Key Takeaways:
- GitHub has launched a free version of its Copilot AI assistant.
- The free version offers key features like coding assistance, debugging, and voice commands.
- GitHub Copilot Free is accessible across multiple IDEs including VS Code, Visual Studio.
Microsoft-owned GitHub has launched a free version of its Copilot AI assistant, making it available to all developers. The AI-powered code completion tool is now seamlessly integrated into the Visual Studio Code (VS Code) IDE.
GitHub first launched the Copilot coding assistant back in 2022. Previously, GitHub Copilot was only available for free to all verified students, teachers, and open-source maintainers. However, developers were required to pay a monthly subscription fee, starting at $10 per month.
“With this announcement, GitHub Copilot becomes a core part of the VS Code experience. The team has been hard at work, as always, improving that experience with brand new AI features and capabilities,” GitHub explained.
Key features of GitHub Copilot Free SKU
The GitHub Copilot free SKU allows developers to seek help with coding questions, debug existing code, and make changes across multiple files. Moreover, the terminal chat feature helps interpret errors, fix failed commands, and suggest shell scripts. Other capabilities include support for voice commands, custom instructions, and more.
GitHub has acknowledged some limitations of the free version of the Copilot AI assistant. It provides developers access to 2,000 code completions and 50 chat messages per month. Users on the free plan can choose between OpenAI’s GPT-4o and Anthropic’s Claude 3.5 Sonnet. However, they will need to switch to Pro and other paid plans to use premium AI models such as Google’s Gemini 1.5 Pro and OpenAI’s o1-preview.
GitHub Copilot Free is available across multiple IDEs, including VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, and GitHub.com. Users must sign in with a personal GitHub account to access GitHub Copilot.
Lastly, GitHub has released a new feature in preview called Vision Copilot. It allows developers to create screenshots directly from screenshots or developers. The Vision Copilot tool is designed to streamline the process of converting design elements into code.