---
title: "Cursor vs GitHub Copilot — AI hype compared · Above the Fog"
canonical_url: https://abovethefog.app/compare/cursor-vs-github_copilot
as_of: 2026-10-29
updated: 2026-10-30T16:24:07Z
---

# Cursor vs GitHub Copilot

[Home](https://abovethefog.app/index.md) › [Compare](https://abovethefog.app/compare.md) › Cursor vs GitHub Copilot

[Cursor](https://abovethefog.app/topics/cursor.md) and [GitHub Copilot](https://abovethefog.app/topics/github_copilot.md) side by side on Above the Fog’s AI hype radar, on Oct 29, 2026: Cursor is 🚀 Rising with a hype score of 25 and GitHub Copilot is 💤 Quiet with 20. The radar’s curated relations list them as competitors.

**Data note:** 7 of the last 14 days were not collected live. No collection ran on Oct 22–Oct 28, or a later run refilled those days at once. Every hype score is measured against the 14 days before it and those days are thin, so the scores, the stages and the week-over-week theme trends may read higher than they are until they leave that window on Nov 12.

## At a glance

| Measure | Cursor | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Stage | 🚀 Rising | 💤 Quiet |
| Hype score | 25.2 | 19.7 |
| 7-day change | +20.2 | +18.6 |
| In hype since | Oct 29, 2026 | not in hype now |
| Peak, 30 days | 45.5 on Oct 13, 2026 | 20.6 on Oct 8, 2026 |
| Stories in 7 days | 167 | 71 |
| Share of voice, 7 days | 1.5% | 0.6% |
| Sources above normal | 2 of 18 | 2 of 18 |
| Category | 🤖 Agents | 🤖 Agents |

## Hype score, last 30 days

Both hype scores by day, newest first; on the page’s chart, Cursor is the solid line and GitHub Copilot the dashed one.

| Day | Cursor | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---:|---:|
| Oct 29, 2026 | 25.2 | 19.7 |
| Oct 28, 2026 | 8.9 | 8.3 |
| Oct 27, 2026 | 0.4 | 8.1 |
| Oct 26, 2026 | 0 | 0.5 |
| Oct 25, 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 24, 2026 | 0 | 0 |
| Oct 23, 2026 | 5 | 1.1 |
| Oct 22, 2026 | 5 | 1.1 |
| Oct 21, 2026 | 15.6 | 1.2 |
| Oct 20, 2026 | 22.2 | 1.8 |
| Oct 19, 2026 | 9.3 | 3.6 |
| Oct 18, 2026 | 9.6 | 0 |
| Oct 17, 2026 | 12.3 | 0 |
| Oct 16, 2026 | 40.6 | 7.4 |
| Oct 15, 2026 | 35.8 | 4.6 |
| Oct 14, 2026 | 32.6 | 16.7 |
| Oct 13, 2026 | 45.5 | 12 |
| Oct 12, 2026 | 29.5 | 11.2 |
| Oct 11, 2026 | 17.5 | 1.7 |
| Oct 10, 2026 | 35.3 | 1.4 |
| Oct 9, 2026 | 27.4 | 2.7 |
| Oct 8, 2026 | 30.9 | 20.6 |
| Oct 7, 2026 | 27.6 | 11.8 |
| Oct 6, 2026 | 28.4 | 3 |
| Oct 5, 2026 | 25.4 | 1.3 |
| Oct 4, 2026 | 26.6 | 0 |
| Oct 3, 2026 | 15.2 | 0 |
| Oct 2, 2026 | 26.6 | 0 |
| Oct 1, 2026 | 27.5 | 1.6 |
| Sep 30, 2026 | 28.4 | 0 |

## Shared themes

What the stories of both topics in the last 7 days are about, as classified by the Jev model (a story can carry several themes):

- [Agents](https://abovethefog.app/themes/agents.md) — 49% of Cursor’s stories, 77% of GitHub Copilot’s
- [Protocols & infra](https://abovethefog.app/themes/protocols_infra.md) — 16% of Cursor’s stories, 23% of GitHub Copilot’s
- [Security & safety](https://abovethefog.app/themes/security_safety.md) — 50% of Cursor’s stories, 9.1% of GitHub Copilot’s
- [Usage & adoption](https://abovethefog.app/themes/usage_adoption.md) — 11% of Cursor’s stories, 4.5% of GitHub Copilot’s
- [Models](https://abovethefog.app/themes/models.md) — 4% of Cursor’s stories, 36% of GitHub Copilot’s

## Cursor: stories behind it

1. [Backdoor in Claude Code for VS Code extension on the Cursor Marketplace](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300683) — Hacker News (phorion.io) · Oct 30 · score 230 · 328 comments
2. [Claude Code VS Code extension with backdoor released on Cursor marketplace](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50301983) — Hacker News (doublepulsar.com) · Oct 30 · score 393 · 1 comment
3. [Show HN: Arsaze – Cursor for video editing \(Tab-complete and agent edits\)](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50300618) — Hacker News (arsaze.com) · Oct 30 · score 60 · 0 comments
4. [Will agentic coding harnesses \(Claude Code, Codex, Cursor\) stay locked to their parent models, or will we get cross-model support?](https://www.reddit.com/r/Anthropic/comments/1xhzgyi/) — Reddit (r/Anthropic) · Oct 28 · score 2 · 12 comments
5. [PSA / Warning: Switched to "The X Subscription" on Cursor Ultra — Claude/OpenAI revoked, support admitted lack of transparency in writing, yet refused rollback/refund \(FTC Report filed\)](https://www.reddit.com/r/cursor/comments/1xhsrgm/) — Reddit (r/cursor) · Oct 28 · score 6 · 8 comments

## GitHub Copilot: stories behind it

1. [GitHub Copilot Fusion orchestrates between models at half the cost](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50299030) — Hacker News (twitter.com) · Oct 30 · score 6 · 0 comments
2. [GitHub Copilot app, Universe releases](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50276491) — Hacker News (github.blog) · Oct 28 · score 2 · 1 comment
3. [GitHub Copilot Fusion](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50278478) — Hacker News (github.blog) · Oct 28 · score 3 · 0 comments
4. [GitHub says Copilot Fusion, which handles model selection and orchestration, is now generally available, releases the GitHub Copilot app, and more](https://www.techmeme.com/261028/p36#a261028p36) — Techmeme (The New Stack) · Oct 28
5. [AI CodeOps vs GitHub Copilot's Coding Agent: When Each One Fits](https://dev.to/aicodeops_dev/ai-codeops-vs-github-copilots-coding-agent-when-each-one-fits-1n2b) — DEV Community (dev.to) (#ai) · Oct 30 · score 0 · 0 comments

## More comparisons

- [Antigravity vs Cursor](https://abovethefog.app/compare/antigravity-vs-cursor.md)
- [Claude Code vs Cursor](https://abovethefog.app/compare/claude_code-vs-cursor.md)
- [Cognition vs Cursor](https://abovethefog.app/compare/cognition-vs-cursor.md)
- [OpenAI Codex vs Cursor](https://abovethefog.app/compare/codex-vs-cursor.md)
- [Cursor vs OpenCode](https://abovethefog.app/compare/cursor-vs-opencode.md)
- [Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot](https://abovethefog.app/compare/claude_code-vs-github_copilot.md)
- [GitHub Copilot vs OpenCode](https://abovethefog.app/compare/github_copilot-vs-opencode.md)

---

Updated Oct 30, 2026, 16:24 UTC · Data: Above the Fog hype radar

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