Visual Studio Code and Its Forks with FREE AI

Let me get this straight. This is not a review post or anything like that.

I’m simply sharing a list of Visual Studio Code forks that include AI features, along with the companies behind them. This might be useful to some people.

There’s no doubt that Microsoft knows how to build great IDEs. I’ve been a long-time fan of Visual Studio (the full version, not the Code version), and VS Code comes in as my second favorite IDE. Even though VS Code is open source, there weren’t many serious forks competing with it in the past.

Then generative AI happened—especially large language models.

Once people realized how effective LLMs can be for coding, several companies started shipping VS Code forks bundled with their own AI features. While many of them offer similar AI capabilities, they work in different ways. Some even provide generous free credits to use their AI models.

So why not try them all?

Anyway, here is a list of VS Code and its forks that offer FREE AI credits:

• Visual Studio Code by Microsoft
• Antigravity by Google
• Kiro by Amazon
• TRAE by ByteDance
• Cursor by Anysphere
• Windsurf by Cognition

If you’re running out of free AI credits, you can also use Amp by Sourcegraph, it’s compatible with VSCode or its forks. They offer the AI coding agent free of charge and supported by ads.

Conclusion

We’re living in an interesting time as builders. Take advantage of these resources and build whatever it is you want to build!

Write in the comment section below if you found something similar or better.

Cheers!