# AI coding assistants: what AI models recommend, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "AI coding assistant" and as "AI pair programming tool", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/developer/ai-coding-assistants/

**Standing:** GitHub Copilot leads with 67% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 48 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| # | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | GitHub Copilot | 67% | 13% | 70 |
| 2 | Windsurf | 10% | 19% | 26 |
| 3 | Cursor | 4% | 19% | 52 |
| 4 | Cline | 4% | 8% | 12 |
| 5 | Amazon Q Developer | 2% | 17% | 35 |
| 6 | Aider | 2% | 17% | 12 |
| 7 | Tabnine | 0% | 5% | 39 |
| 8 | Claude Code | 0% | 14% | 28 |

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Claude, GitHub Copilot
- GPT-5.4 mini: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Augment Code; alternatives GitHub Copilot, Tabnine
- Perplexity Sonar: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Cursor, Sourcegraph Cody
- Grok 4.1 Fast: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, Tabnine
- Mistral Small: Cursor, GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude Code
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
- Llama 4 Maverick: Cursor, GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Cursor
- Kimi K2: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Tabnine, Windsurf
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
- MiniMax M2.5: GitHub Copilot; alternatives Claude, Claude Code, Cursor

## Sources the answers cite

64 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- axify.io: 24 answers, 24 citations
- dev.to: 20 answers, 25 citations
- memeburn.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- augmentcode.com: 16 answers, 26 citations
- daily.dev: 12 answers, 13 citations
- learn.g2.com: 12 answers, 12 citations
- layer3labs.io: 11 answers, 12 citations
- zapier.com: 11 answers, 11 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://axify.io/blog/the-best-ai-coding-assistants-a-full-comparison-of-20-tools (24 answers)
- https://memeburn.com/best-ai-coding-tools (18 answers)
- https://learn.g2.com/best-ai-coding-assistants (12 answers)
- https://daily.dev/blog/best-ai-coding-assistants-comparison (10 answers)
- https://pricepertoken.com/coding-assistants (10 answers)
- https://zapier.com/blog/ai-coding-tools (10 answers)
- https://layer3labs.io/guides/best-ai-coding-tools-for-business (9 answers)
- https://tech-insider.org/best-ai-coding-assistants-2026 (9 answers)
- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/ai-code-assistants (8 answers)
- https://cledara.com/blog/best-ai-tools-for-business (7 answers)

## Warned against

- Cursor: 10 of 52 labels negative. "avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- GitHub Copilot: 9 of 70 labels negative. "You should generally avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Windsurf: 5 of 26 labels negative. "avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)
- Amazon Q Developer: 6 of 35 labels negative. "Exercise caution when using any AI assistant (including GitHub Copilot, JetBrains AI, or Amazon Q)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.