Google's AI-powered coding tool is now free to use
What's the story
Google has launched a free version of its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered coding tool, Gemini Code Assist, for individual developers around the world.
The move is part of the tech giant's strategy to make advanced AI coding assistants more accessible to a broader audience which includes students, hobbyists, and freelancers.
Ryan J. Salva, Google's Senior Director of Product Management said this will allow users to learn coding more efficiently and modify their existing applications without needing assistance from multiple sources.
Competitive edge
It offers generous usage limits
What sets Google's Gemini Code Assist apart from other free coding assistants is its generous usage limits.
While others only allow 2,000 code completions a month, Google offers up to 180,000 code completions every month.
The limit is so high that "even today's most dedicated professional developers would be hard-pressed to exceed it."
The tool is a direct competitor to GitHub Copilot, which also offers a free user tier but with more restrictive usage limits.
Tool capabilities
Advanced features and compatibility
The individual version of Gemini Code Assist is powered by Google's advanced Gemini 2.0 AI model.
It can generate complete code blocks, provide real-time code completion, and offer general coding assistance through a chatbot interface.
The tool is compatible with popular developer environments like Visual Studio Code, GitHub, and JetBrains.
It supports all publicly available programming languages and lets developers give instructions using natural language.
Language support
Gemini Code Assist supports multiple languages and chat inputs
Gemini Code Assist presently supports 38 languages and can accommodate up to 128,000 chat input tokens in the token context window.
This feature refers to the amount of text or "tokens" that can be processed or "remembered" while generating a response.
However, do note that some advanced business-focused facilities are only available in the Standard and Enterprise versions of Gemini Code Assist, not in the free individual tier.