# GitHub Copilot 571 Hacker News commenters recommended GitHub Copilot and 993 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months; owners who said how long report a median of 1 years (46 owners). **Verdict:** Recommended as a cheap way to use many AI models with smooth VS Code integration and autocompletion, though critics resent tightening request limits, pricing changes and ads in PRs. ## Why people recommend it - Cheap pricing, strong value (7 comments): "Also, per-seat price includes usage and the cost of extra usage is identical to going direct with model providers. I'd say it makes sense." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48772085)) "GitHub gives you like $20 for free per month and I think they have a deal with the larger vendors because their pricing is insanely cheap." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45968872)) "Github's pay per prompt pricing model is phenomenal for users to the point of blowing Anthropic's subscription offering out of the water" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47679796)) - Choice of multiple models (5 comments): "Staying in the market and providing multi-model and harness options (Claude and Codex usable in Copilot) is good for the market, even if you don't use it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47859858)) "The cheapest still very useful alternative I've found is GitHub's Copilot at €10/m base price, with multiple models included." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47287105)) "With copilot at least you can choose cheaper models if things get too expensive and restrict them in the worst case." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49844670)) - Helpful inline autocompletion (4 comments): "It is kind of alright, I use mostly on VS when coding C# or C++, for code completions, error analysis, check code quality and such." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46918160)) "I actually like Copilot autocompletion for side projects, because I can build something and still save a massive amount of time" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50154329)) "I have found AI that autocompletes (like the GitHub Copilot VS code extension) to be more effective in these scenarios" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49392944)) - Smooth IDE and chat integration (4 comments): "The workflow that GitHub has for prompting agent inside the ide itself is by far and away the nicest and most intuitive I've used." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47643744)) "You’re not locked into vscode. There are plugins for other IDEs, and a ‘copilot’ cli tool very similar to Claude Code’s cli tool." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47707670)) "Just selecting text and directly asking the chat. Or seeing the generated code in the ide to accept it reject it. It's neat." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47205562)) ## What people warn about - Tightening limits and pricing changes (4 comments): "I have been so far happy with the value that Copilot brought but for the past few weeks I have felt the chokehold on the number of requests." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47710667)) "Looks like I'm ending my subscription, good (likely too good, no way my account was even remotely within profitable range) access to opus-4.6 was the only reason I used this at all." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47838920)) "It's the typical land grab: start off decent, win people over, build a moat, then start shaking everybody down in the most egregious way possible." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47523823)) - Inserts ads and unwanted content (2 comments): "Instead of polluting PRs, Copilot will insert comments and logging and text fields and buttons with links to web sites with helpful product tips" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47583833)) "If Microsoft is willing to put ads into your PRs via Copilot like this, imagine what they could put into your codebase itself with Copilot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47572817)) - Suggestions that don't really work (3 comments): "It tends to go off the rails pretty quickly if things start going badly wrong, but it can complete simple tasks with supervision." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45926548)) "The Copilot bot we use on GitHub slows down PR reviews by recommending changes that look reasonable yet either don't really work or negatively impact performance." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46928637)) "I assume and I had an idea that maybe copilot could get it working to interface with some more modern software and it just didn't really have what it takes." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48529077)) ## Alternatives hackers recommend - [oh-my-pi](https://hackerapproved.com/p/oh-my-pi.md): 104 recommend - [Grok Build CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/grok-build.md): 66 recommend - [DeepSeek Harness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/deepseek-harness.md): 63 recommend - [Claude Code VS Code extension](https://hackerapproved.com/p/claude-code-vs-code-extension.md): 31 recommend - [Antigravity CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/antigravity-cli.md): 31 recommend ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://github.com/features/copilot) ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "GitHub Copilot", https://hackerapproved.com/p/github-copilot/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).