Google has announced the public preview of Gemini Code Assist for individuals, a free AI-powered coding assistant aimed at making advanced development tools accessible to a broader audience, including students, hobbyists, freelancers, and startups. This initiative addresses the growing reliance on AI in software development, with over 75% of developers already incorporating AI into their workflows. The tool is powered by Gemini 2.0, a model fine-tuned for coding tasks and capable of supporting all programming languages in the public domain.
Gemini Code Assist offers up to 180,000 code completions per month—significantly higher than the limits of other free coding assistants—and includes features like natural language prompts for code generation, debugging assistance, and automated test creation. It integrates with popular IDEs such as Visual Studio Code and JetBrains, as well as Firebase and Android Studio. Additionally, it supports a large token context window of up to 128,000 tokens, enabling developers to work with extensive codebases.
A notable feature is Gemini Code Assist for GitHub, which provides free AI-powered code reviews for both public and private repositories. This functionality allows developers to automate routine review tasks such as identifying bugs or stylistic issues while offering customizable feedback through repository-specific style guides.
The tool is globally available and requires only a Gmail account for access. Developers interested in advanced features like productivity metrics or private repository integrations can explore paid versions of Gemini Code Assist. Feedback from this public preview will guide further refinements to the tool.
