AI Coding Assistance, Where Developers Need It, at No Cost

Developers typically spend the majority of their time writing code within integrated development environments (IDEs).

The new, free version of Gemini Code Assist, available in Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs, provides individual developers with the same code completion, generation, and chat capabilities that have been offered to businesses for over a year, and are already available for free in Firebase and Android Studio. This means that anyone can now more easily learn, create code snippets, debug, and modify existing applications without having to switch between different windows for assistance or copy and paste information from disconnected sources.

Furthermore, with the most generous usage limit of 90 times more code completions per month compared to other popular free coding assistants, developers of all levels can benefit. If you’re a student working on a time-sensitive project, you won’t have to worry about your coding project coming to a halt due to hitting a cap, or be concerned about chat limits interrupting your pair-programming sessions.

The individual version of Gemini Code Assist comes with a generous token context window, supporting up to 128,000 input tokens in chat. This large context window allows developers to work with large files and provides Gemini with a broader understanding of their local codebases.

The chat feature also enables developers to focus on the creative aspects of development, while leaving the necessary but repetitive tasks, such as writing comments or automated tests from requirements, to Gemini.

Developers can use natural language in a variety of languages in Gemini Code Assist to generate, explain, and improve code. For instance, a freelance website developer could quickly obtain code with a prompt like, “Create a simple HTML form with fields for name, email, and message, and add a ‘submit’ button.” Alternatively, someone looking to automate routine tasks could ask Gemini to “Write a script that sends a daily email with the latest weather forecast” or “Explain what this Python code snippet does and identify any errors.”