About GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot — GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that uses the OpenAI Codex to suggest code and entire functions in real-time, right from your editor. It is designed to increase developer productivity and accelerate the pace of software development. Copilot integrates with leading editors, including Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, and Neovim, and is natively built into GitHub.
Top use cases
- Accelerating software development
- Improving code quality and security
- Onboarding developers to new codebases
- Automating repetitive coding tasks
- Generating code from natural language descriptions
- Finding and fixing bugs
- Designing new features
- Improving legacy code
Built for
Key features
- Real-time code completion
- Natural language to code suggestions
- Integration with popular IDEs
- Codebase indexing and understanding
- Vulnerability prevention system
- Chat interface for codebase conversation (Enterprise)
- Documentation search and summaries (Enterprise)
- Pull request summaries (Enterprise)
- Code review skills (Enterprise)
- Fine-tuned models (Enterprise)
Pros & cons
Pros
- Increased developer productivity
- Improved code quality and security
- Faster onboarding to new codebases
- Reduced time spent on mundane and boilerplate code
- Integration with popular IDEs
- IP Indemnity (with filtering enabled)
- Chat interface for codebase conversation (Enterprise)
- Documentation search and summaries (Enterprise)
- Pull request summaries (Enterprise)
- Code review skills (Enterprise)
- Fine-tuned models (Enterprise)
Cons
- Potential for insecure code suggestions if not carefully reviewed
- Reliance on public code for training may lead to copyright concerns
- May not work as well with languages that have less representation in public repositories
- Requires a paid subscription for full functionality
- Suggestions may not always be accurate or relevant
- Requires good testing and code review practices
Pricing
Copilot Business
$19/ user
Code completions, Chat in IDE and Mobile, CLI assistance, Security vulnerability filter, Code referencing, Public code filter, IP indemnity, Enterprise-grade security, safety, and privacy
Copilot Enterprise
$39/ user
Everything in Copilot Business, plus: Chat personalized to your codebase, Documentation search and summaries, Pull request summaries, Code review skills, Fine-tuned models
Copilot Individual
$10/ month
Code completions, Chat, and more for indie developers and freelancers. Free for verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open source projects.
Frequently asked questions
What is GitHub Copilot?
GitHub Copilot is an AI pair programmer that suggests code and entire functions in real-time, right from your editor.
What languages, IDEs, and platforms does GitHub Copilot support?
GitHub Copilot is trained on all languages that appear in public repositories and is available as an extension in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Vim, Neovim, the JetBrains suite of IDEs, and Azure Data Studio. It is also supported in terminals through GitHub CLI and will soon be natively integrated into GitHub web and mobile.
What data has GitHub Copilot been trained on?
GitHub Copilot has been trained on natural language text and source code from publicly available sources, including code in public repositories on GitHub.
Does GitHub Copilot “copy/paste”?
No, GitHub Copilot generates suggestions using probabilistic reasoning. It examines the code in your editor and makes a probabilistic determination of what is likely to come next.
Does GitHub Copilot use Prompts or Suggestions to train AI models?
No, GitHub Copilot does not use Prompts or Suggestions to train AI models. These inputs are not retained or utilized in the training process of AI models for GitHub Copilot.
Can GitHub Copilot introduce insecure code in its suggestions?
Yes, GitHub Copilot can synthesize code that contains insecure coding patterns. GitHub has launched an AI-based vulnerability prevention system to block insecure code patterns in real-time. You should always use GitHub Copilot together with good testing and code review practices and security tools.
Who owns the suggestions provided by GitHub Copilot?
GitHub does not claim ownership of a suggestion. Whether a suggestion generated by an AI model can be owned depends on many factors.
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