Google has launched a free version of its AI-powered coding assistant, Gemini Code Assist for Individuals, as part of its push to compete with Microsoft-owned GitHub in the developer tools market.
The company also introduced Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, an AI-powered code review tool designed to automatically detect bugs and provide suggestions within GitHub pull requests.
Gemini Code Assist for Individuals allows developers to interact with Google’s AI model in a chat-based interface, enabling natural language discussions about code. The tool can identify and fix bugs, complete unfinished code, and explain complex sections of a codebase—similar to GitHub’s Copilot.
Powered by a specialized version of Google’s Gemini 2.0 AI model, the assistant supports multiple programming languages and integrates with popular development environments such as **VS Code and JetBrains through plugins.
Google’s new offering stands out by providing significantly higher free-tier limits than GitHub Copilot. Developers can access 180,000 code completions per month, 90 times more than Copilot’s free plan, which caps usage at 2,000 completions per month
Additionally, Gemini Code Assist for Individuals includes 240 daily chat requests, nearly five times the number offered in GitHub Copilot’s free tier.
The AI model backing the tool also boasts a 128,000-token context window, allowing it to process much larger codebases than its competitors. This enables more sophisticated reasoning over complex projects, a feature Google highlights as a key advantage.
Developers can sign up for the free public preview of Gemini Code Assist for Individuals starting Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Gemini Code Assist for GitHub aims to streamline the software development workflow by automatically scanning pull requests, identifying potential bugs, and providing AI-powered recommendations.
The launch of these tools comes as Google intensifies its competition with Microsoft and GitHub in the AI-driven developer ecosystem. In a strategic move, Google hired Ryan Salva, the former head of GitHub Copilot, to lead its developer tooling efforts seven months ago.
By offering a free, high-usage AI coding assistant, Google hopes to attract early-career developers and eventually convert them to paid enterprise plans, which offer additional features such as audit logs, integrations with Google Cloud, and customization for private repositories.
Google has been selling Gemini Code Assist to businesses for the past year and is working on further integrations with platforms like GitLab, GitHub, and Google Docs.
