On free tier, GitHub Copilot is $ 0 USD, 2,000 completions per month and Cline is Free, the open-source extension. On cheapest paid plan, GitHub Copilot is $ 10 USD per user / month (Pro) and Cline does not publish it. On team plan, GitHub Copilot does not publish it and Cline does not publish it. On past the included usage, GitHub Copilot is GitHub AI Credits, $15 monthly total credits for Pro and Cline is You pay for inference, at cost, or on your own key. ToolDrift sells neither of these and takes no referral fee on either, it scores them. Every figure was read off the named company's own page on or since 2026-09-18; the URLs and the dates are at the foot of this page, and a job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when a figure is no longer on the page it came from.
| COMPARED ON |  GITHUB COPILOT |  CLINE |
|---|---|---|
| Free tierwhat the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words | $ 0 USD, 2,000 completions per month"Access to Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more", Copilot CLI, community support, no credit card.github.com, read 18 September 2026 | Free, the open-source extension"You only pay for AI inference on a usage basis - no subscriptions, no vendor lock-in."cline.bot, read 18 September 2026 |
| Cheapest paid plan | $ 10 USD per user / month (Pro)Adds the cloud agent and code review, unlimited completions, and third-party agents, the page names Claude Code and Codex. Pro+ is $ 39 USD and Max is $ 100 USD.github.com, read 18 September 2026 | not publishedThere is no paid subscription tier to name. The only plan beside Open Source is Enterprise, priced "Custom".cline.bot, read 18 September 2026 |
| Team plan | not publishedThe plan grid carries a "For businesses" tab, and this page's own text prices only the individual plans, Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. Nothing readable on it prices Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise.github.com, read 18 September 2026 | not publishedEnterprise is the team offering and its price is "Custom", the page's call to action is "Contact Sales".cline.bot, read 18 September 2026 |
| Past the included usagewhat the vendor says happens when the plan's allowance runs out, the line that decides the real bill, and the one no headline price includes | GitHub AI Credits, $15 monthly total credits for ProCredits are consumed by chat, agent mode, code review and the cloud agent. Pro+ carries $70 of monthly credits and Max $200.github.com, read 18 September 2026 | You pay for inference, at cost, or on your own key"You can bring your own API keys from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others. This gives you complete control over your costs and usage."cline.bot, read 18 September 2026 |
Pick GitHub Copilot when
The code already lives in GitHub and you would rather add a line to an invoice you are already paying than start a new vendor relationship. Copilot is the cheapest paid tier in this table at $ 10 USD per user / month, it is the only one whose agent runs inside pull requests and code review natively, and it is the one your procurement department has already approved.
Pick Cline when
You want the agent's costs to be your model bill and nothing else, and you want to see every token it spends. Cline is open source, charges no subscription at all, "Pay only for AI inference on a usage basis - no subscriptions, no vendor lock-in", and it runs against Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, Bedrock and Vertex, so nobody between you and the model is taking a margin you cannot see.
GitHub Copilot vs Cline, free tier?
GitHub Copilot: $ 0 USD, 2,000 completions per month. "Access to Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more", Copilot CLI, community support, no credit card. Cline: Free, the open-source extension. "You only pay for AI inference on a usage basis - no subscriptions, no vendor lock-in.". Read from github.com and cline.bot on 2026-09-18. Free tier here means what the vendor gives you at $0 a month, in its own words.
GitHub Copilot vs Cline, cheapest paid plan?
GitHub Copilot: $ 10 USD per user / month (Pro). Adds the cloud agent and code review, unlimited completions, and third-party agents, the page names Claude Code and Codex. Pro+ is $ 39 USD and Max is $ 100 USD. Cline does not state it on cline.bot. There is no paid subscription tier to name. The only plan beside Open Source is Enterprise, priced "Custom". Read from github.com and cline.bot on 2026-09-18.
GitHub Copilot vs Cline, team plan?
GitHub Copilot does not state it on github.com. The plan grid carries a "For businesses" tab, and this page's own text prices only the individual plans, Free, Pro, Pro+ and Max. Nothing readable on it prices Copilot Business or Copilot Enterprise. Cline does not state it on cline.bot. Enterprise is the team offering and its price is "Custom", the page's call to action is "Contact Sales". Read from github.com and cline.bot on 2026-09-18.
When should I pick GitHub Copilot, and when Cline?
GitHub Copilot, The code already lives in GitHub and you would rather add a line to an invoice you are already paying than start a new vendor relationship. Copilot is the cheapest paid tier in this table at $ 10 USD per user / month, it is the only one whose agent runs inside pull requests and code review natively, and it is the one your procurement department has already approved. Cline, You want the agent's costs to be your model bill and nothing else, and you want to see every token it spends. Cline is open source, charges no subscription at all, "Pay only for AI inference on a usage basis - no subscriptions, no vendor lock-in", and it runs against Anthropic, OpenAI, Gemini, OpenRouter, Bedrock and Vertex, so nobody between you and the model is taking a margin you cannot see.
| COLUMN | PAGE | WHAT IT SUPPLIED | READ |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | github.com | Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Team plan, Past the included usage | 18 September 2026 |
| Cline | cline.bot | Free tier, Cheapest paid plan, Team plan, Past the included usage | 18 September 2026 |
- GitHub Copilotgithub.comFree tier, Cheapest paid plan, Team plan, Past the included usageREAD 18 SEPTEMBER 2026
- Clinecline.botFree tier, Cheapest paid plan, Team plan, Past the included usageREAD 18 SEPTEMBER 2026
Every cell above names the exact page it was read off, the day it was read, and a literal string that must still be on that page for the figure to hold. A job re-fetches each one on a schedule and fails when the string is gone, which is the difference between a table that is checked and one that was written once.