GitHub Copilot vs. ChatGPT: Which Is Better for Programming?

GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT are two of the most popular AI programming aids available. They use the same GPT large language model and are capable of generating, suggesting, and checking code.

So, which one should you be using?

What Is GitHub Copilot?

GitHub Copilot is an AI-powered code completion tool developed by GitHub in collaboration with OpenAI. With the power of GPT-4, it provides real-time code suggestions as you type, helping to streamline the coding process. It is a paid service that you can easily use with most popular environments, including Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Vim/Neovim, Azure Data Studio, and JetBrains.

What Is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is OpenAI's chat-optimized AI chatbot. While not specifically designed for programming assistance like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT’s strength lies in its ability to comprehend and generate text in a manner that closely mimics human language.

This makes it a good programming tool as it can help clarify concepts, provide explanations, and even generate pseudocode based on user input. ChatGPT is a versatile tool. You can use it for non-coding tasks like planning, brainstorming, and problem-solving, all of which are useful in software development.

Comparing GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT

So, which AI tool should you use for programming? Here’s a break-down of the strengths and weaknesses of each tool:

Aspect	GitHub Copilot (Individual)	ChatGPT-4	ChatGPT-3.5 Turbo
Code Completion	Accurate. Offers real-time suggestions as you type.	Manual. Generates text based on user prompts.	Manual. Generates text based on user prompts.
Language Support	Wide range of programming languages.	Primarily focused on human language.	Primarily focused on human language.
Code Understanding	Analyzes code context for accurate suggestions.	Requires users to input all related code for accurate suggestions.	Requires users to input all related code for accurate suggestions. Loses accuracy after 4,000 token limit.
Learning Capabilities	Automatically adapts to coding patterns within project.	Learns from user interactions.	Learns from user interactions.
Customizability	Limited customization options. Only interested in code.	Highly flexible and customizable. Can use extensions to increase capability.	Limited. Can only use user customization option.
Availability	Unlimited.	Limited. Currently at 40 prompts per 3 hours.	Unlimited
Use Case	Code writing and completion.	Text generation, concept clarification.	Text generation, concept clarification.
Price (Monthly)	10 USD	20 USD	Free

GitHub Copilot Is Best for Programming

The main reason to use GitHub Copilot for programming is its advanced code suggestions. By fine-tuning GPT-4 with a vast repository of code from open-source projects, and further customizing suggestions based on what you’re currently working on, GitHub Copilot provides code suggestions that fit your project.

GitHub Copilot can save you a lot of typing by providing contextually correct suggestions:

Aside from advanced code completion, you can also use GitHub Copilot for refactoring, helping you write cleaner and better code. And since it’s integrated into your programming environment, it’s more quickly available than a web app like ChatGPT. This saves you time and concentration, especially over long coding sessions.

To make a request, simply highlight your code, click on the “twinkle/star” icon, and provide your instructions:

Your subscription to GitHub Copilot also comes bundled with GitHub Copilot Chat. You can use it to ask coding questions, debug your program, and generate new lines of code. GitHub Copilot Chat generates usable code that will be a good fit for your project:

If your primary focus is on programming, and you're looking for a tool to help you with writing, debugging, and refactoring code, GitHub Copilot is the clear choice. Its ability to generate accurate and contextually relevant code snippets can significantly speed up development workflows and reduce coding errors.

Furthermore, its integration with popular IDEs, multi-language support, and collaborative coding system ensures GitHub Copilot works well on any team-based project. Whether you're programming for a passion project or a team player in a large company, GitHub Copilot provides advanced AI capabilities that make coding fast and easy.

ChatGPT Is Better for Learning

While ChatGPT may not match GitHub Copilot's prowess in code completion, it excels in other aspects outside of programming. It can be an invaluable tool for designing and brainstorming your project.

If you’re learning to code, you can prompt ChatGPT to generate pseudocode to help you explore different solutions for a specific problem.

Here’s how ChatGPT provided a way to query the minimum, maximum, and average price of products within a collection class:

If you’re looking at a snippet of code you don’t quite understand, you can also use ChatGPT to reverse engineer it:

When it comes to understanding concepts or getting a detailed explanation of a coding topic, ChatGPT excels. Its ability to generate human-like responses makes it an ideal learning tool that any programmer can use. Whether it's a complex algorithm or a programming principle you're trying to grasp, ChatGPT can break it down into understandable parts.

What’s great about ChatGPT is that it offers a completely free version that you can use throughout your learning process. Of course, a paid subscription does have extra benefits like better response quality and plugins. But overall, as long as you employ prompting techniques, the free version should work fine as a learning tool.

You Can Always Use Both

Why choose between GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT when you can use both to your benefit? Integrating these tools into your workflow can offer the best of both worlds.

Use GitHub Copilot for code completion and ChatGPT to understand concepts and reinforce learning. Both together should provide enough help for you to program a well-thought-out project you’ll be happy to show off.

If you’re a student, you can benefit from free access to GitHub Copilot. Combine that with OpenAI’s already free ChatGPT-3.5 Turbo, and you’ll have both tools without paying a cent!

A monthly GitHub Copilot subscription and the freely available ChatGPT-3.5 should provide enough assistance for both personal and professional projects. If you still feel like you need that slight edge, then shelling out extra for useful ChatGPT plugins may also be worth the investment.

There Are Alternatives

Though GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT have become the most popular AI tools used in software development, there are also alternatives worth exploring. For code completion and generation, tools like TabNine and Codeium offer similar functionality to GitHub Copilot.

Aside from Claude AI, there are no really good alternatives to ChatGPT unless you want to spend time setting up a local chatbot. In that case, you may be interested in chatbots like GPT4All, Nvidia Chat with RTX, and the various BERT models using TextGen WebUI.

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