Gemini Code Assist - The Code tool from Google to Challenge GitHub Copilot

Google's latest research at DORA highlights a major shift in software development—more than 75% of developers now rely on AI in their daily work. At Google, AI is already playing a huge role, with over 25% of all new code being generated by AI before being reviewed and accepted by engineers.

While big organizations have the resources to equip their developers with cutting-edge AI tools, that’s not always the case for students, hobbyists, freelancers, and startups. And with the global developer population expected to reach 57.8 million by 2028, Google believe AI should be accessible to everyone—regardless of their budget. After all, AI-driven coding is fast becoming the new standard.

To close this gap, they introduced the public preview of Gemini Code Assist for individuals—a free AI-powered coding assistant.

AI-Powered Development with Gemini 2.0

Gemini Code Assist for individuals is available worldwide and runs on Gemini 2.0. It supports all publicly available programming languages and is fine-tuned specifically for coding. They have trained it on real-world use cases to improve the quality of AI-generated recommendations, helping developers—from hobbyists to startup teams—tackle their daily coding challenges with ease.

Unlike other free coding assistants that limit users to just 2,000 code completions per month, they have offered something far more generous. With Gemini Code Assist, individuals get up to 180,000 code completions per month—a limit so high that even the most dedicated professional developers would struggle to reach it.

But AI isn’t just about speeding up coding—it’s about improving quality too. Code reviews are essential but often time-consuming, which is why they have also rolled out Gemini Code Assist for GitHub. This AI-powered tool offers free, intelligent code reviews for both public and private repositories, reducing the time spent on manual reviews.

AI Coding Assistance, Right Where You Need It

Developers spend most of their time in IDEs, so they have made sure Gemini Code Assist integrates seamlessly with Visual Studio Code and JetBrains IDEs. Now, individual developers can access the same AI-driven code completion, generation, and chat features that businesses have been using for over a year. These features are also available for free in Firebase and Android Studio, helping developers learn, debug, and refine their code more efficiently without switching between multiple windows.

And with an industry-leading usage limit—90 times higher than other free coding assistants—developers won’t have to worry about hitting a cap mid-project. Whether you’re a student racing against a deadline or a freelancer juggling multiple clients, you’ll have uninterrupted access to AI-powered assistance.

Gemini Code Assist also supports a generous context window, handling up to 128,000 input tokens in chat. This allows developers to work with larger files and ensures the AI understands their broader codebase.

The built-in chat feature further simplifies development, letting users focus on creative problem-solving while leaving repetitive tasks—such as writing comments or generating test cases—to Gemini.

Developers can also use natural language prompts to generate, explain, and refine code. For example, a freelance web developer could type, “Create a simple HTML form with fields for name, email, and message, plus a submit button,” and get instant results. Or someone automating a daily task might ask, “Write a script that emails me the latest weather forecast each morning.”

Smarter Code Reviews with Gemini Code Assist for GitHub

Code reviews are one of the most critical but time-consuming parts of development. With Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, developers can streamline this process. The AI automatically detects stylistic issues, bugs, and suggests fixes, making repositories more maintainable and improving overall code quality.

Since different teams have different coding standards, Gemini Code Assist for GitHub allows users to customize its review process. Teams can add a .gemini/styleguide.md file to their repository, instructing Gemini to follow specific best practices, frameworks, or conventions.

Get Started Today

Whether you’re a student experimenting with JavaScript, a freelancer building client projects, or a startup developer testing ideas, Gemini Code Assist is here to help—free of charge.

Getting started is easy—just sign up with a personal Gmail account (no credit card required) and install Gemini Code Assist in Visual Studio Code, GitHub, or JetBrains IDEs.

As they continue refining Gemini Code Assist, they would love to hear your feedback. You can submit it directly through the “Send feedback” form in your IDE or via GitHub.

For those looking for advanced capabilities like productivity analytics, AI customization with private repositories, or integrations with Google Cloud services like BigQuery, they also offer Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise.

The future of development is AI-powered, and with Gemini Code Assist, that future is available to everyone.