Google Launches Free AI Coding Assistant With Generous Limits

Google has launched Gemini Code Assist, a free AI-powered coding assistant designed to help developers write, debug, and understand code. This tool, available as a public preview, allows users to communicate in natural language with an AI model that can edit and analyze codebases.  Integrated with popular coding platforms like VS Code and JetBrains through plugins, Gemini Code Assist supports multiple programming languages. It provides 180,000 code completions per month—90 times more than GitHub Copilot’s free tier—along with 240 daily chat requests, offering developers a more extensive free experience. Google’s AI model behind this tool, based on Gemini 2.0, has been fine-tuned for coding applications. It features a 128,000-token context window, over four times larger than competitors, enabling it to process more complex codebases in a single prompt.  Google is also launching Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, an AI-powered code review agent that automatically scans pull requests for bugs and offers recommendations directly within GitHub. This move positions Google as a strong competitor to Microsoft and GitHub in the AI developer tools market. Google has been selling Gemini Code Assist to businesses for about a year, with enterprise plans offering additional features like audit logs and private repository integration. The company is now focusing on attracting developers early in their careers by providing a free AI assistant with generous usage limits.  Google hired Ryan Salva, a former GitHub Copilot lead, to advance its developer tooling strategy. Salva expects that many developers who start with the free version may later transition to paid enterprise plans. By offering a free AI assistant with high usage caps, Google aims to build long-term relationships with developers and strengthen its position in the AI-powered coding space. Developers can sign up for the public preview starting today.