What to know

  • GitHub Copilot is a paid tool recommended for professional developers due to its ability to learn from habits and suggest lines of code accordingly.
  • ChatGPT is free and a generalized solution that can help generate code with explanations, making it recommended for beginners and users learning to code.
  • ChatGPT can help generate code and follow up on it in a particular conversation, but once the conversation is lost, it cannot continue without a special prompt.
  • GitHub Copilot uses Machine Learning to constantly learn from code and behavior, improving suggestions over time.

In 2023, the prevailing trend has been the utilization of AI tools, such as ChatGPT, Dall-E, Notion AI, and others, which offer a range of capabilities for generating images, text, content, and more, depending on your specific requirements. ChatGPT is an impressive AI chatbot that can undertake a variety of tasks, including producing executable code, prompting developers to compare its effectiveness against the widely-used GitHub Copilot.

As a developer in search of the right AI assistant, this article will provide you with all the information you need to make an informed decision about these two AI assistants.

What is GitHub Copilot

Copilot is an AI-powered assistant developed by GitHub that uses machine learning to auto-complete your code in the current project. GitHub Copilot has been developed using OpenAI and supports Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, Neovim, and IDEs. This allows you to start a project and then use GitHub Copilot to generate further code depending on your needs and requirements.

Copilot uses Machine Learning to intelligently analyze your code and generate further suggestions to complete it. Copilot can help streamline repetitive code, which can help you focus on the project at hand. Copilot supports the following programming languages, which makes it a versatile tool for most users.

  • Python
  • JavaScript
  • TypeScript
  • Ruby
  • Go
  • PHP
  • Swift
  • Kotlin
  • Rust
  • C#
  • C++
  • Java
  • HTML/CSS
  • SQL

This is not a comprehensive list, as GitHub is constantly improving Copilot and adding more and more languages to the AI assistant. This list can change in the future and include more languages.

What is ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI-powered chatbot from the house of OpenAI. It uses OpenAI’s popular large language models (LLMs), GPT-3.5, and GPT-4, to generate text and content based on provided prompts. The chatbot can perform various tasks, including generating content, code, scripts, articles, research papers, and more.

You can also prompt the chatbot to assume different roles and then respond to your messages accordingly. This makes ChatGPT a versatile tool not only for developers but other professionals as well that are looking to automate mundane and repetitive tasks. Here are the programming languages supported by ChatGPT.

  • Python
  • Java
  • JavaScript
  • C++
  • Ruby
  • PHP
  • Swift
  • Kotlin
  • Rust
  • TypeScript
  • Go
  • Perl
  • SQL 

ChatGPT vs Copilot

When comparing both tools, GitHub Copilot is the recommended AI assistant for professional developers. This is because Copilot can learn from your habits over time and then suggest lines of code accordingly. Copilot provides improved suggestions over time as it learns from your habits, making it invaluable once you have been using it for a while. 

ChatGPT, on the other hand, is a generalized solution that can also help generate code with explanations. It is recommended for beginners and users learning to code, as the chatbot can help explain the suggested code as well as make corrections based on your feedback. 

Another factor that separates these two AI assistants is the cost. GitHub Copilot requires a paid subscription while offering a 60-day trial period. ChatGPT, on the other hand, is completely free to use, making it a great choice for users just starting out. On the other hand, Copilot is thus recommended for professionals looking to invest in an AI assistant that helps automate their daily tasks so that they can focus on the current projects and meet deadlines easily. 

Lastly, ChatGPT can help you generate code and follow up on it in a particular conversation. Once the conversation is lost or deleted, you won’t be able to continue on the project unless you create a special prompt in the previous conversation so that ChatGPT can remember and follow up on the project.

On the other hand, GitHub Copilot uses Machine Learning to constantly learn from your code and behavior so that it improves over time. As time passes, Copilot will improve its suggestions and get exceptionally good at its responses and suggestions.

We hope this post helped you easily learn about ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot and choose the best AI assistant for your coding needs. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out to us using the comments below.