GitHub Copilot vs Supermaven (2026): The Safe Default vs the Ghost of the Fastest Autocomplete

Pricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).

Reviewed: 28 June 2026 by Adam · Category: Coding & Development

The tension

This comparison is unusual, because only one of these tools still exists.

GitHub Copilot is the incumbent. It is owned by GitHub, owned by Microsoft, and it sits inside the editor most Australian developers already open every morning. We scored it 19/25 — Very Good. It is the assistant a team standardises on without a fight: enterprise billing, an IP indemnity, a no-training guarantee on the right plan, and a vendor nobody on the risk committee has to look up.

Supermaven was the opposite pitch. It did one thing — inline autocomplete — and tried to do it faster than anyone alive. Sub-10ms completions. A million-token context window. Built by Jacob Jackson, the former lead of GitHub Copilot, who left to build something quicker than the product he started. For the solo developer who lives in completions and resents every visible pause, it was the cult pick.

Then it was acquired and switched off. Anysphere — the company behind Cursor — bought Supermaven in November 2024 and shut the standalone product down. New signups closed. VS Code users were told to migrate to Cursor. We scored it 8/25 — Below Average — because a tool you cannot buy cannot be recommended, whatever its old benchmarks said.

So the real question this piece answers is not "which is faster." It is sharper than that. The fastest, cheapest autocomplete a solo Australian dev could want is gone. What replaced it, and what should you do now? The short answer: the speed lived on — it was poured into Cursor — and the safe default never moved.

AUD pricing

GitHub bills in US dollars only. The figures below convert at US$1 ≈ A$1.40 with roughly 10% GST assumed at checkout for Australian accounts. Supermaven's pricing is shown for the record — you cannot subscribe to it.

Copilot individual pricing as of 28 June 2026, source: GitHub Copilot plans page. Business and Enterprise seat prices per GitHub's usage-based-billing announcement, verified in our Copilot review. USD only; no AUD shown; GST not stated by GitHub — confirm the GST line on your first tax invoice. Supermaven pricing is historical, source: our Supermaven review. — Wayback 29 June 2026

One change since our June Copilot review is worth flagging: GitHub has added a Max individual plan at US$100/month (~AUD$140) for very heavy agent users. Pro is still US$10 and Pro+ still US$39, so nothing changed for the developer who mainly wants completions.

The headline that matters for the solo dev: Copilot Pro at roughly AUD$14/month landed costs the same as Supermaven Pro used to. The free tier costs nothing and does real work. The "cheapest fast autocomplete" slot Supermaven owned is now filled by a product you can actually buy — and which throws in chat, an agent, and PR review on top.

Feature diff

These tools were built to different briefs. One is a workflow; the other was a single, sharp blade.

Read that table the way the two buyers would.

The team lead standardising for a department reads down the Copilot column and sees a platform: completions, chat, an agent, automated PR review, and a model picker, all inside editors the team already runs. Supermaven's column is mostly empty cells. It never tried to fill them — and a single-feature tool is a hard sell to a department that wants one invoice and one support line.

The solo dev who lives in completions reads it the other way. For them, most of Copilot's column is noise. They want the one row Supermaven won outright: raw completion latency. Supermaven's sub-10ms response was genuinely faster, and on a fast typist that is fewer interruptions, not a benchmark vanity number. Its million-token context meant suggestions matched naming and imports from across a whole project, not just the open file.

That advantage was real. It is also why Anysphere bought the company — to drop Supermaven's inference pipeline into Cursor Tab, Cursor's native autocomplete. The speed did not die. It changed owners. The solo dev chasing the fastest completions in 2026 should read our Cursor review, because that is where the engine went.

Australian fit

This is where the gap turns into a chasm — and it was already a chasm before Supermaven shut down.

Data residency. Both tools route your code to US servers; neither offers an Australian inference region. The difference is the surrounding trust apparatus. Copilot's Business and Enterprise plans contractually exclude your code from training and carry an IP indemnity, under Microsoft's SOC 2 and ISO 27001 compliance. Repository data residency exists via GitHub Enterprise Cloud. Supermaven offered none of that — US-only inference, no data processing agreement, no enterprise controls. For an Australian business with code IP or Privacy Act 2025 obligations, Copilot's posture is middling; Supermaven's was a bare cloud pipe.

A fair caution on Copilot, though: since 24 April 2026, interaction data on the individual Free, Pro and Pro+ plans is used to train models unless you opt out. Business and Enterprise are exempt. A solo developer has to change one setting to get the protection a team gets by default.

Support. Copilot carries GitHub's global support, with priority support on Enterprise. There are no AU-specific support hours, but it is a backed, staffed product. Supermaven's "support" is now a sunset notice and a redirect. Existing Neovim and JetBrains users were promised free inference "for the foreseeable future" — but with no timeline, that is a courtesy, not a service-level you can plan a business around.

GST. Neither vendor states Australian GST treatment. Expect ~10% added at checkout under Australia's imported-digital-services rules, and confirm the line is a compliant tax invoice for your accountant. On Copilot Pro that takes the landed cost to roughly AUD$14/month. Supermaven's old Pro landed at the same figure — academic now, since the subscription no longer exists.

We scored Copilot's Australian Fit 3/5 and Supermaven's 1/5. Copilot's three reflects real friction — USD pricing, no local residency, the individual-plan training change. Supermaven's one reflects a US-only product that is now also a dead one. Neither clears the Australian Fit bar of Australian Fit ≥ 4/5, so neither earns five stars or an unqualified Top Pick. That is the honest ceiling on both.

Who buys which — the verdict

Let's be plain, because two of our ten rules demand it: give a verdict, and avoid hedging.

If you are a team standardising on one assistant, buy GitHub Copilot. It is not close. The Business plan at ~AUD$27/user gives you the no-training guarantee, the IP indemnity and the Microsoft backing that get AI past an Australian risk committee. It lives in your existing editors, reviews your pull requests, and bills on one predictable invoice. Watch the new credit model if your team runs heavy autonomous agents, but for most teams the budget caps make that manageable. This is the safe default, and "safe default" is a feature, not a criticism.

If you are a solo dev who just wants the fastest, cheapest autocomplete — you have missed Supermaven, and that is fine. It is gone; do not try to adopt it. The good news is the trade you feared — pay more, lose the speed — does not exist. Start on Copilot's free tier today: ~2,000 completions a month, no card, genuinely useful. If you outgrow it, Copilot Pro is ~AUD$14/month landed, the same price Supermaven Pro used to be, with far more in the box. And if raw completion latency is the hill you will die on — if you genuinely felt Supermaven's sub-10ms edge and want it back — then the honest pointer is Cursor, because that is the literal codebase Anysphere bought Supermaven to build. Switch your editor for the speed, or stay in your editor for the convenience. Either is defensible. Supermaven is not, because you can't buy it.

The winner for the typical Australian buyer is GitHub Copilot. It wins on availability before it wins on anything else — you can actually purchase it — and then it wins again on ecosystem, enterprise billing, trust posture and price-to-value. Supermaven made a real case for speed, and that case still matters. But it is a case Cursor now argues, with a product that exists. For the team and the solo dev alike in 2026, the choice between Copilot and Supermaven is really a choice between Copilot and Cursor — and the safe money starts with the one already inside your editor.

Scores cited from our standing reviews: GitHub Copilot 19/25, Supermaven 8/25. We don't re-score in comparisons.

Frequently asked questions

Is Supermaven still available in Australia?

No. Supermaven was acquired by Anysphere (the maker of Cursor) in November 2024 and the standalone product was shut down in November 2025. New signups are not accepted. VS Code users were told to migrate to Cursor; the autocomplete technology now lives inside Cursor Tab.

Is GitHub Copilot or Supermaven better for an Australian developer in 2026?

GitHub Copilot — because it is the only one you can actually buy. We score Copilot 19/25 and the discontinued Supermaven 8/25. Copilot also wins on ecosystem, enterprise billing, trust posture and price-to-value. A solo developer who wanted Supermaven's raw completion speed should look at Cursor, which now contains Supermaven's autocomplete engine.

How much does GitHub Copilot cost in Australia?

GitHub bills in US dollars only. Pro is US$10/month, roughly AUD$14/month landed after FX and around 10% GST. There is a free tier with about 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month. Business is US$19/user/month (~AUD$27). Confirm the GST line on your first tax invoice.

Read next

• GitHub Copilot review (Australia, 2026)
• Supermaven review — acquired and shut down
• Cursor review (Australia, 2026)
• Cursor vs GitHub Copilot
• Category guide: Best AI Coding Tools in Australia 2026

Sources

1. GitHub — Copilot plans and pricing (Free/Pro/Pro+/Max individual prices, free-tier limits) — github.com/features/copilot/plans — Wayback: archived 29 Jun 2026 — checked 28 June 2026. (Same-day re-capture was rate-limited by the Wayback save endpoint on 28 Jun 2026; the 29 Jun snapshot reflects the same current pricing.)
2. Supermaven — "Sunsetting Supermaven" (shutdown, refunds, migrate-to-Cursor guidance) — supermaven.com/blog/sunsetting-supermaven — Wayback: archived 17 Mar 2026 — checked 28 June 2026.
3. GitHub Copilot review, The AI Directory Australia (19/25; Business/Enterprise seat pricing, training-policy and IP-indemnity detail) — /github-copilot-review-australia-2026 — checked 28 June 2026.
4. Supermaven review, The AI Directory Australia (8/25; acquisition timeline, AU-fit assessment) — /review-supermaven-australia-2026 — checked 28 June 2026.

AUD conversion: USD × 1.40, with ~10% GST assumed at checkout (USD × ~1.705 landed). Exchange rate approximate as of September 2026. GST treatment is not confirmed by either vendor — Australian businesses should verify the tax-invoice line.

The AI Directory Australia is an independent editorial publication. We don't accept payment for positive reviews. Read our Methodology and Affiliate Disclosure.

Reviewed by Adam for The AI Directory Australia.