AI coding assistants you can use free October 2026
Free limits, trials and student offers, read on the pages of 19 AI coding tools. About half of the free plans give real numbers, and some well-known ones have ended.
Checked by hand on 16 October 2026, on each company’s own pages.All 71 quotes re-checked 23h ago and still there.
The short answer
If you read nothing else, read this.
- GitHub Copilot is free: Copilot Free gives 2,000 code completions a month plus a limited allowance for chat and agents, and needs no card. Verified students get Copilot Student free, with unlimited completions. New Pro trials are paused.
- Cursor has a free plan, but no trial on its pages: the Free plan gives limited Agent, Chat and Tab use on Cursor's own models, with no numbers. Cursor is now sold inside the X subscription: Plus is $8 a month, and models like Claude or GPT need Premium, at $30 a month. The student discount closed to new sign-ups on June 25, 2026.
- Windsurf is now Devin Desktop: renamed on June 2, 2026, with the same prices. Its free plan has unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, plus a light daily and weekly quota for agents. Pro is $20 a month.
- Claude Code is not free: Anthropic says the free Claude plan does not include it. You need Pro, at $17 a month billed yearly or $20 monthly, a higher plan, or pay-as-you-go API credits.
- Free every day or month, with numbers: Jules 15 tasks a day, Kiro 50 credits a month, Bolt 300K tokens a day (1M a month), Lovable 5 credits a day.
- Free for students: GitHub Copilot Student, Zed Pro for 1 year, and, at listed schools only, Kiro (1,000 credits a month for a year) and v0 (1 year). Google AI Pro is free only for US college students, and Codex's $100 in credits only in the US and Canada.
- Ended or closed: Gemini Code Assist's free tier stopped on June 18, 2026; Google points to Antigravity, free with a weekly quota. Amazon Q Developer closed to new users on May 15, 2026; AWS points to Kiro. Tabnine has no public free plan.
I read the pages of 19 coding tools. Most start free. Only about half say how much.
Quick picks
Free in your code editor
GitHub Copilot
2,000 completions a month
Plus limited AI credits for chat and agents, reset monthly. No card. Students get unlimited completions.
Most free agent tasks
Jules (Google)
15 tasks a day
Up to 3 at once. Still in beta, and you must be 18 or older.
Build an app from a prompt
Bolt.new
300K tokens a day
Up to 1M tokens a month. Free sites carry Bolt branding.
Free for students
Zed
Pro free for 1 year
For verified university students, with $10 a month in token credits.
Compare them all
All 19, side by side. Tap a name for the sentences behind it.
Free in your code editor
- GitHub Copilot2,000 completions a monthTrial Pro trial paused since April 2026 · Students Free, unlimited completions · Paid from $10 a monthTry free
Google AntigravityWeekly quota, unlimited TabStudents Free AI Pro for 1 year, US only · Paid from $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)Try free
Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)Unlimited Tab, light agent quotaTrial Offered to some, at checkout · Paid from $20 a monthTry free
Kiro (AWS)50 credits a monthStudents 1,000 credits a month for 1 year · Paid from $20 a monthTry free
ZedEditor free, Zed's AI needs ProTrial 14 days of Pro, no card · Students Pro free for 1 year · Paid from $10 a monthTry free
CursorLimited, number not statedTrial No trial mentioned · Students Discount closed June 25, 2026 · Paid from $8 a month (Plus)Try free- JetBrains AI (AI Assistant and Junie)3 AI credits per 30 daysTrial 30 days of AI Pro · Students AI Free only, not AI Pro · Paid from $10 a month or $100 a yearTry free
Free coding agents
- Jules (Google)15 tasks a dayPaid from $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)Try free
OpenAI CodexQuick tasks, limits not statedStudents $100 in credits, US and Canada · Paid from $8 a month (ChatGPT Go)Try freeMistral Vibe (was Le Chat)Limited coding sessionsStudents Pro at $5.99 a month, up to 1 year · Paid from $14.99 a month, before taxTry free
Free app builders
- Bolt.new300K tokens a day, 1M a monthPaid from $25 a monthTry free
Lovable5 credits a day, up to 30 a monthStudents Pro at $12.50 a month, up to 1 year · Paid from $25 a monthTry free
Google AI Studio (Build mode)Modest quota, number not statedPaid from $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)Try free
ReplitDaily credits, amount not statedPaid from $18 a month yearly, $20 monthlyTry free
v0 by Vercel$5 once, 7 messages a dayStudents 1 year free, listed schools · Paid from $30 a monthTry free
Ended or not free
Claude CodeNot on the free planTrial No Pro trial mentioned · Students No individual discount · Paid from $17 a month yearly, $20 monthlySee plans- Gemini Code Assist for individualsStopped June 18, 2026Paid from $19 a month yearly, $22.80 monthly
- Amazon Q DeveloperClosed to new usersPaid from New subscriptions blocked
TabnineNo public free planPaid from Enterprise only, no public priceSee plans
– means their own pages do not say.
Free in your code editor
AI that suggests and writes code in your editor. Read on each company's own pages on 5 October 2026.
- Free
- 2,000 completions a month
- Trial
- Pro trial paused since April 2026
- Students
- Free, unlimited completions
- Paid from
- $10 a month
- Card
- No card
Chat and agent mode use a limited allowance of AI credits, and GitHub does not say how big it is. The plans page FAQ still says 50 chat requests. The allowance resets on the 1st of each month, and models are picked for you. Pro is free for verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects. GitHub may use what you do on Free to train its models unless you opt out in your settings.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Copilot Free includes 2000 code completions per month and Copilot Student includes unlimited code completions.”
“Unused credits are forfeited, and your allowance resets to the full monthly amount at 00:00:00 UTC on the first day of each calendar month.”
“No credit card required. Verified students have access to the GitHub Copilot Student plan.”
“$10 USD per user / month”
- Free
- Weekly quota, unlimited Tab
- Students
- Free AI Pro for 1 year, US only
- Paid from
- $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)
- Models
- Gemini 3.8 Flash
Google now sends former free users of Gemini Code Assist and Gemini CLI here. It does not publish the size of the weekly quota, and says limits depend on capacity. Gemini 3.1 Pro is no longer on Free. Free also lists Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-OSS-120b until November 2, 2026. Google AI Pro raises the quota, refreshed every five hours up to a weekly limit, but Google AI Plus ($4.99) gets the same limits as Free. The student offer needs a card; in Italy, for example, students get AI Plus instead. Prices are for the US.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“A meaningful quota, refreshed weekly”
“Unlimited Tab completions”
“Use of Gemini models, including Gemini 3.8 Flash and other offered Gemini Enterprise models as the core agent model”
“The free Google AI Pro student offer is available to eligible U.S. college students ages 18+.”
- Free
- Unlimited Tab, light agent quota
- Trial
- Offered to some, at checkout
- Paid from
- $20 a month
Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, and its prices did not change. The free agent quota resets daily and weekly, but its size is not published, and fewer models are available. Trials of paid plans are a promotion shown to some people at checkout, usually not to anyone who used Windsurf, Devin or Codeium before.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“The Free plan includes a light quota to code with agents, limited model availability, unlimited inline edits, and unlimited Tab completions.”
“Your quota resets on a daily and weekly basis, based on the calendar date.”
“Pro is Devin’s entry-level individual plan.”
“$20/month”
- Free
- 50 credits a month
- Students
- 1,000 credits a month for 1 year
- Paid from
- $20 a month
- Models
- Claude Sonnet 4.5, open models
Amazon's replacement for Amazon Q Developer. Free accounts made with a social login or AWS Builder ID get Claude Sonnet 4.5 and open-weight models such as Qwen3 Coder Next, with rate limits. A simple prompt can cost less than 1 credit; spec tasks usually cost more. Your first upgrade gets $20 credited toward the plan: a discount, not a free trial, and it needs a card. The student offer is only for universities on Kiro's list.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“New users can start with the perpetual Kiro Free tier, which includes 50 credits.”
“Usage limits reset at the start of each billing month. Unused credits do not roll over to the next month.”
“Eligible university students get 1,000 credits per month free for one year.”
“You can upgrade to paid tiers ranging from Pro ($20/month), Pro+ ($40/month), Pro Max ($100/month), to Power ($200/month) for increased capacity.”
- Free
- Editor free, Zed's AI needs Pro
- Trial
- 14 days of Pro, no card
- Students
- Pro free for 1 year
- Paid from
- $10 a month
Zed is a free code editor. On free, you can use AI without limit through your own API keys or outside agents such as Claude Agent and Codex CLI, and get edit predictions from GitHub Copilot or a local model. Zed's own edit predictions and hosted models need Pro, the trial or the student plan. The trial ends after 14 days or when its $5 of GPT-6 Luna runs out, and then turns back into Free by itself. Students need a university email and a GitHub account older than 30 days.
In their own words(4, checked 16 Oct)
“Zeta predictions are included with Zed Pro, the Pro trial, and the Student and Business plans. On the free plan, you can use other providers, like GitHub Copilot or a local model.”
“We offer a 14-day free trial of Pro with $5 of GPT-6 Luna usage and unlimited accepted edit predictions.”
“No credit card is required.”
“For verified university students, Zed Pro is free for one year.”
- Free
- Limited, number not stated
- Trial
- No trial mentioned
- Students
- Discount closed June 25, 2026
- Paid from
- $8 a month (Plus)
Cursor is now sold inside the X subscription, together with Grok and X. Free has Agent, Chat and Tab completions on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer), with limits Cursor does not put in numbers. Plus, at $8 a month, also has only Cursor's own models; Claude or GPT need Premium ($30 a month) and are paid on top, at API prices. Old plans such as Pro at $20 are closed to new customers. The student discount closed to new sign-ups on June 25, 2026; Cursor says undergraduates can claim credits and discounts at campus and online events this fall.
In their own words(4, checked 16 Oct)
“Free gives you access to Cursor's core features with limited usage.”
“Cursor is part of The X Subscription, one subscription for Grok, Cursor, and X.”
“Cursor discontinued new sign-ups for the legacy student discount on June 25, 2026.”
“Plus $8/month”
JetBrains AI (AI Assistant and Junie)
- Free
- 3 AI credits per 30 days
- Trial
- 30 days of AI Pro
- Students
- AI Free only, not AI Pro
- Paid from
- $10 a month or $100 a year
- Code completion
- Unlimited
- Needs
- A JetBrains IDE licence
AI Free comes with any active JetBrains IDE licence, including free student and trial licences. It gives unlimited code completion with JetBrains' Mellum model, unlimited use of your own local models, and 3 credits every 30 days for cloud models (1 credit is worth $1). It is not in Android Studio, in IntelliJ IDEA without Ultimate, or in PyCharm without Pro. The 30-day AI Pro trial starts when you first turn on JetBrains AI.
In their own words(4, checked 16 Oct)
“Individual users can use the AI Free plan, which includes three AI credits every 30 days.”
“Unlimited code completion (powered by JetBrains’ Mellum model).”
“Yes. A 30-day AI Pro trial is available when you first activate JetBrains AI.”
“AI Free is available to all users with active JetBrains IDE licenses, including educational licenses”
Free coding agents
Give an agent a task in plain words, and it writes or changes the code for you.
- Free
- 15 tasks a day
- Paid from
- $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)
- At once
- Up to 3 tasks
Jules is still in beta, and you must be 18 or older. The 15 tasks count over a rolling 24 hours. Free runs on Gemini 3 Flash since January 2026, though Jules' plan table still says Gemini 2.5 Pro. Jules in Pro, with 100 tasks a day, comes only with Google AI Pro (US price shown). Google says capacity is not guaranteed.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Jules has multiple plans to fit your development needs, including a plan available to all users without cost.”
“15 tasks per day”
“Daily Tasks (rolling 24 hours)”
“Jules in Pro is included as a benefit of the Google AI Pro plan.”
- Free
- Quick tasks, limits not stated
- Students
- $100 in credits, US and Canada
- Paid from
- $8 a month (ChatGPT Go)
Codex is part of every ChatGPT plan, Free included. The Free and Go cards only mention the desktop app; on Free, that means GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed, subject to rollout. Codex on the web, in the CLI and in the IDE extension is listed from Plus, at $20 a month. Student credits are for verified university students in the US and Canada, and expire 12 months after you get them. Prices may differ by country.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“ChatGPT Work and Codex are included in your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan”
“Explore Codex capabilities on quick coding tasks.”
“GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout”
“Verified university students in the United States and Canada can claim $100 in ChatGPT credits to use in Codex.”
- Free
- Limited coding sessions
- Students
- Pro at $5.99 a month, up to 1 year
- Paid from
- $14.99 a month, before tax
- API credits
- $25.50 a month with Pro
Le Chat is now called Vibe. Free includes Vibe for code, an agent that codes in your terminal, but Mistral gives no numbers for messages or coding sessions. The student price is only for students at accredited higher-education schools who have never used Vibe or Le Chat. Euro prices are offered too.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Yes, Mistral’s Free plan provides limited access to Vibe, including our latest models, chat, search, creation, and Vibe for code for agentic coding in your terminal.”
“Limited coding sessions.”
“$25.5 /mo in API credits.”
“Verified students can get Mistral Pro for $5.99 / month (normally $14.99).”
Free app builders
Describe an app or a website, and they build it for you. The free plans are enough to try one.
- Free
- 300K tokens a day, 1M a month
- Paid from
- $25 a month
- Catch
- Bolt branding on free sites
At the daily cap, the 1M monthly tokens last about 3 days, by our math. Free tokens reset on the 1st of each month and do not roll over. When you hit the daily cap you can still edit code by hand. Bigger projects use more tokens per message. Pro gives 10M tokens a month with no daily limit. A $9 Lite plan for Bolt's open-source Forge models is waitlist only.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Free plans have a 300,000 token daily limit and 1 million token monthly limit.”
“For users on a free plan: tokens reset on the 1st of each calendar month.”
“You’re on the $25 Pro 10M monthly plan that started January 1.”
“Save up to 28% with yearly billing”
- Free
- 5 credits a day, up to 30 a month
- Students
- Pro at $12.50 a month, up to 1 year
- Paid from
- $25 a month
- Card
- No card
Free also gets 20 Cloud credits a month. Daily credits expire at the end of each day. Lovable's own examples cost 0.5 to 1.7 credits per prompt, so 5 credits cover only a few changes. Credits are shared by everyone in a workspace. Paying yearly gives 2 months free.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“The free plan includes a daily grant of 5 build credits (up to 30 a month), plus monthly grants of 20 Cloud credits.”
“No credit card needed”
“You get 50% off Lovable Pro for up to 12 months, with 100 credits a month and every Pro feature.”
“$25 / month 100 monthly credits”
Google AI Studio (Build mode)
- Free
- Modest quota, number not stated
- Paid from
- $19.99 a month (Google AI Pro)
- Hosting
- First 2 apps free, no card
Build mode turns a prompt into a full web app or an Android app, in the browser. Google does not publish the free quota; when it runs out, you can keep going with a Gemini API key and pay per request. Google says new builders can put their first two apps on Google Cloud at no cost. If you share an app, other people's use counts toward your limits.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Modest quota”
“Basic limits and access, with the option to upgrade for more.”
“Google AI Pro and Ultra subscription plans provide greater model access and increased rate limits for prototyping and development in AI Studio compared to the free tier.”
“$19.99/ month”
Replit
- Free
- Daily credits, amount not stated
- Paid from
- $18 a month yearly, $20 monthly
- Catch
- Free app goes down after 30 days
The free Starter plan is in Replit's docs, not on its pricing page. Daily Agent credits go up to a monthly cap, with no numbers given, and Free Mode picks the model for you. Starter only gets Lite build; Full build and Plan Mode need Core. You can publish one free app, with a "Made with Replit" badge, and it goes down after 30 days.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Starter plan users receive daily credits for Agent usage, up to a monthly cap.”
“These credits reset daily, giving you a fresh allowance to work with Agent each day.”
“Free Mode always uses intelligent model routing, so Replit selects the model for your request. You cannot select a specific model in Free Mode.”
“Core $20 $18 / month, billed annually”
- Free
- $5 once, 7 messages a day
- Students
- 1 year free, listed schools
- Paid from
- $30 a month
New sign-ups get the $5 once; accounts already on Free keep $5 a month. The student offer covers only the schools listed on v0's student page, 15 when we checked. Plus adds $2 of free credits each day you log in. The old $20 Premium plan is closed to new users.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“$5 in one-time credits for new users”
“7 message/day limit”
“Get 1 year of complimentary v0 access when you verify your student status at an active school”
“Plus: $30/user/month. For fast moving teams and collaboration.”
Ended or not free
Well-known names that are not free, or that stopped their free plan for new users.
- Free
- Not on the free plan
- Trial
- No Pro trial mentioned
- Students
- No individual discount
- Paid from
- $17 a month yearly, $20 monthly
The free Claude plan works in the Claude apps but does not include Claude Code. You need Pro or Max, which share one usage limit between Claude and Claude Code, or pay-as-you-go API credits through a Claude Console account. Pro at $17 a month means $200 paid up front for a year. Anthropic's Education plan is sold to universities, not to students.
In their own words(3, checked 5 Oct)
“Claude Code requires a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise, or Console account. The free claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code access.”
“Per month with annual subscription discount ($200 billed up front). $20 if billed monthly.”
“With Pro and Max plans, you now have access to both Claude on the web, desktop, and mobile apps and Claude Code in your terminal with one unified subscription.”
Gemini Code Assist for individuals
Ended- Free
- Stopped June 18, 2026
- Paid from
- $19 a month yearly, $22.80 monthly
- Instead
- Google Antigravity
The free tier stopped working in the code editor extensions on June 18, 2026, even for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers, and Login with Google for Gemini CLI stopped too. Google now sends free users to Antigravity. The paid Standard and Enterprise plans, sold per user through Google Cloud, still work.
In their own words(4, checked 5 Oct)
“Starting June 18, 2026, Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions stopped serving requests for the Gemini Code Assist for individuals, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra tiers.”
“This also applies to usage of Gemini CLI.”
“$19 per user per month with an upfront annual commitment.”
“$22.80 per user per month.”
Amazon Q Developer
- Free
- Closed to new users
- Paid from
- New subscriptions blocked
- Instead
- Kiro
AWS stopped new sign-ups on May 15, 2026, for the free tier and for new subscriptions. Its pricing page still shows a free tier with 50 agentic requests a month, but you cannot join it. The code editor plug-ins reach end of support on April 30, 2027. AWS points users to Kiro.
In their own words(2, checked 5 Oct)
“New signups will no longer available starting May 15, 2026.”
“New Q Developer Free Tier account creation (via Builder ID in IDE plugins) and new Q Developer subscription creation (via the AWS Console) will be blocked.”
Tabnine
- Free
- No public free plan
- Paid from
- Enterprise only, no public price
Tricentis said on July 30, 2026 that it bought Tabnine. Tabnine's pricing page now leads to a Tricentis contact form, and its docs list only two Enterprise plans. Free tiers mentioned on other sites are not on Tabnine's pages.
In their own words(2, checked 5 Oct)
“Tabnine Enterprise (SaaS) accounts can only be set up together with the Tabnine team.”
“Tabnine is a fully private, organization-aware AI coding agent designed to run entirely within your environment.”
Questions
What is the best free AI coding assistant?
In your code editor, GitHub Copilot: 2,000 completions a month and limited chat and agent use, with no card. Google Antigravity and Devin Desktop (once called Windsurf) give unlimited Tab completions, but do not say how big their free agent quota is. For agent tasks, Jules gives 15 a day. To build a whole app from a prompt, Bolt gives 300K tokens a day (up to 1M a month) and Lovable 5 credits a day.
Is GitHub Copilot free?
Yes. Copilot Free includes 2,000 code completions a month and a limited allowance of AI credits for chat and agent mode, reset on the 1st of each month. No credit card is needed, and models are picked for you. Verified students get Copilot Student free, with unlimited completions. Pro costs $10 a month and is free for verified teachers and maintainers of popular open source projects. New users cannot start a free Pro trial at the moment.
Does Cursor have a free trial?
Cursor's pages mention no free trial. Its Free plan gives limited Agent, Chat and Tab completions on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer), with no numbers. Cursor is now sold inside the X subscription, together with Grok and X: Plus costs $8 a month and has only Cursor's own models, and Premium, at $30 a month, adds models like Claude and GPT, paid on top at API prices. The student discount closed to new sign-ups on June 25, 2026; Cursor says undergraduates can get credits and discounts at campus and online events this fall.
Is Windsurf still free?
Yes, under a new name: Windsurf became Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, and its prices did not change. The free plan has unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, a light agent quota that resets daily and weekly, and fewer models. Pro costs $20 a month. Trials of paid plans are offered only to some people at checkout.
Is Claude Code free?
No. Anthropic says the free Claude plan does not include Claude Code. You need a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or Console account. Pro costs $17 a month billed yearly ($200 up front) or $20 monthly, and its usage limit is shared with Claude. A Console account lets you pay as you go at API rates instead. We found no free trial of Pro and no student discount for individuals.
Which AI coding tools are free for students?
GitHub Copilot Student is free for verified students, and Zed Pro is free for a year for verified university students. Kiro gives 1,000 credits a month for a year, and v0 a free year, but only at schools on their lists. Google AI Pro, which raises Antigravity's limits, is free for a year only for US college students, and needs a card. Codex gives $100 in credits only in the US and Canada. Lovable and Mistral give discounts, not free plans: Pro at $12.50 and $5.99 a month.
How we checked
Every fact here comes from the company’s own page, with the sentence it is in. The facts checked for this guide show the day we read them. The tables come from our catalogue, which re-reads each price page on its own. When a page does not say something, we write that, and we never guess. How we check