Burke Holland shares the launch of a free GitHub Copilot plan for VS Code users, unlocking AI-powered code completions, chat, and more to help developers enhance their productivity and coding experience.

Free GitHub Copilot Plan Now Available for Visual Studio Code

Author: Burke Holland
Published: December 18, 2024

GitHub Copilot is now accessible for all Visual Studio Code (VS Code) users via a brand-new free plan. Anyone with a GitHub account can enable it instantly, without a trial, subscription, or credit card. Simply activate GitHub Copilot Free to get started.

Key Features of the Free Plan

  • 2000 code completions per month (about 80 per working day).
  • 50 chat requests per month.
  • Access to advanced AI models: GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
  • Direct integration in VS Code: Enable straight from within the editor.

If you need more than the free plan offers, a paid Pro plan provides unlimited completions, additional models like o1 and Gemini, and expanded usage.

Recent GitHub Copilot Enhancements

Copilot Edits (Multi-File Editing)

Interactively apply edits across multiple files using prompts. This feature lets you, for example, build complete apps or make sweeping code changes via chat.

  • Try it: Open Copilot Edits from the chat sidebar; see changes applied across files.
  • Learn more

Model Selection

Choose the AI model for each task (e.g., GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet). Match the model to your workflow needs.

Custom Instructions

Specify coding preferences at editor or project level. Using a .github/copilot-instructions.md file, teams can enforce styles and practices across projects with Copilot following these guidelines automatically. Details

Project Awareness and Participants

Mention @workspace and other “participants” in chat to leverage AI-powered domain expertise of the project context.

  • Intent Detection: Copilot can automatically understand when full project context is required.
  • Slash Commands: Get quick help and discover all available participants.

Naming and Refactoring Support

Copilot suggests variable or function names based on implementation and usage. Use the F2 key to rename symbols smarter.

Voice Interaction

Enable voice chat with the VS Code Speech extension for hands-free coding.

Terminal Chat

Interact with Copilot directly in the terminal (Cmd/Ctrl + i), get help fixing commands, or ask for explanations.

Commit Message Generation

Copilot can suggest commit messages based on code changes and prior history. Further customize using your own instructions. Learn more

Extensibility and Integrations

Every VS Code extension can integrate with Copilot’s APIs—see examples like the MongoDB extension. Tutorials are available for developing your own chatbot participants or AI-powered features.

Upcoming Features: Vision Copilot

The preview Vision Copilot extension enables generating UIs from screenshots or markups, with future integration into Copilot to require no separate API keys.

Using Copilot Beyond VS Code

While currently focused on VS Code, plans are underway for similar Copilot free offerings in Visual Studio and GitHub.com. Read more about what’s coming on the VS Team blog.

Getting Started and Learning More

To make the most of Copilot:

Summary

The free GitHub Copilot plan for VS Code brings powerful AI-driven coding assistance to all developers. From multi-file editing and natural language chat to extensibility and voice interaction, Copilot aims to redefine the code editor experience for 2025 and beyond.

Enable GitHub Copilot Free

Happy Coding!

Burke Holland

This post appeared first on “Visual Studio Code Releases”. Read the entire article here