# GitHub Copilot: how AI models rank it, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 70 judge labels across 1 categories by 12 of 12 models. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/github-copilot/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI coding assistants | 67% | 1 | 13% | 70 |

## What the models said for it

- "GitHub Copilot (Best Value for Money) ... Codeium's free tier or GitHub Copilot's $10/month plan offer the best balance of cost and functionality." (Claude Haiku 4.5, AI coding)
- "I'd typically recommend starting with GitHub Copilot (if you're GitHub-centric) or Codeium (for cost efficiency and privacy options) as pilots" (Claude Haiku 4.5, AI coding)
- "Start with GitHub Copilot if you're unsure. It's the safest, most widely adopted choice with the strongest enterprise security posture." (Qwen 3.7 Flash, AI coding)
- "For most mid-market B2B companies: Start with GitHub Copilot Business ($19/user/month). It offers the best balance of enterprise compliance" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, AI coding)

## And against it

- "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, AI coding)
- "Prompt injection vulnerabilities leading to arbitrary command execution (e.g., CVE-2025-53773)" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, AI coding)
- "Avoid: Free tiers of Copilot/Windsurf for proprietary code" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, AI coding)
- "GitHub Copilot cloud agent can work across repository context and GitHub warns about security risks, injection risks, and public-code matches... you should be cautious with sensitive repos." (GPT-5.4 mini, AI coding)

## 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.