Best AI for Coding in VS Code: 8 Extensions Compared for 2026

Visual Studio Code remains the most popular code editor in the world, and AI-powered extensions have become essential tools for developers who want to write better code faster. But with so many options flooding the marketplace, choosing the best AI for coding in VS Code can feel overwhelming.

We tested eight of the most popular AI coding extensions side by side — evaluating their autocomplete accuracy, chat capabilities, agent features, pricing, and overall developer experience. Whether you are a solo freelancer on a tight budget or part of an enterprise team that needs strict code privacy, this guide will help you pick the right tool.

TL;DR — Quick Picks for 2026

• Best overall: GitHub Copilot — mature ecosystem, generous free tier, and deep VS Code integration make it hard to beat.
• Best free option: Amazon Q Developer — a full-featured free tier with no time limit, especially strong for AWS workflows.
• Best for privacy-conscious teams: Tabnine — zero code retention, on-premise deployment, and enterprise compliance certifications.
• Best open-source flexibility: Continue — bring your own model, run locally with Ollama, pay nothing for the platform itself.
• Best for power users who want a full AI IDE: Cursor — an entire editor rebuilt around AI agents and multi-file editing.
• Best budget pick: CodeGPT — BYOK plan at $7.20/month gives unlimited interactions with your own API keys.

1. GitHub Copilot

GitHub Copilot is the pioneer that brought AI pair programming into the mainstream. Backed by Microsoft and OpenAI, it offers inline code completions, a chat sidebar, and — as of 2025 — a full coding agent that can tackle multi-file tasks autonomously. Its deep integration with VS Code is unsurprising given that both products come from Microsoft.

Pricing (2026)

• Free: $0/month — 2,000 completions and 50 chat messages per month
• Pro: $10/month — unlimited completions, 300 premium requests
• Pro+: $39/month — 1,500 premium requests, access to all models
• Business: $19/user/month — IP indemnity, admin controls, audit logs
• Enterprise: $39/user/month — knowledge bases, custom models, GitHub.com chat

Pros

• The free tier is genuinely usable for hobby projects and learning
• Inline completions feel natural and arrive with minimal latency
• The coding agent can create pull requests and implement features across multiple files
• Widest language and framework support of any tool on this list

Cons

• Premium model access requires Pro+ at $39/month, which adds up quickly
• The free tier’s 2,000 completion limit can run out fast for active developers
• Code context window is smaller than some competitors like Cursor

Best for

Developers who want a reliable, low-friction AI assistant that works out of the box inside VS Code. The free tier makes it a no-brainer starting point. If you are still deciding between AI coding tools, check our full best AI code assistants roundup for a broader comparison. You might also want to explore our picks for best AI code assistants.

2. Cursor

Cursor is not technically a VS Code extension — it is a standalone editor forked from VS Code’s open-source codebase. That means it looks and feels like VS Code and supports the same extensions, but it rebuilds the AI layer from the ground up. The result is a coding experience where AI agents can edit multiple files, run terminal commands, and iterate on entire features without constant hand-holding. We also cover this topic in our guide to best AI for coding.

Pricing (2026)

• Hobby (Free): Limited completions and chat, no credit pool
• Pro: $20/month — unlimited tab completions, agent mode, $20 credit pool for premium models
• Pro+: $60/month — background agents, roughly 3x the agent capacity of Pro
• Ultra: $200/month — approximately 20x the usage of Pro, priority access to new features
• Business: $40/user/month — centralized billing, SSO, admin dashboards

Pros

• Agent mode is best-in-class for multi-file refactoring and feature implementation
• Background agents in Pro+ can run tests and refactor code while you work on something else
• Full VS Code extension compatibility means you do not lose your existing setup
• Excellent at understanding large codebases and maintaining context across files

Cons

• Credit-based billing (introduced mid-2025) makes costs less predictable
• Requires leaving VS Code for a separate editor, which can disrupt team workflows
• The $20/month Pro plan is double what Copilot charges for individuals

Best for

Power users and vibe coders who want the most capable AI agent experience and are willing to pay a premium. See our Cursor vs Windsurf comparison for a detailed head-to-head.

3. Windsurf (formerly Codeium)

Windsurf rebranded from Codeium in late 2024 and has evolved into a full AI coding platform with its own IDE and VS Code extension. It introduced its proprietary SWE-1 model family specifically trained for software engineering tasks, offering a differentiated approach compared to tools that rely solely on general-purpose LLMs.

Pricing (2026)

• Free: $0/month — 25 credits, unlimited SWE-1 Lite, 1 deploy per day
• Pro: $15/month — 500 credits, SWE-1 model access, 5 deploys per day
• Teams: $30/user/month — admin tools, billing controls, priority support
• Enterprise: $60+/user/month — RBAC, SSO, hybrid deployment, 1,000 credits at scale

Pros

• SWE-1 and SWE-1 Lite cost zero credits, so basic usage is effectively unlimited
• BYOK option lets free and Pro users connect their own API keys with no credit cost
• Strong autocomplete engine inherited from the original Codeium technology
• Competitive pricing at $15/month for individuals

Cons

• The 25-credit free tier is extremely limiting — testers report burning through it in days
• Token-based billing for premium models can lead to unexpected costs on complex tasks
• The brand change from Codeium to Windsurf caused some community confusion

Best for

Developers who want an affordable AI coding assistant with solid autocomplete and the option to bring their own API keys for maximum flexibility.

4. Continue (Open Source)

Continue takes a fundamentally different approach: it is a fully open-source AI code assistant that lets you plug in any model — cloud-hosted or local. There is no vendor lock-in and no artificial feature restrictions based on what you pay. You choose your model provider, and Continue handles the IDE integration.

Pricing (2026)

• Solo: Free — all features included, you pay only for your model API costs (or nothing with local models like Ollama)
• Hub Solo: $0/month — adds agent sharing and open-source extensions
• Teams: $10/developer/month — shared configurations, team analytics, admin controls

Pros

• Completely free for individuals — no feature gating whatsoever
• Bring any model: OpenAI, Anthropic, local Ollama, Azure, or your own fine-tuned model
• Runs entirely on your infrastructure for maximum code privacy
• Active open-source community with rapid development and frequent updates

Cons

• Requires more setup than plug-and-play tools like Copilot
• Autocomplete quality depends entirely on the model you choose
• No built-in model hosting means you need to manage API keys and costs yourself

Best for

Developers who value open source, want full control over their AI stack, or need to run everything locally for privacy. Pairs well with local models for offline, air-gapped development. Python developers should also check our guide on the best AI for Python coding for language-specific recommendations.

5. Tabnine

Tabnine has carved out a niche as the enterprise-safe AI coding assistant. While it may not generate the flashiest demos, it offers something that matters deeply to regulated industries: zero code retention, SOC 2 Type II certification, and full on-premise deployment options. Your code never leaves your network if you do not want it to.

Pricing (2026)

• Starter (Free): Basic short completions only
• Dev/Pro: ~$12/month per user — full AI features, ticket-based support
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — on-premise deployment, advanced agents, priority support, minimum seat requirements

Pros

• Zero code retention and no training on your code — strongest privacy stance in the market
• SOC 2, GDPR, and ISO 27001 compliance out of the box
• On-premise deployment with your own GPUs for fully offline environments
• Named a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for AI Code Assistants

Cons

• Completion quality trails behind Copilot and Cursor for creative coding tasks
• Enterprise pricing can be significantly higher than competitors at scale
• The free tier is very limited compared to others on this list

Best for

Teams in banking, healthcare, defense, and other regulated industries where code privacy and compliance are non-negotiable requirements.

6. Amazon Q Developer

Amazon Q Developer is AWS’s AI coding assistant, evolving from the earlier CodeWhisperer product. It stands out for its generous free tier that requires nothing more than a free AWS Builder ID — no credit card, no AWS account needed. For teams already invested in the AWS ecosystem, its deep integration with AWS services provides contextual suggestions that other tools simply cannot match.

Pricing (2026)

• Free: $0/month — code completions, chat (50 interactions/month), security scanning, 1,000 lines of code transformation
• Pro: $19/user/month — unlimited completions, higher chat limits, 4,000 LOC transformation, IP indemnity, IAM controls

Pros

• The most generous truly free tier — no time limit and includes security scanning
• Exceptional AWS service integration with contextual suggestions for CloudFormation, CDK, and more
• Code transformation agent can upgrade Java applications automatically
• Security scanning catches vulnerabilities before they reach production

Cons

• Strongest value proposition is tied to AWS — less compelling outside that ecosystem
• Chat interaction limits on the free tier can feel restrictive for heavy users
• Smaller model selection compared to Copilot or Cursor

Best for

AWS-centric development teams and individual developers who want a capable free AI assistant with built-in security scanning.

7. Cody by Sourcegraph

Cody differentiates itself through deep codebase understanding powered by Sourcegraph’s code intelligence platform. It can search and understand your entire repository — even massive monorepos — to provide contextually accurate answers and suggestions. However, a significant shift occurred in mid-2025 when Sourcegraph discontinued the Free and Pro tiers, making Cody exclusively an enterprise product.

Pricing (2026)

• Free and Pro tiers: Discontinued as of July 2025
• Enterprise: Starting at $19/user/month, up to $59/user/month depending on features and scale
• Note: Sourcegraph launched Amp as the successor product for individual developers

Pros

• Unmatched codebase awareness — understands your entire repository for precise context
• Powered by advanced models including Claude Sonnet 4 and GPT-4o
• Excellent for large monorepos where other tools lose context
• Enterprise-grade security and scalability

Cons

• No longer available for individual developers — enterprise only since mid-2025
• Higher price point than most competitors for team deployments
• The pivot to enterprise-only leaves a gap for solo developers who relied on Cody

Best for

Enterprise teams working with large, complex codebases who need an AI assistant that truly understands their entire repository.

8. CodeGPT

CodeGPT is a lightweight VS Code extension that focuses on giving developers maximum flexibility through a BYOK (Bring Your Own Key) approach. Instead of locking you into a specific model provider, it lets you connect your own API keys from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, or other providers. This means you control both the cost and the model quality.

Pricing (2026)

• Free: 30 interactions and 200 auto-completions per month
• BYOK: $7.20/user/month — unlimited interactions and completions with your own API keys
• Teams: $30/user/month — shared context, collaborative features, team management
• Enterprise: Custom pricing — self-hosting, SLAs, advanced security

Pros

• The most affordable paid tier at just $7.20/month for unlimited usage
• Full flexibility to choose any AI model provider
• Code privacy by default — your data is excluded from training
• Supports Cursor and JetBrains in addition to VS Code

Cons

• BYOK means you also pay API costs on top of the subscription
• The free tier’s 30 interactions per month is very restrictive
• Smaller community and ecosystem compared to Copilot or Continue

Best for

Budget-conscious developers who already have API keys and want an affordable platform layer for AI coding assistance.

Comparison Table: All 8 AI Coding Extensions at a Glance

How to Choose the Best AI for Coding in VS Code

With eight strong contenders, the right choice depends on your specific situation. Here is a framework to help you decide:

Start with your budget

If you want to spend nothing, GitHub Copilot Free and Amazon Q Developer Free are the strongest no-cost options. Copilot gives you more completions, while Amazon Q includes security scanning. Continue is also completely free if you are comfortable providing your own model API keys or running local models.

Consider your privacy requirements

If you work in a regulated industry, Tabnine’s zero-retention policy and on-premise deployment options make it the safest choice. Continue also excels here because you can run everything locally with no data leaving your network. For teams that need compliance certifications, Tabnine’s SOC 2 and ISO 27001 credentials are ready out of the box.

Evaluate agent capabilities

If you want AI that can implement entire features — editing multiple files, running tests, and creating pull requests — Cursor leads the pack. GitHub Copilot’s coding agent is catching up quickly and has the advantage of tight GitHub integration. Windsurf’s SWE-1 model is also capable but its credit system requires careful monitoring. If you’re exploring options, check out our guide to Copilot vs Cursor vs Windsurf. If you’re exploring options, check out our guide to Copilot vs Cursor.

Think about your ecosystem

AWS developers will get the most value from Amazon Q Developer. Teams already on GitHub will benefit from Copilot’s seamless integration. If you want maximum flexibility to swap models and avoid lock-in, Continue and CodeGPT’s BYOK approach keeps your options open.

Factor in team size

For enterprise teams with large codebases, Cody by Sourcegraph offers unmatched repository-wide understanding. GitHub Copilot Business and Enterprise plans provide the best balance of features and cost at scale. Tabnine Enterprise is the go-to for teams that need on-premise deployment.

The AI coding assistant space is evolving rapidly, and most of these tools offer free tiers or trials. The best approach is to try two or three that match your priorities and see which one fits your workflow. For more detailed comparisons, explore our guides on the best AI code assistants for 2026, best AI for Python coding, and our Cursor vs Windsurf deep dive.