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codai vs GitHub Copilot
What each one is, how it is priced, where data lives, and when GitHub Copilot is the better pick.
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In short
GitHub Copilot is GitHub’s assistant across many IDEs, GitHub.com, a CLI and a cloud agent, billed in USD with monthly AI credits. codai is one model name billed per verified task in EUR, and it plugs into VS Code Copilot Chat as a custom endpoint.
When GitHub Copilot is the better pick
Pick GitHub Copilot if your code and team already live on GitHub and you want IDE coverage, a cloud agent, code review and organisation policy controls from one vendor.
| Dimension | codai | GitHub Copilot | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is / deployment | Managed gateway (SaaS). Runs on Cloud Run in GCP europe-west1 (Belgium). One public model name: codai. | Extensions for VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, Xcode, Neovim, Eclipse, Zed and others, plus Copilot CLI, an app and a cloud agent. | |
| Open source | No. Not open source and not self-hostable. | The github/copilot-cli repository is public with a LICENSE.md; the licence type is not stated on the pages read. | |
| Wire formats | OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses and Anthropic Messages. | Bring your own key: “Manage Models” takes provider API keys; Business and Enterprise need the BYOK policy on. Pro includes third-party agents (Claude Code and Codex). | |
| Pricing model | Monthly plans in EUR: Free (5 verified tasks), BYOK €5, Starter €40 (33 tasks), Builder €100 (83), Team €300 (250). Overage €1.20 per verified task; unverified tasks are billed at raw token cost. | Free $0 (2,000 completions a month), Pro $10 (1,500 AI credits), Pro+ $39 (7,000), Max $100 (20,000), Business $19 a seat (1,900), Enterprise $39 a seat (3,900). 1 credit = $0.01; overage $0.01 a credit. | |
| Data residency | Gateway and database in the EU (europe-west1, Belgium). Model inference region depends on the upstream deployment. | GitHub.com data is stored in the US by default. GHE.com data residency offers the EU, Australia, the US and Japan, with Copilot on Business or Enterprise and some features unavailable. | |
| Routing | codai routes each request to the model best suited to it among Anthropic's current Claude models and fails over between approved deployments; the x-codai-routed-to header names the model that answered. | A model picker with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, xAI and other models, plus “Auto” model selection; Free and Student plans get auto selection only. | |
| Prompt caching | On by default for every request. | Per-token prices list “cached input” and “cache write” columns; cached tokens count toward billing. | |
| MCP | Remote MCP server (Streamable HTTP) with OAuth 2.1. | MCP on all plans, with a GitHub MCP Registry; for Business and Enterprise the “MCP servers in Copilot” policy is off by default. | |
| Billing currency / invoices | Prices and charges in EUR; invoices issued by the Romanian seller. | USD; invoiced customers pay “in U.S. Dollars” within 30 days; the customer is responsible for taxes; usage is billed in arrears. | |
| Company HQ | IMS SRL (Interactive Media Solutions S.R.L.), Târgu Jiu, Romania. | GitHub, Inc., California law, courts in San Francisco; Microsoft is named as an affiliate. |
Where GitHub Copilot’s own pages disagree
The plans page says Free has “Access to Haiku 4.5, GPT-5 mini, and more”; the plans docs say Free is “Auto model selection only”.
The copilot-cli README still says each prompt uses one premium request; the billing docs call request-based billing legacy after June 1, 2026.
Sources
- github.com/features/copilot
- docs.codai.ro/docs/gateway
- codai.ro/subprocessors
- github.com/features/copilot/plans
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans
- github.com/github/copilot-cli
- docs.codai.ro/docs/gateway/wire-formats
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/how-tos/use-ai-models/change-the-chat-model
- codai.ro/pricing
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/reference/copilot-billing/models-and-pricing
- codai.ro/security
- docs.github.com/en/enterprise-cloud@latest/admin/data-residency/about-github-enterprise-cloud-with-data-residency
- docs.codai.ro/docs/gateway/models
- docs.codai.ro/docs/gateway/headers
- docs.codai.ro/docs/gateway/clients
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/customizing-copilot/using-model-context-protocol/extending-copilot-chat-with-mcp
- codai.ro/imprint
- docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service
- docs.github.com/en/copilot/concepts/billing/copilot-requests
Facts from each vendor’s public pages on October 19, 2026; tell us at [email protected] if something changed.