Claude Code and GitHub Copilot solve different problems. Claude Code is infrastructure: the agent runs in the terminal, reads your entire repo as context, and can execute multi-file edits, tests, and commits in one session. It stops being a chat tool the moment you run it headless on a cron job. GitHub Copilot is primarily completion and review integration: inline suggestions in your editor, chat in your IDE, and Agent Mode that can convert a small GitHub issue into a PR. Both are useful. They do not actually compete.
Pick Claude Code if your workflow looks like 'I have a large refactor across twenty files' or 'I want a nightly job to regenerate the docs and ship a PR.' Pick GitHub Copilot if your workflow is 'I need inline completions inside my editor and I am already on GitHub Enterprise.' Copilot's entry cost is near zero. Claude Code's entry cost is real but it earns that cost back the moment you run your first headless batch.
For most mature teams, the answer is both. Run Copilot for completions and review comments. Run Claude Code for the multi-hour autonomous work. The two are not in tension because they live in different places: Copilot is your keyboard layer, Claude Code is your background worker layer. Do not pick one at the expense of the other. If you must pick one and you do not live in the terminal, Copilot. If you do live in the terminal and you have multi-file work that repeats, Claude Code.