Google Extends Free Use of VS Code AI Assistant Until Nov. 8 -- Visual Studio Magazine

Google Extends Free Use of VS Code AI Assistant Until Nov. 8

By David Ramel
07/29/2024

Developers who use Google's Gemini Code Assist tool in Microsoft's Visual Studio Code editor were this month informed the tool would be free to use until Nov. 8, 2024, an extension of a previous July 11 deadline.

"Gemini Code Assist is available to try at no cost until November 8, 2024, limited to one user per billing account," says the July release notes for the tool, which pop up monthly in VS Code and which can also be viewed here. "Customers can purchase a license on the Gemini Admin page in the Google Cloud console. For more information, see Set up Gemini Code Assist for a project."

With functionality similar to the original GitHub Copilot "AI pair programmer," the AI-powered code completion tool was announced in April at the Google Cloud Next '24 conference, with the company saying it was "built to help developers write code faster and with fewer errors."

The tool comes in extensions to VS Code and other editors/IDEs and is powered by tech from Google's Gemini proprietary multimodal large language model (LLM). Its ability to handle text, code, images, audio, and video, along with versatility and other advanced functionality have been lauded in the industry.

**[Click on image for larger, animated view.]** Gemini for Google Cloud *(source: Google Cloud).*

For one timely example of that, Gemini ranks behind only ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot in the "AI Search and Developer Tools" category of the recently published 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, one of the largest and most authoritative survey reports in the development industry.

The associated Gemini Code Assist + Google Cloud Code extension in the VS Code Marketplace has been installed more than 1.3 million times, sporting a 2.8 rating from five reviewers.

The extension provides cutting-edge tech like natural language chat that answers questions about Google Cloud products, provides expert guidance on best practices and troubleshoots error message, adding to general functionality like:

Complete your code while you write
Generate code blocks based on comments
Chat assistance in your IDE to help with development tasks
Smart actions for code explanations and unit test generation

**[Click on image for larger view.]** Gemini Code Assist + Google Cloud Code Extension *(source: VS Code Marketplace).*

The company has been busy updating the tool, with the most recent work including bug fixes and:

A tips card has been added in chat showing useful keyboard shortcuts for using Gemini Code Assist
A diff button has been added to code snippets in chat so that code returned from Gemini can be easily compared to the code in the editor

After Nov. 8, the tool will cost $19 per month per license in a yearly subscription, or $22.80 per month when licensed monthly.

Pricing and other guidance can be found in the Admin for Gemini site, where developers can also purchase subscriptions.

About the Author

David Ramel is an editor and writer for Converge360.

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