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AI coding assistants · November 2026 Edition

Tabnine vs Cursor

Zero of fourteen models named Tabnine first on the direct prompt; zero named Cursor. Tabnine was named by twelve of the fourteen models and Cursor by fourteen and Tabnine carries 39 labels and Cursor 63, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Tabnine

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

Cursor

criticized challenger

Named in three categories this edition.

First-choice share2%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate3%25%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#3#4A position in a field of 11; printed, not drawn.
Labels3963A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Tabnine reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.GitHub Copilot was named alongside these two in thirteen of the fourteen direct answers. GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine · GitHub Copilot vs Cursor · Windsurf vs Tabnine

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the AI coding assistants page.

By framing

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
TabnineFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCursor
Direct001 against Cursor
Paraphrase001 against Cursor
Comparative06
Budget-constrained115 against Cursor
Scale-constrained00
Negative201 against Tabnine · 9 against Cursor
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the November 2026 Edition, Tabnine and Cursor were named in the same answer seventy-nine times, of the 106 answers naming Tabnine and the 184 naming Cursor. In those answers Cursor took the first choice nine times and Tabnine five.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Tabnine and Cursor stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.20
Mistral Small
DeepSeek V4 Flash
Llama 4 Maverick
Qwen 3.7 Flash
Kimi K2
GLM 4.7 FlashX
MiniMax M2.5
GPT-6 Luna
Muse Glimmer 30B
Tabnine Cursor first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Tabnine on the left and Cursor on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Tabnine and Cursor stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

13 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
GPT-5.4 miniGitHub Copilot Business or Enterprise alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Cursor
Gemini 3.5 FlashGitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, Tabnine, Windsurf
Perplexity SonarGitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code, Cursor, Tabnine
Grok 4.20GitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Anthropic, Claude Code, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist
Mistral SmallGitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code, Cursor, Superblocks
DeepSeek V4 FlashGitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Sourcegraph Cody
Llama 4 MaverickGitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf
Qwen 3.7 FlashGitHub Copilot alternatives: Anthropic, Augment Code, Claude Code, Cursor
Kimi K2GitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Tabnine
GLM 4.7 FlashXGitHub Copilot alternatives: Tabnine, Windsurf
MiniMax M2.5GitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Claude Code, Cursor, Sourcegraph Cody
GPT-6 LunaGitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code, Cursor
Muse Glimmer 30BGitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine

Neither was named

1 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5Claude, GitHub Copilot

Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Cursor leads by twelve points.
Cursor12%#2 of 9
Tabnine0%#6 of 9
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Level: the same share of first choices.
Tabnine2%#3 of 11
Cursor2%#4 of 11
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
Level: the same share of first choices.
Tabnine0%#4 of 9
Cursor0%#7 of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What the models said about Tabnine

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Four of five in this category shown.

“cloud versions still risk data exfil. Some studies show similar vuln introduction rates.” Grok 4.20 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Explicitly commits to not storing or training on user code, even in free tiers. Supports fully air-gapped deployments.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“Cursor (free tier or Pro) or Tabnine (free tier) are excellent starting points” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
“Self-hosted/air-gapped options; explicit "code never trains our models" policy” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · first choice

What the models said about Cursor

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.

“Verdict: Use with extreme caution, especially without enterprise controls and Privacy Mode explicitly enabled.” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · hard negative
“Cursor's pricing page indicates model usage can be billed separately at list price for third-party models, which can make spend less predictable.” GPT-5.4 mini · budget prompt · soft negative
“Be particularly cautious with: Autonomous agent modes in tools such as Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Aider, Devin, and Copilot Workspace” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“Pick Cursor or Windsurf if: You want the most seamless experience for multi-file refactoring and rapid feature generation” Gemini 3.5 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“If you want the most powerful AI experience and don't mind switching editors → Go with Cursor.” DeepSeek V4 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
“Cursor is currently the dominant choice due to its seamless balance of power and ease of use” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
Also compared

Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.