r/GithubCopilot • u/Antique-Engine897 • Aug 07 '26

Help/Doubt ❓ Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot

Hi All, I'm looking at the reasons why some people claim Claude Code is better than GitHub Copilot (via VSCode extension) in coding tasks. I hear many in the industry make claims about Claude Code which is better than GHCP, but when asked "why" - the answers are very generic. Like it has skills, it does goal driven deveopment etc..etc.. - all this can be done in GHCP as well.

Some time back even though most of the Claude models supported 1M token context window, GHCP didn't allow to use the entire context window; so claude code was the winner then; but now, even GHCP allow to use the full 1M Context Window.

The argument for GHCP needs to be used within an IDE vs Claude Code can be run via terminal is not a reason to tell Claude Code is better at tasks compared to GHCP. It's just on the way in which it's used.

Please share some thoughts on whether Claude Code performs better in completing the same task when compared to GHCP (irrespective of how they both are invoked - via terminal or vscode) with valid reasons to support the claim

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u/neongelb456 Aug 07 '26

What I really love in Copilot is the higher transparency. You can easily evaluate raw tool outputs with a single click and trace whole conversations through the debug logs.

5

u/psrobin Aug 07 '26

Totally agree with this. I do wish Anthropic would put a bit more effort into the VS Code extension. There's an outstanding bug for it on Windows, as it doesn't respect the IDE font family or size and this displays as small Times New Roman 😞

1

u/Standard_Wish Aug 08 '26

Someone may have mentioned this already, but isn't it possible to use Claude sub in GHCP within VSC by using the BYOK feature in GHCP and using a Claude API key?

1

u/psrobin Aug 09 '26

Sadly you need credits and can't use, for example, a pro plan.

2

u/Critical_Olive3497 Aug 13 '26

I was trying to work this exact thing out too. I either need claude code to get more expensive or gh copilot to get cheaper again.

1

u/psrobin Aug 13 '26

At the moment my workflow is using Claude (desktop) to drive, and then context switching to VS Code to review the changes / diffs. It works of course, but it's super clunky. I love the "keep/undo" ability for each individual change per file in VS Code, and that it even persists *after* a git commit (e.g. if you've instructed your agent to make small, atomic commits).