The short answer
- Cline's community migration guide moves 1 kind of data in full and 1 partly; 3 things stay behind. What moves
- 5 public accounts of making this switch: 2 switched, 1 evaluated, 1 gave up, 1 switching. Read them
What GitHub Copilot and Cline cost
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, as stored in the Stackcut catalog. Each price links its source.
| Plan | Billed monthly | Billed yearly (per month) | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot Pro | $10/mo | not shown | 1,000 base + 500 flex = 1,500 AI credits/mo; unlimited completions |
| GitHub Copilot Pro+ | $39/mo | not shown | 3,900 base + 3,100 flex = 7,000 AI credits/mo; premium models |
| GitHub Copilot Max | $100/mo | not shown | 20,000 AI credits/mo (10,000 base); priority premium models |
| GitHub Copilot Business | $19/user/mo | not shown | $19 per granted seat; 1,900 AI credits per user/mo |
- GitHub Copilot free plan: 2,000 completions per month; auto model selection only; limited agents; an allowance of AI credits github.com
- Cline free plan: Free for individual developers cline.bot
Cline's plans aren't in the Stackcut catalog yet; check Cline's own site.
Moving from GitHub Copilot to Cline
What Cline's importer carries over, what it leaves behind, and any help it offers switchers.
To Cline
Community guide copilot-alternatives.com · Tools: Cline VS Code extension, Model provider API key (Anthropic/OpenAI/Google)
Moves: VS Code settings, keybindings, extensions (full); custom instructions (.github/copilot-instructions.md) (partial). copilot-alternatives.com
Doesn't move: Inline autocomplete (Cline has none; pair with a free Tab-completion source); Months of accumulated Copilot custom-instruction context (the guide warns against deleting it without remapping first); GitHub Issues-to-draft-PR automation, if Copilot is fully cancelled. copilot-alternatives.com
Watch out for:
- No importer exists: every tool uses a different instructions file, so remapping is manual copilot-alternatives.com
- Cline and Kilo Code provide no inline autocomplete at all copilot-alternatives.com
- Guides referencing Continue.dev are stale: it was acquired by Cursor and shut down in June 2026 copilot-alternatives.com
Community guide tech-insider.org · Tools: Cline VS Code extension (saoudrizwan.claude-dev)
Moves: custom instructions (.github/copilot-instructions.md) (partial). tech-insider.org
Doesn't move: Flat GitHub invoice: billing becomes self-managed provider API spend; Instructions tuned to one model may need rewording for another. tech-insider.org
Watch out for:
- BYOK hides real cost inside a provider dashboard you may not check daily tech-insider.org
- GPT-5.3-Codex behaves differently from Claude Opus on the same prompt; instructions may need rewording tech-insider.org
From each destination's own migration docs and switching pages, plus community write-ups where no official guide exists, each checked against its page. Confirm terms on the linked page before you rely on an offer.
People who moved from GitHub Copilot to Cline
5 public accounts of leaving GitHub Copilot: 2 switched, 1 gave up, 1 switching, 1 evaluated. Summaries are ours; each links the original, and each was checked against its page before it appeared here.
A Copilot Pro user ran the cost comparison himself: he tried Cline's agent with a direct Claude Sonnet 4 API key but found the Copilot route slightly cheaper for the same model, so he stayed on Copilot and asked others for their numbers. A cost-driven evaluation that did not turn into a switch. Reddit
Testing inside Cline, the developer found identical models produced decent output via OpenRouter or other APIs but broken output when routed through the Copilot Pro license via the VS Code LM API. They now route everything through other providers and are on the verge of cancelling Copilot Pro. Reddit
After several days comparing the Copilot agent preview against Cline (local Qwen 14B and Sonnet 3.5 via Copilot API), the developer stuck with neither: Cline's exit-condition handling and buggy checkpoint UI eroded trust, and both agents failed on nonstandard environments. Kept chat-and-autocomplete workflow. Reddit
A developer who started on GitHub Copilot, briefly tried Windsurf, then switched to Roo Cline (a Cline fork) and reported being genuinely amazed, with co-workers agreeing Copilot was 'just improved autocomplete'. Destination is the Cline lineage rather than Cline itself. Reddit
A 24-engineer Swiss FinTech replaced its Copilot-only standard with a hybrid stack in four weeks: Cursor for all devs, Claude Code for 8 seniors, and Cline BYOK on a self-hosted Apertus 70B for compliance-critical banking repos. Velocity rose 41% and review wait fell 63%; Cline covered the sovereign-repo niche, not the whole migration. (Vendor-published case study.) mazdek
How to leave GitHub Copilot
Export first, then cancel. Every step links the vendor's own help page, checked on the date shown.
How to leave GitHub Copilot
Export first
- No export path documented yet.
Cancel
- Profile picture → Settings → Billing and licensing → Licensing (or Plans and usage) → GitHub Copilot → Manage subscription → Cancel subscription.
- Takes effect
- At the end of the current billing cycle.
- After you cancel
- You're moved to Copilot Free.
FAQ
Can I move my GitHub Copilot data to Cline?
Cline's community guide moves: VS Code settings, keybindings, extensions; custom instructions (.github/copilot-instructions.md). It doesn't move: Inline autocomplete (Cline has none; pair with a free Tab-completion source); Months of accumulated Copilot custom-instruction context (the guide warns against deleting it without remapping first); GitHub Issues-to-draft-PR automation, if Copilot is fully cancelled. copilot-alternatives.com
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