Key Takeaways
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Gemini Code Assist is now available to all developers at no cost
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The free version offers 180,000 completions per month, 90x more than other competitors
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The free Gemini Code Assist collects user prompts and code to train Google’s AI models, with manual opt-out needed
In a move to make AI-powered development more accessible, Google made a free version of its Gemini Code Assist tool available for all on February 25.
In the blog post announcement, Senior Director of Product Management Ryan J. Salva explained that the decision was made to close the gap between developers who rely on paid tools and those who can’t afford them.
“We think AI should be available to them whether they can pay for it or not, so they can start building with what are quickly becoming the standard digital tools of the future,” Salva wrote.
According to research by DORA, more than 75% of developers use AI in their daily responsibilities. The population of developers is also set to grow by 9.3% between 2024 and 2028. With this in mind, Google made the bold decision to make its coder available to everyone — and it’s a move that clearly sets it apart from others on the market.
What’s In the Free Version?
Most AI-powered coding assistants require a subscription, but Google’s free version removes that barrier for hobbyists, students, freelancers, and startups that may not have the budget for software or full teams.
Gemini Code Assist is officially available through three tiers:
- Free Plan: No credit card needed
- Standard Plan: $22.80/user/month ($19/user/month annually)
- Enterprise Plan: $54/user/month ($45/user/month annually)
Now, devs from all walks of life can make requests like “Generate a Python script that scrapes news headlines from a website” or “Debug this code and suggest a fix” and get highly trained responses.
But perhaps the most impressive feature is its extremely high usage limits:
- Completions: Gemini Code Assist’s free tier offers up to 180,000 completions per month, 90 times more than GitHub Copilot’s 2,000 completion limit, allowing up to 6,000 requests per day
- Context Window: Supports up to 128,000 input tokens for natural language chats, equivalent to around 96,000 words (though the number may vary slightly based on Google’s conversion)
“[It’s] a ceiling so high that even today’s most dedicated professional developers would be hard-pressed to exceed it,” Salva wrote.
Before You Dive In
Some have noted Gemini Code Assist is slower than expected: A user on Reddit wrote, “Even when it works, it seems slower than GitHub Copilot. But it is great to have an alternative and I am sure it will improve with time.”
Of course, Google said it will continue refining Gemini Code Assist based on user feedback like this. Developers can share their thoughts directly within their IDE or via GitHub.
Additionally, Gemini Code Assist’s free version apparently collects “your prompts, context code and responses to train AI models” to improve Google’s own machine learning models.
Developers can opt out, but they’ll have to do it manually, and it looks like it’s hidden within the Individuals Privacy Notice instead of an external setting.
Whether this move is a way to gain free AI-training data or to challenge the paywalled developer tool model — or both — interested users can sign up with their Gmail account and install Gemini Code Assist directly in their favorite IDE.
