GitHub Copilot CLI and Goose, fact by fact
| Fact | GitHub Copilot CLI | Goose |
|---|---|---|
| StarsGoose has 43,820 more stars (4.9×). | 11,244Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 55,064Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Newest commitBoth committed on the same day. | 7 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 | 7 Oct 20260 days old when we read itVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
| ContributorsGoose has 427 more contributors (17×). | 26Verified 8 Oct 2026 | 453Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| LicenseOther against Apache-2.0. | OtherVerified 8 Oct 2026 | Apache-2.0Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| Latest stable releaseBoth released on the same day. | v1.0.93published 7 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 | v1.53.0published 2 Oct 2026Verified 8 Oct 2026 |
| npm downloads | 1,723,666 a week@github/copilotVerified 8 Oct 2026 | not tracked for Goose |
| Repository | github/copilot-cliShellVerified 8 Oct 2026 | aaif-goose/gooseRustVerified 8 Oct 2026 |
What we know about GitHub Copilot CLI
Copilot CLI bills the agent from a dollar-denominated credit balance rather than per token: Pro carries $15 of GitHub AI Credits a month, Pro+ $70 and Max $200.
“Credits used when interacting with Copilot features. Chat, agent mode, code review, Copilot cloud agent, Copilot CLI, and Copilot Apps consume GitHub AI Credits. Free plan supports CLI and agent mode.”
Work across code and GitHub state — issues, pull requests, repositories — in one session, because the agent ships with GitHub's MCP server enabled.
“- **MCP-powered extensibility:** Take advantage of the fact that the coding agent ships with GitHub's MCP server by default and supports custom MCP servers to extend capabilities.”
Hold one very long session: at 95% of the token limit Copilot compacts the history in the background instead of stopping.
“Auto-compaction : When your conversation approaches 95% of the token limit, Copilot automatically compresses your history in the background without interrupting your workflow. This enables virtually infinite sessions.”
Agree the scope before any code is written: plan mode asks clarifying questions and produces a plan first.
“In plan mode, Copilot analyzes your request, asks clarifying questions to understand scope and requirements, and builds a plan before writing any code.”
Your employer can switch the tool off: when Copilot comes from an organization, an administrator must enable the Copilot CLI policy first.
“GitHub Copilot CLI is available with all Copilot plans. If you receive Copilot from an organization, the Copilot CLI policy must be enabled in the organization's settings.”
You cannot bring an arbitrary model: one that lacks tool calling or streaming makes the CLI return an error, and GitHub asks for a 128k context window.
“Models used with Copilot CLI must support tool calling (function calling) and streaming . If the model does not support these capabilities, Copilot CLI will return an error. For best results, the model should have a context window of at least 128k tokens.”
Model access fails in the field: a 403 on listing models is open with 30 comments, and sporadic policy blocking on model retrieval is open with 29.
“Failed to list models: 403 : unauthorized: not authorized to use this Copilot feature”
A developer with no GitHub Copilot subscription who wants an agent on day one should pick OpenCode or Crush; Copilot CLI needs an active Copilot plan.
“- An **active Copilot subscription**. See [Copilot plans](https://github.com/features/copilot/plans?ref_cta=Copilot+plans+signup&ref_loc=install-copilot-cli&ref_page=docs).”
What GitHub Copilot CLI costs
Copilot CLI is on the $0 Free plan; paid plans are Pro at $10 per user per month, Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100.
“Pro · For everyday coding with agents in GitHub Copilot. · $ 10 USD per user / month”
The Max plan is built for sustained agent work and carries $100 a month of GitHub AI Credits.
“GitHub Copilot Max is built for heavy Copilot usage, including sustained agent-driven workflows, and includes $100/month in GitHub AI Credits.”
What we know about Goose
goose is the only agent in this set governed by a foundation rather than a vendor, and it can borrow an existing Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription over the Agent Client Protocol instead of an API key.
“goose is part of the [Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF)](https://aaif.io/) at the Linux Foundation.”
Automate work that is not coding — research, writing, data analysis — on the same machine and the same agent, through the desktop app, the CLI or the API.
“goose is a general-purpose AI agent that runs on your machine. Not just for code — use it for research, writing, automation, data analysis, or anything you need to get done.”
Wire the agent into tools you already run: goose connects to 70+ extensions over the Model Context Protocol.
“Connect to 70+ extensions via the [Model Context Protocol](https://modelcontextprotocol.io/) open standard.”
Ship one configuration to a whole team: a custom distribution bundles the providers, extensions and branding before anybody installs it.
“[Custom Distributions](https://github.com/aaif-goose/goose/blob/main/CUSTOM_DISTROS.md) — build your own goose distro with preconfigured providers, extensions, and branding”
Model choice is not free: goose leans on tool calling, so a weak or local model degrades it, and the vendor names Claude 4 as the model it works best with.
“goose relies heavily on tool calling capabilities and currently works best with Claude 4 models.”
Two OpenAI reasoning models do not run at all, because they cannot call tools.
“o1-mini and o1-preview are not supported because goose uses tool calling.”
Unattended scheduling is broken in 1.45.0: headless runs die at the first tool call and a recipe's own goose_mode is ignored.
“Scheduler unusable for unattended recipes on 1.45.0: headless runs die at first tool call, recipe-level goose_mode is silently ignored, an interrupted run-now permanently wedges the job, and spawned sessions get no schedule_id”
A developer who wants the widest model catalogue in a terminal should pick OpenCode, which reaches 75+ providers from one config file.
“OpenCode uses the AI SDK and Models.dev to support 75+ LLM providers and it supports running local models.”
What Goose costs
goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key.
“Access GPT-5 Codex models optimized for code generation and understanding. Requires a ChatGPT Plus/Pro subscription.”
Questions people ask
- Are GitHub Copilot CLI and Goose still maintained?
- GitHub Copilot CLI committed to github/copilot-cli (main) on 7 Oct 2026. Goose committed to aaif-goose/goose (main) on 7 Oct 2026. Both readings come from the default branch of each repository, on the date shown beside them.
- What do GitHub Copilot CLI and Goose cost?
- GitHub Copilot CLI: Copilot CLI is on the $0 Free plan; paid plans are Pro at $10 per user per month, Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100. The Max plan is built for sustained agent work and carries $100 a month of GitHub AI Credits. Goose: goose charges nothing for itself; you pay whichever provider you configure, and it accepts a ChatGPT Plus or Pro subscription in place of an API key. Every figure here is quoted from the vendor's own page and linked beside the claim.
- Is GitHub Copilot CLI or Goose open source?
- GitHub Copilot CLI's repository github/copilot-cli reports the Other licence. Goose's repository aaif-goose/goose reports the Apache-2.0 licence. We read the licence GitHub reports for the repository, which is not the same question as whether the hosted product is free.
How we check this page
- Machine facts. Stars, contributors, the newest commit on the default branch, the licence GitHub reports and the latest stable release come from the GitHub API, and download counts from npm, PyPI, Homebrew and the VS Code Marketplace. Each value carries the day it was last confirmed, never the day this page was built. The line under each label is arithmetic on those two values.
- Judgments. Every claim about what a tool suits, what it is bad at and what it costs is quoted from a page we read, and that page is linked beside the claim. Where there is no link, we wrote no claim.
- Index status. Both GitHub Copilot CLI and Goose carry claims we read, quoted and linked. So this page is offered to search engines.
Related comparisons
Pairs we can answer for come first.
