Compute desk
Free AI coding assistants: what the free plans include
The vendors' own pages set the free limits, and they count different things. Here is what each page says as of October 27, 2026.
Free AI coding assistants exist, and each free tier has documented monthly limits. GitHub Copilot Free caps completions per month, and the Amazon Q Developer Free Tier caps agentic requests per month, according to their own pages as of October 27, 2026. The limits count different things, so read them before comparing.
Key takeaways
- GitHub Copilot Free limits completions per month and offers limited chat and agent usage.
- The Amazon Q Developer Free Tier limits agentic requests and Java transformation lines per month.
- Google's Gemini Code Assist overview lists only Standard and Enterprise editions; its consumer tiers stopped serving requests in June 2026.
- Each vendor counts a different unit, so a side-by-side comparison needs care.
This is for developers, including scientists who write analysis code, deciding whether one of the free AI coding assistants is enough for their work. Below is what each vendor's own plan page says the free tier includes, and the unit each limit counts. Read the limits before you hit them, then check the linked pages, because they change. More from the AI desk.
What does an AI coding assistant actually do?
An AI coding assistant is software that sits in your editor or terminal and uses a language model to suggest or write code. The vendors describe four kinds of help.
- Completions. The assistant suggests the next lines as you type. GitHub calls these code completions and next edit suggestions [1].
- Chat. You ask a question about your code in plain language and get an answer. GitHub lists Copilot Chat as a feature [1]. Amazon counts "any Q&A chat" with Q Developer as an agentic request [2].
- Agent mode. You hand the assistant a task and it plans and edits across files. GitHub describes assigning work to Copilot "to research, plan, and write code" [1]. Amazon counts agentic coding interactions in the IDE and the command line toward its limits [2].
- Code review. The assistant comments on a pull request. GitHub lists pull request reviews in GitHub as a Copilot feature [1]. Google ran a consumer version of Gemini Code Assist on GitHub that performed code review until it shut down [5].
None of these vendor pages measures whether these features make anyone faster, so we make no such claim.
What do the free plans include?
The table records what each vendor's page says as of October 27, 2026. It is not a ranking.
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| Assistant | Free plan name | Documented monthly limit | Features the free plan lists | Source page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Copilot Free | 2,000 completions and entry-level models per month; limited chat and agent usage | Completions, chat, agent mode, CLI; pull request reviews not included | GitHub Copilot · Plans & pricing |
| Amazon Q Developer | Free Tier | 50 agentic requests and 1,000 lines of Java transformation per month | IDE plugins, CLI, reference tracking, option to suppress public code suggestions | Amazon Q Developer pricing |
| Gemini Code Assist | No free edition listed | No limit stated on the overview | Overview lists Standard and Enterprise editions and a deprecations section | Gemini Code Assist overview |
GitHub Copilot Free
GitHub's plans page names six plans: Free, Pro, Pro+, Max, Business, and Enterprise [1]. Its FAQ says Copilot Free users "are limited to 2,000 completions and access to entry level models per month" [1]. Chat and agent work draw on what GitHub calls AI Credits, and for the Free plan the page lists "Limited chat and agent usage" [1]. Pull request reviews in GitHub are marked as not included on Free [1].
Amazon Q Developer Free Tier
Amazon's pricing page lists two tiers, the Free Tier and the Pro Tier [2]. The Free Tier includes 50 agentic requests per month and 1,000 lines of code per month for Java transformation [2]. The page gives no numeric cap for code suggestions on the Free Tier. It says Free Tier limits apply at the account level when you sign in as an IAM user, and at the user level for Builder ID users [2].
Gemini Code Assist
Google's overview lists two editions, Gemini Code Assist Standard and Gemini Code Assist Enterprise, both managed through Google Cloud, plus a deprecations section [3]. It lists no free edition. A linked notice says that starting June 18, 2026, the IDE extensions "stopped serving requests" for the Gemini Code Assist for individuals, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra tiers, and that this also applies to Gemini CLI [4]. A separate Google Cloud page says new Standard and Enterprise subscriptions could no longer be bought from October 9, 2026, while existing subscriptions keep working until the end of the contract [6].
Is an AI coding assistants comparison fair across vendors?
Only with care, because the vendors count different units.
- GitHub counts completions. The Free limit is a number of completions per month [1]. Chat and agent work use a separate allowance of AI Credits, and the amount used depends on the model and how complex the task is [1]. GitHub says completions and next edit suggestions do not use credits [1].
- Amazon counts requests. An agentic request is "any Q&A chat or agentic coding interaction with Q Developer" [2]. Under that definition, chat questions and agent tasks draw on the same limit.
- Amazon also counts lines. Java transformation has its own limit, measured in lines of code per month [2].
So a completion limit and a request limit are not the same kind of number. The fair comparison is feature by feature: which unit does your daily work spend? Write that down first, then read each page.
None of these pages states a difference in output quality between free and paid tiers. GitHub's page does say the Free plan gets entry-level models [1], so free and paid users may not be using the same models.
Are AI coding assistants getting worse, or are the limits changing?
We cannot say whether output quality has changed: none of these vendor pages measures it over time, and anecdotes are not evidence. What the pages do document is change in plan names, editions, and access.
The clearest example is Google, whose notices record a consumer tier that stopped serving requests and a consumer GitHub app that was deprecated and then shut down [4][5].
Gemini Code Assist consumer and edition changes, per Google's notices
2026-06-18
IDE extensions stopped serving requests for the individuals, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra tiers.
2026-07-17
All code review activity by the consumer app ended.
2026-10-09
New Standard and Enterprise subscriptions could no longer be purchased.
The GitHub and Amazon pages carry no "last updated" date, only a 2026 copyright line, so we cannot say when their current limits took effect [1][2]. The Google overview and notices show last-updated dates in October 2026 [3][4][6]. That is why the table carries a checked date. If a page now says something different, the page wins, and we will correct this post.
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Frequently asked questions
Do code completions use up GitHub Copilot's chat allowance?
No. GitHub's plans page says code completions and next edit suggestions do not use AI Credits. Chat and agent work do, and the Free plan has a separate completion limit per month [1].
What counts as one agentic request on Amazon Q Developer?
Amazon defines an agentic request as any Q&A chat or agentic coding interaction with Q Developer. Requests from the IDE and the command line both count toward the limit [2].
Does the Amazon Q Developer limit apply per person or per account?
It depends on how you sign in. Amazon says Free Tier limits apply at the account level when you sign in as an IAM user, and at the user level with a Builder ID [2].
Can I still use Gemini Code Assist with a personal Google account?
Not through the IDE extensions. Google's notice says the extensions stopped serving requests for the individuals, Google AI Pro, and Google AI Ultra tiers on June 18, 2026, and the same applies to Gemini CLI [4].
Sources
- GitHub Copilot · Plans & pricing — GitHub
- Amazon Q Developer pricing — Amazon Web Services
- Gemini Code Assist overview — Google for Developers
- Gemini Code Assist consumer accounts — Google for Developers
- Sunset of the Consumer version of Gemini Code Assist on GitHub — Google for Developers
- Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise subscriptions — Google Cloud Documentation