (19 dollars per month per user with annual commitment or $ 22.80 per month without commitment) allows the tool to be used unlimited with enterprise level security and compensation in the event of an intellectual property violation.
- Gemini Enterprise Assist Code (45 dollars per user per month with annual commitment or $ 54 per user without obligation) for all standard assist code features with the possibility of personalizing code suggestions using company code deposits, the use included of GEMINI in APIGEE, and all the features included by Gemini Cloud Assist.
|
For individuals |
Standard |
Enterprise |
|
|---|---|---|---|
|
Price |
Free |
$ 19/month (annual) $ 22.80 (monthly) |
$ 45/month (annual) $ 54/month (monthly) |
|
Code requests |
6,000/day |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
|
Cat requests |
240/day |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
|
Professional use |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
Security Company Level |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
IP violation compensation |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
Company Code Personalization |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
|
Use in APIGEE |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
|
Gemini Cloud Assist included |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
Github Copilot offers an even more complex offer:
- GitHub Copilot Free (free) with 2,000 completions per month, up to 50 “premium” (cat) queries per month. Note that the code does not seem to be used for the training of models.
- Github Copilot Pro (10 dollars per user and per month or 100 dollars per year) with unlimited completions, 300 “Premium” requests per month.
- Github Copilot Pro+ (39 dollars per user and per month or 390 dollars per year) with 1,500 premium requests and priority access to the most powerful AI.
- Github Copilot Business (19 dollars per user and per month) designed for large companies with all pro functionalities, centralized management, more fine control of security policies and compensation for potential IP violations.
- Github Copilot Enterprise (39 dollars per user and per month) with all business features, customization of COPILOT on the company code, and 1000 “Premium” requests per user per month.
|
Criteria |
Free |
Pro |
Pro+ |
Business |
Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Price |
Free |
$ 10/month $ 100/year |
$ 39/month $ 390/year |
$ 19/month |
$ 39/month |
|
Code completions |
2,000/month |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
|
Premium requests |
50/month |
300/month |
1,500/month |
300/month |
1,000/month |
|
Unused code for training |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
Priority access to powerful AI |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
❌ |
✅ |
|
Centralized management |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
Security Political Control |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
IP violation compensation |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
✅ |
|
Company Code Personalization |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
❌ |
✅ |
How to choose the ideal code assistant?
The choice between Github Copilot and Gemini Code Assist is not a matter of winner or loser, but rather of profile and specific needs. For individual developers and occasional users, Gemini Code Assist stands out with a generous free offer with 6,000 code requests and 240 chat requests per day, all with the most efficient code generation model on the market.
On the business side, the match is tighter: Google offers Gemini with an impressive capacity of one million context tokens, while Github offers extensive compatibility with many ideas and a diversity of models for its cat tool. The two solutions also offer protections against intellectual property violations. The final choice will therefore depend mainly on the FDI used and the technological affinities of each team or developer.
