Microsoft integrates developer AI GitHub Copilot into VS Code for free

Microsoft has made a free version of its developer chatbot GitHub Copilot available in Visual Studio and Visual Studio Code. With limited access to the coding assistant, even more developers should be able to benefit. Microsoft

GitHub Copilot Free free with limited quota

With the update of Visual Studio Code to version 1.96.1, the integration of GitHub Copilot Free automatically, Microsoft said in a blog post with. Users of Microsoft’s free development environment can, at least to a certain extent, interact with the AI-based coding assistant free of charge, which, according to Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, can make it much easier for many people who want to develop software to get started. With GitHub Copilot Free in VS Code you now have access to 2000 code completions and 50 chat messages to the AI ​​assistant per month, the GitHub team announced last night. To take advantage of this free request tier, all you need to do is be logged in with a personal GitHub account while using the latest versions of Visual Studio (Code).

When it comes to chatbot requests, developers also have the choice of which AI model they want to use, as GitHub offers both ChatGPT-4o from Microsoft partner OpenAI and Claude 3.5 from competitor Anthropic in its Copilot version. Users can use the Large Language Models to explain existing code or find errors in it, but can also ask questions about programming for specific scenarios, it is said.

Since the number of requests for GitHub Copilot Free in VS Code is limited, the offer is of course also an upsell option for Microsoft. If you want to make more inquiries, you can switch to one of the paid subscriptions at any time. However, Microsoft continues to provide free professional access for students, teachers and the open source community.