Google released Gemini Code Assist, a free consumer version of its AI code completion and help tool, on Tuesday. The firm refers to this version as Gemini Code Assist for individuals. Additionally, the business launched Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, a code review “agent” that looks for errors in code automatically and provides recommendations right within GitHub.
Code Assist for Individuals enables developers to communicate with a Google AI model that can access and modify their coding in normal language over a chat window. Similar to GitHub’s well-known Copilot tool, Gemini Code Assist allows users to resolve problems, finish code segments, and clarify illogical codebase sections.
A version of Google’s Gemini 2.0 AI model, which has been optimized for coding applications, is used by the company’s AI coding helper. Gemini Code Assist for people is compatible with numerous widely used programming languages and may be integrated through plugins with well-known coding environments like Visual Studio Code and JetBrains.
Remarkably, Code Assist for individuals provides 180,000 code completions per month, 90 times the GitHub Copilot plan’s free usage limit. Additionally, Code Assist for people allows for 240 chat requests each day, which is about five times as many as the free GitHub Copilot plan allows.
Google says that the 128,000-token context window of the model that powers Code Assist for individuals is more than four times larger than what the competitors provides. This enables the model to reason across more complex codebases by allowing it to process more code in a single query.
Starting Tuesday, developers can register for Gemini Code Assist’s free public preview for individuals.
Gemini Code Assist for GitHub automatically checks pull requests for errors and provides extra, potentially useful suggestions.
The two products are released as Google steps up its efforts to compete in the developer tools market against Microsoft and its subsidiary, GitHub. Ryan Salva, the former head of the GitHub Copilot team, was brought on board seven months ago by Google to lead the company’s developer tools efforts.
Gemini Code Assist has been offered to companies by Google for approximately a year. In December, the business declared that the AI coding helper would soon be able to interface with Google Docs, GitHub, and GitLab, among other third-party applications. Additional features offered by Enterprise Code Assist levels include private repository customisation, audit logs, and connection with other Google Cloud products.
For the past year or so, Google has been offering Gemini Code Assist to companies. The AI coding assistance will soon interact with third-party tools including GitLab, GitHub, and Google Docs, the business revealed in December. Features like audit logs, interaction with other Google Cloud products, and private repository customisation are added by Enterprise Code Assist tiers.
