JetBrains AI Assistant

JetBrains AI Assistant is an AI-powered coding and development assistant integrated into JetBrains IDEs. It helps developers write, understand, modify, document, test, and troubleshoot code directly inside their development environment. JetBrains designed AI Assistant to work with project context, including code, dependencies, recently used files, and relationships between different parts of a project, allowing its responses to be more relevant to the code being developed.

AI Assistant was publicly released in December 2023 and initially became available across JetBrains’ commercial IDEs and development tools. Since then, JetBrains has expanded the product with AI chat, code generation, code completion, test generation, documentation, code explanations, refactoring assistance, and agent-based development capabilities.

One of its central capabilities is AI Chat. Developers can ask questions about their projects, request explanations of unfamiliar code, generate implementations, troubleshoot errors, and ask for development suggestions. AI Assistant uses relevant project context to improve the usefulness of its responses.

AI Assistant also provides code completion. It can generate suggestions while developers type and supports full-line and multi-line completion. JetBrains’ tailored completion models can operate locally for certain completion features, while other AI capabilities use cloud-based models.

Another important feature is code generation and editing. Developers can ask AI Assistant to create code, modify existing code, generate files from snippets, and perform other programming tasks. This allows developers to use natural-language instructions alongside traditional IDE editing.

AI Assistant can also help with automated testing. It can generate test cases based on existing code and project context, helping developers identify edge cases and create tests more quickly. JetBrains has expanded test-generation capabilities across supported languages and IDEs.

The assistant supports documentation and code explanation. Developers can ask it to explain complex code, generate documentation, summarize implementations, or translate code between supported programming languages.

JetBrains AI Assistant also provides commit-message generation, allowing developers to create commit messages based on changes made in their projects. Custom prompts can be used to adjust the format and style of generated messages.

The platform has expanded beyond simple code completion into AI agents and agentic development workflows. JetBrains AI provides access to AI-powered coding agents and allows developers to work with different AI models and external agents from within JetBrains development environments.

A major advantage is its model flexibility. JetBrains AI can provide access to models hosted by JetBrains and external providers, while users can also connect their own API keys or provider accounts where supported. JetBrains’ current documentation lists options for using JetBrains AI subscriptions, personal API keys, integrated provider accounts, and external agents.

AI Assistant is available across a wide range of JetBrains development environments, including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, PhpStorm, GoLand, CLion, Rider, RubyMine, RustRover, DataGrip, and DataSpell. It is also available in Android Studio and through ReSharper, although the specific documentation and feature availability can differ by environment.

JetBrains has also introduced AI Free, giving eligible users limited cloud AI access while providing unlimited AI code completion and support for local models. Users can alternatively connect their own models or agents without purchasing a JetBrains AI subscription.

The current AI licensing structure uses AI Credits for cloud-based AI features that rely on third-party models. AI Pro and AI Ultimate provide different monthly credit quotas, while AI Free provides a smaller quota. Code completion and next-edit suggestions powered by JetBrains’ tailored models do not consume the cloud AI quota.

AI Assistant is particularly useful for professional developers, software teams, students, educators, and organizations already using JetBrains development environments. Its deep IDE integration means developers can use AI assistance without switching to a separate coding application.

Pricing

JetBrains currently offers several AI licensing tiers.

AI Free

• Free
• 3 AI Credits per 30 days
• Unlimited code completion powered by JetBrains’ models
• Unlimited use of compatible local models
• Limited cloud AI quota
• Availability depends on the IDE and license

AI Pro

• $10/month
• 10 AI Credits per 30 days
• Ability to purchase additional AI Credits
• Access to JetBrains AI cloud features

AI Ultimate

• $30/month
• 35 AI Credits per 30 days
• Ability to purchase additional AI Credits
• Higher AI usage allowance

AI Enterprise

• Enterprise pricing
• Available to organizations through JetBrains IDE services
• Enterprise-level AI access and administration

JetBrains also offers a 30-day AI Pro trial for eligible new users.

Pricing Model

Freemium / Subscription

Pricing Note

JetBrains AI uses a combination of free access, paid subscriptions, and AI Credits. The current individual plans are AI Free, AI Pro, and AI Ultimate, while AI Enterprise is available for organizations. AI Pro costs $10/month and AI Ultimate costs $30/month, with higher AI Credit quotas at the Ultimate level.

Review

JetBrains AI Assistant is a strong choice for developers who already work inside JetBrains IDEs. Its biggest advantage is that AI capabilities are integrated directly into the development workflow instead of requiring developers to move between an IDE and a separate AI application.

The assistant’s understanding of project context is particularly valuable. It can take into account relevant code, dependencies, files, and relationships within a project, making it more useful for tasks that require understanding the surrounding code rather than simply generating isolated snippets.

Its feature set is also broad. AI Assistant supports chat, code generation, code completion, editing, documentation, testing, code explanation, commit-message generation, and other development workflows. This makes it useful throughout the software-development lifecycle.

Another advantage is model flexibility. Developers can use JetBrains-provided AI services, connect their own API keys, or work with external agents and providers where supported. This gives experienced developers more control over which AI services they use.

The availability of an AI Free tier is another benefit, particularly for developers who mainly want unlimited JetBrains-powered code completion and occasional cloud AI usage. The 30-day AI Pro trial also provides a way to evaluate the broader feature set.

The main limitation is the AI Credit system. Cloud-powered features consume credits, and more intensive use can require additional credits or a higher subscription tier. This means users need to monitor their usage rather than treating all AI features as unlimited.

Feature availability can also vary between JetBrains IDEs and programming languages. Some capabilities are more deeply integrated for certain languages than others, even though the overall assistant works across a broad range of development environments.

For developers already using JetBrains IDEs who want AI assistance deeply integrated into coding, testing, documentation, and project workflows, JetBrains AI Assistant is a capable and flexible option.