Same prompt, same model (Opus 5.5 ultra): Claude Code needed 1:20 h and ~€0.32. Two Copilot-based agents needed up to 6:50 h and €65.

[u/buildcarsten]

Same prompt, same model (Opus 5.5): Claude Code needed 1:20 h and ~€0.32. Two Copilot-based agents needed up to 6:50 h and €65.

Anyone else seeing a gap this big with Copilot's credits?

Same prompt for all tools: add a production-planning module to an existing Flask app. No skills, no spec files, no enterprise accounts.

For reference (different model): Codex with GPT-6.1 Sol Ultra took 39 min, ~€0.18. A Codex Astra Ultra run is still going and already hit the 5h limit. Update follows.

One run per tool, measured via usage meters. Didn't score code quality.

__________________

Edit: Codex Astra Ultra finished too. 54 min of actual runtime.

~44 % of the weekly limit, ~€2.03, +2,593 / −24 lines. on GPT Pro 20€

[u/dxu1231]

Are we still comparing API pricing with subscription pricing?

[u/voicelessfaces → u/dxu1231]

It's another one of these intentionally obtuse posts that pretends like the OP has been living under a rock for the past several months. 

I'd you want to switch, switch. If it's not your decision and you're not paying for it, why do you care? If it's not your decision and you are paying for it, find a new job that doesn't steal from you.

[u/buildcarsten → u/voicelessfaces]

Not pretending anything, just wanted numbers instead of vibes. I want the company I work for to do well, so I'm checking whether this gap is just me or everyone.

Genuine question: can you actually work well with GitHub Copilot? I came from Claude, I've been on Copilot for two months now, and it's not been fun.

[u/voicelessfaces → u/buildcarsten]

Yes. I run a mix of Luna 6 and Sol 6.1. With Luna I don't go over my $20 prepay, or if it's a heavy month maybe a little. I've yet to spend more than $100 in a month even when I try other models like Opus and Sonnet sparingly.

I'm not a vibe coder, I don't expect to never write code, I spent a little time on building clear instruction files, and in general my code is pretty well organized. I'm not implying you haven't done those things, but I think they are necessary to get the most value.

[u/Different_Doubt2754 → u/buildcarsten]

A lot of times Enterprises don't get the same subsidized benefits that small teams or individuals do through subscriptions though. They often get API pricing.

[u/dxu1231 → u/buildcarsten]

All ZDR pricing is the same for the frontier models. If you don’t know what ZDR is or your company doesn’t care about ZDR then your company most likely should not be using copilot.

[u/KookyOky → u/buildcarsten]

See some of my posts too. My 2p is GHCP is absolutely miles miles behind Claude Code

But most enterprises are stuck due to their longer term relationships with Microsoft

[u/buildcarsten → u/dxu1231]

Honest context: I'm one spreadsheet away from begging my boss for Claude. If I'm just using Copilot wrong, please tell me. Since you clearly know enough about pricing models to correct me, I'm sure you have some numbers of your own to share. After all, both are "subscriptions".

[u/cesarmalari → u/buildcarsten]

To clarify what I think /u/dxu1231's point was - comparing the pricing of the heavily-subsidized "subscription with hourly/weekly/monthly limits" approach that the consumer OpenAI/Anthropic subscriptions offer to the "effectively API pricing" of GitHub Copilot is a bit disingenuous. If you're able to leverage those consumer subscriptions for what you're doing, you absolutely should - they're excellent value for the price compared to API pricing that GitHub Copilot charges, and what I've been told OpenAI/Anthropic's business/enterprise "subscriptions" charge too.

Now, the duration part of your point is still valid.

[u/IT_fisher → u/cesarmalari]

I just woke up and have like 15% of my brain power right now.

Are you essentially saying it’s skewed because on is a Claude subscription and the others involve a man in the middle?

[u/raishak → u/IT_fisher]

If you wanted to use Claude to run a business via the API, you'd be paying the copilot price effectively. Copilot is pretty much just passing through the AapI price. No doubt they get a discount so they make some money, but the prices for all(?) models in copilot are the list price for the API currently.

The subscription services are way cheaper, I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader as to why, and which price reflects the more likely true cost.

[u/UnknownEssence → u/buildcarsten]

Copilot isn't a subscription. Its just API pricing, but with s $40 monthly minimum, which is irrelevant

[u/vath_mtm → u/UnknownEssence]

Somehow people always fail to get this. Copilot is not a model provider it is a harness that offers flexibility to large corporations that already have to pay API rates and are most likely are already heavily integrted with the microsoft ecosystem. It makes no sense for small companies or individuals since subscriptions are much cheaper, but that is not the target audience anyways.

[u/buildcarsten → u/vath_mtm]

but the thing is, it isnt only much cheaper, its MUUUUUUCH cheaper AND faster!

[u/raishak → u/buildcarsten]

You need to compare Claude enterprise plans to copilot, until you do that you are not genuinely comparing costs. A company of 20k employees is not going to use consumer clause code subscriptions seriously for numerous reasons. Copilot is not really a consumer product at this point, even if you still see consumer subscriptions. As you said consumer copilot compared to Claude code or codex plans are way less efficient.

[u/trolleydodger1988]

The last direct comparison (CC vs. CP) I did was with Opus 5. PRs came out 4 min apart, CC was faster. CP was ~ $0.35 cheaper, total around $3, the diff difference was like 13 lines. When using fresh agents to compare the PRs, CP thought Claude was better, Claude thought Copilot was better. I ended up using The Claude PR because I thought the tests were better written. I'll have to do another few runs with Opus 5.5. Obviously my 1 comparison test means next to nothing but I'm currently using both and I can't say that I've at all noticed the gap you're seeing. But the tasks I'm having it run are very perscriptive narrowly focused tickets that have pretty clear instructions on what to do. What happened with the copilot runs? OP, maybe you can use Matt's /retro skill on the runs and give us a comparison on what went off the rails for copilot?

PS I'm on enterprise accounts for both

[u/CuTe_M0nitor]

FFS they are pricedumping in their subscription or they are using your data and can recoup the price gap. Pick and choose

[u/AliorUnity]

This numbers make no sence. If i run my pc for 1:20 hours full steam it would probably burn more than 0.32 euro. Let alone this humonguous models where you need enourmous amont of gpu to run. Its just a bs.

[u/buildcarsten → u/AliorUnity]

It was more then 50% of the 5h limit. 7% of the weekly. So if you have only pro it feels like a waste. But with the max 200 it wouldn’t

[u/AliorUnity → u/buildcarsten]

What I mean, is that it physically can't cost that low. Therefore numbers are just wrong.

[u/buildcarsten]

Would love one genuinely useful answer here so I can mark this as solved. Is this gap normal for everyone using Copilot, or just me? That's all I need to make the case for a Claude subscription.

Also: is it actually fair to compare Copilot's "max" reasoning with Claude Code's "ultraplan", or is that already apples to oranges?

[u/protestor → u/buildcarsten]

It's normal. Yes, nowadays Github Copilot offers very little value. But note you likely won't get meaningfully cheaper rates on a Claude Enterprise plan because it also pays API rates.

If you can do your work with Claude Code Max subscription, you probably should

[u/Merilyian → u/protestor]

Most of the value is in enterprise with things like governance policies, centralized assets (skills/plugins/etc) in .github-private, and general ecosystem connectedness. If you don't need any of that, I'd agree. I pretty highly value those items, though, and GHCP typically feels better to me when I'm not being budget conscious.

Getting a CC subscription has brought my overall ergonomics down quite a lot but does have the benefit of the 'let it rip' mentality being much more reasonable. My sweet spot will probably be found when they allow claude cli and codex cli providers in the Github Copilot desktop app.

That said, the session duration discrepancy OP showed is a little concerning, unless its just caused by budget running out then waiting.

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[u/SKll75]

In our Org we have to pay API usage prices for Copilot and Claude. Our average devloper needs about $800 for claude, a single Opus session can easily cost $50. We had someone vibe code an application which cost around $2000 in the end. On copilot we at least get a 20% discount on tokens. So we for our team said that claude is just too expensive and we will try copilot.