Microsoft Integrates a Free Version of Its 'Copilot' Coding AI Into GitHub, VS Code

An anonymous reader shared this report from TechCrunch:

Microsoft-owned GitHub announced on Wednesday a free version of its popular Copilot code completion/AI pair programming tool, which will also now ship by default with Microsoft's popular VS Code editor. Until now, most developers had to pay a monthly fee, starting at $10 per month, with only verified students, teachers, and open source maintainers getting free access...

There are some limitations to the free version, which is geared toward occasional users, not major work on a big project. Developers on the free plan will get access to 2,000 code completions per month, for example, and as a GitHub spokesperson told me, each Copilot code suggestion will count against this limit — not just accepted suggestions. And while GitHub recently added the ability to switch between different foundation models, users on the free plan are limited to Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet and OpenAI's GPT-4o. (The paid plans also include Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI's o1-preview and -mini.) For Copilot Chat, the number of chat messages is limited to 50, but otherwise, there aren't any major limitations to the free service. Developers still get access to all Copilot Extensions and skills.

The free Copilot SKU will work in a number of editors, including VS Code, Visual Studio, and JetBrains, as well as on GitHub.com.

GitHub's announcement ends with the words 'Happy coding!' and calls the service 'GitHub Copilot Free.' But TechCrunch points out there's already competition from services like Amazon Q Developer, as well as from companies like Tabnine and Qodo (previously known as Codium) — and they typically offer a free tier. But in addition, 'With Copilot Free, we are returning to our freemium roots,' GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke told TechCrunch, as well as 'laying the groundwork for something far greater: AI represents our best path to enabling a GitHub with one billion developers.

'There should be no barrier to entry for experiencing the joy of creating software. Now six years after being acquired by Microsoft, it indeed appears GitHub is still GitHub — and we are doing our thing.'

Or, as GitHub CEO Satya Nadella said in a video posted on LinkedIn, 'The joy of coding is back! And we are looking forward to bringing the same experience to so many more people around the world.'

Read more of this story at Slashdot.