I'm Kaviyarasu Viswanathan, founder of Oryxen — a free index of 36,000+ AI, developer, open-source and SaaS tools with honest pros, cons, alternatives and freshness dates on every listing. This is a practical guide, not a product pitch.
Every month, another developer tells me the same story: they subscribed to an AI coding assistant, the bill crept up, and they can't tell you whether it was worth it. GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Codeium, Continue, Cline — they all look the same in a demo. The price tags don't.
The truth is, your AI coding assistant bill is a directory problem. You're comparing pricing pages in tabs instead of comparing tools side by side. Let's fix that with actual numbers.
The 2026 pricing reality, in one table
| Tool | Individual plan | Team plan (per seat) | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Pro ~$10/mo | Business ~$19/seat/mo | Yes — free completions for verified students, plus a limited free tier |
| Cursor | Pro ~$20/mo | Business ~$40/seat/mo | Yes — a free tier with capped requests |
| Windsurf | ~$15/mo | ~$30/seat/mo | Yes — limited credits |
| Codeium | Free individuals | ~$25/seat/mo | Yes — generous free tier |
| Continue / Cline | Free (open source) | Self-hosted / BYOK | Yes — bring your own API key |
Now do the team math nobody shows you:
- 10 developers on Copilot Business: 10 × $19 × 12 = ~$2,280/year
- 10 developers on Cursor Business: 10 × $40 × 12 = ~$4,800/year
That's a $2,500+/year gap before you factor in usage pools, overage credits, or the add-ons every vendor quietly sells you. And the free tier story is just as uneven: Copilot's free tier covers light use, Continue and Cline cost you nothing if you bring your own key, and Codeium's free tier is genuinely usable for individuals.
The sticker price is never the whole price. That's why this is a comparison problem, not a shopping problem.
4 questions to ask before you pay for any AI coding assistant
1. Does it fit your editor, or does it make you fit its editor?
Cursor is its own VS Code fork — you get a great agent experience, but you live in Cursor's house. Copilot, Codeium, Continue and Cline live inside the editor you already use. If your team has 40 extensions and custom keybindings, migrating editors is a hidden cost that dwarfs the subscription.
2. How deep is the agent mode?
There's a real split here. Copilot's agent mode, Cursor's agent, Cline and Windsurf's Cascade can run multi-step tasks: read files, run commands, fix their own errors. Autocomplete-only tools are cheaper but solve a smaller problem. Match the depth to your work: if you're generating tests, autocomplete suffices; if you're delegating refactors, you need an agent.
3. How far does the free tier actually go?
"Free tier" means very different things. Count the completions or agent requests per month, check whether fast requests cost extra, and look at what happens when you hit the cap — some tools throttle, others upsell. Open-source Continue and Cline sidestep this entirely: the software is free, you pay your model provider directly.
4. How hard is it to leave?
Watch for lock-in vectors: custom configuration formats, stored context and memories that don't export, and team admin dashboards that become the source of truth for who has a license. A tool with a fair price and an open export is worth more than a tool with a slightly cheaper price and a roach-motel signup.
How to compare instead of guessing
This is the part where I tell you what I actually built, because it's the workflow I wish I'd had: open two or three candidates and compare AI coding tools side by side — pricing class, honest pros and cons, top alternatives, and the date each record was last re-tested — instead of flipping between marketing pages.
On Oryxen every listing shows the same facts in the same layout: what it costs, what's good, what's bad, what the alternatives are, and when we last checked. No paid placements, no auction for ranking. There's also a full categories index if you want to browse beyond coding assistants — 9 categories, 36,000+ tools.
The habit that saves real money: before any subscription, spend 15 minutes comparing pricing class + free-tier depth + alternatives. You'll either confirm your choice or find a cheaper tool that does 95% of the job.
FAQ
Is GitHub Copilot still the cheapest serious option?
For individual developers, yes — ~$10/mo Pro with a genuinely useful agent mode, and ~$19/seat for teams. If your team is already on GitHub, the Business tier is the easiest renewal conversation you'll ever have.
Should I just use Continue or Cline for free?
If you're comfortable managing your own API keys and model costs, the open-source route is the cheapest way to get agent-level coding help. The trade-off is setup and maintenance: no team admin panel, no managed SSO, no one to call.
How often do these prices change?
Constantly. Every listing on Oryxen carries a freshness date, and we re-test records every quarter — because a pricing table from last year is how you end up paying $4,800 for something that should cost half that.
Compare before you commit. Your future invoice will thank you.
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