development
Best AI IDEs and Code Editors
The best AI IDEs and code editors ranked on developer surveys, user ratings and analyst reports: VS Code with your choice of coding agent, Cursor, JetBrains IDEs and Zed, with AI plan prices, plus Devin Desktop, Kiro, Antigravity and the agents that run inside them.
Quick answer: The best AI IDE for most people is Visual Studio Code with the coding agent of your choice, because 70.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey use VS Code regularly, it rates 4.7 from 2,742 G2 reviews, and every major coding agent runs inside it: Claude Code, used by 65.5% of coding-agent users in the same survey, GitHub Copilot (58.7%, with a free tier) and OpenAI Codex (29.5%). The editor is free, so you pay only for the agent, and you can switch agents without changing editors. For the most AI-centred editor, Cursor is the pick, because it is the most-used AI-first editor (14.9% in the same survey), rates 4.6 from 329 G2 reviews and is a Leader in Gartner’s 2026 report on AI coding agents. If you write Java, Kotlin or other JetBrains-first languages, IntelliJ IDEA and the other JetBrains IDEs with JetBrains AI are the better choice. If speed and openness matter most, Zed is the pick, with the highest loyalty of any widely used AI editor in the survey (57.3% admired). The one caveat: Cursor is now owned by SpaceX, its $8 plan offers only Grok models, and OpenAI says it will stop supplying its models to Cursor on 12 November 2026.
This page ranks the editor you work in: the IDE or code editor, and the AI built into it. For the models and assistants behind the code, see best AI for coding. For agents that browse and complete general online tasks, see best AI agents. For bots that check a pull request after it is written, see best AI code review. To build your own agent, see best AI agent frameworks. For marketing sites built from a prompt, see best AI website builders.
Which one should you pick?
| If you want | Pick | AI price | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| The best all-round AI editor | VS Code + the agent you choose | Editor free; Copilot Free or Pro $10; Claude Code with Claude Pro $20; Codex with ChatGPT plans | 70.9% regular use (Stack Overflow 2026); G2 4.7 from 2,742 reviews; every major agent runs in it |
| An editor built around AI from the ground up | Cursor | Free; Plus $8, Premium $30 a month | Most-used AI-first editor (14.9%); G2 4.6 from 329 reviews; Gartner Leader |
| Java, Kotlin, Python or .NET in a full IDE | JetBrains IDEs + JetBrains AI | AI Free; AI Pro from $10 a month | IntelliJ IDEA 24.3% regular use and 53.3% admired; G2 4.6 from 2,393 reviews |
| A fast, open-source editor that works with any agent | Zed | Free with your own keys; Pro $10 a month | 11.4% regular use and 57.3% admired, the highest loyalty of any widely used AI editor |
What counts as an AI IDE now
Three kinds of product get called an AI IDE, and they are not the same thing:
| Type | What it is | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Established editor with AI built in | A mainstream editor where the AI comes as a built-in assistant or a plugin | VS Code + GitHub Copilot, JetBrains IDEs + JetBrains AI, Visual Studio + Copilot |
| AI-first editor | An editor designed around chat, agents and AI edits, usually a fork of VS Code | Cursor, Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf), Kiro, Trae; Zed is the main one built from scratch |
| Agent app or extension | An agent that runs inside, or beside, an editor rather than replacing it | Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cline, Kilo Code, Google Antigravity 2.0 |
The line is blurring. Most editors now include an agent that edits many files at once, and most agents now ship an editor extension. The practical question is which editor you want to live in, and then which AI you plug into it.
How we ranked
Editors are ranked on independent evidence: how many developers use them and want to keep using them in the Stack Overflow 2026 Developer Survey (13,193 answers to the IDE question), user ratings with real volume behind them on G2, and analyst placement in Gartner’s May 2026 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise AI Coding Agents. “Admired” is the share of current users who want to keep using the tool. Vendor claims are labelled as such. Editors without enough independent evidence are under other tools worth knowing.
Best AI IDEs and code editors ranked
| Rank | Editor | Best for | Regular use (Stack Overflow 2026) | Admired | User rating | AI plans |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | VS Code + your choice of agent | Most developers | 70.9% | 55.7% | G2 4.7 (2,742) | Editor free; Copilot Free or from $10; Claude Code with Claude Pro $20; Codex with ChatGPT plans |
| 2 | Cursor | AI-first editing and agents | 14.9% | 33.0% | G2 4.6 (329); Gartner Peer Insights 4.6 (100) | Free; Plus $8; Premium $30; Super $100; Ultra $200 a month |
| 3 | JetBrains IDEs + JetBrains AI | Java, Kotlin, Python, .NET | IntelliJ IDEA 24.3%; PyCharm 13.5% | IntelliJ 53.3%; PyCharm 49.7% | G2 4.6 (2,393) for IntelliJ IDEA | AI Free; AI Pro from $10; AI Ultimate from $30 a month |
| 4 | Zed | Speed, open source, bring your own agent | 11.4% | 57.3% | No volume of reviews | Free; Pro $10 a month; Business $30 a seat |
The top picks, reviewed
1. VS Code with the agent of your choice: best AI IDE overall
Visual Studio Code is free and open source, and it is the editor most developers already use: 70.9% use it regularly and 55.7% of its users want to keep using it, per the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. It rates 4.7 from 2,742 reviews on G2.
What wins it the top spot is choice. VS Code is the one editor every major coding agent supports: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cline, Kilo Code, Continue and Augment Code all run inside it, so you keep the editor and pick, or change, the AI. The three most-used agents in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey all work in VS Code:
- Claude Code, used by 65.5% of coding-agent users in the past year, comes with Claude Pro at $20 a month and the Max and Ultra plans.
- GitHub Copilot, used by 58.7%, is built into VS Code and is the only one with a free tier. GitHub is a Leader in Gartner’s 2026 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise AI Coding Agents, published 20 May 2026, and Copilot rates 4.4 from 399 reviews on G2.
- OpenAI Codex, used by 29.5%, comes with ChatGPT plans.
Anthropic and OpenAI are also Leaders in the same Gartner report. For the agents in more depth, see AI agents that run inside your editor below and best AI for coding.
Copilot pricing. Copilot moved to usage-based billing on 1 June 2026, with AI credits charged at each model’s API rate. Code completions and next-edit suggestions do not use credits. The individual plans are:
- Free: up to 2,000 completions a month and limited chat and agent use, with automatic model choice only.
- Pro, $10 a month: unlimited completions and 1,500 AI credits a month.
- Pro+, $39 a month: 7,000 AI credits a month.
- Max, $100 a month: 20,000 AI credits a month.
Students get a free Copilot Student plan, and Pro is free for verified teachers and maintainers of popular open-source projects. Business is $19 and Enterprise $39 per user per month. Under usage billing, heavy agent use costs more and is harder to forecast than the old flat plans, and Copilot no longer falls back to a cheaper model when credits run out.
2. Cursor: best AI-first editor
Cursor is a VS Code fork built around AI: tab completion, chat, multi-file agents, cloud agents and its own Composer models. It is the most-used AI-first editor, at 14.9% regular use in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey, and 25.5% of coding-agent users used it in the past year. It rates 4.6 from 329 reviews on G2, and Cursor is a Leader in Gartner’s 2026 AI coding agents report.
Cursor’s own model, Composer 2.5, launched on 18 May 2026. At launch, Artificial Analysis scored it 62 on its Coding Agent Index, third among the agents it tested, at $0.07 per task against $4.10 for Claude Opus 4.7 in Claude Code, which scored 66.
The ownership change. SpaceX’s $60 billion all-stock purchase of Cursor’s maker, Anysphere, closed on 14 August 2026. The plans have since been rebuilt around Grok and bundled with xAI’s other apps:
- Free: limited agent and chat requests.
- Plus, $8 a month: a shared usage pool across Cursor and Grok apps; only Grok models are available.
- Premium, $30 a month: four times Plus usage, the latest Grok models and cloud agents; other companies’ models are billed separately at API list price.
- Super, $100 a month and Ultra, $200 a month: 15 and 50 times Plus usage.
OpenAI says it will stop supplying its models to Cursor on 12 November 2026, and that future models such as GPT-6 Astra won’t be offered there. OpenAI’s models stay available through ChatGPT, the Codex extension and OpenAI’s API.
The trade-off. Cursor’s users are less attached to it than VS Code’s or Zed’s: 33.0% of users want to keep using it, against 55.7% for VS Code and 57.3% for Zed. If you want Claude or GPT models without paying API rates on top of a subscription, VS Code with Copilot or an agent extension is the simpler route.
3. JetBrains IDEs with JetBrains AI: best for Java, Kotlin and full-IDE work
JetBrains’ IDEs are among the most admired full IDEs. IntelliJ IDEA is used regularly by 24.3% of developers and admired by 53.3%; PyCharm is at 13.5% and 49.7%; Rider is admired by 56.9% and WebStorm by 55.2%, per the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. IntelliJ IDEA rates 4.6 from 2,393 reviews on G2.
The AI comes as JetBrains AI: the AI Assistant for chat and completion, and Junie, JetBrains’ coding agent. You can also bring your own API keys or run local models. JetBrains’ own AI is less widely used than its IDEs: 12.8% of coding-agent users in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey used JetBrains AI in the past year, and Gartner places JetBrains as a Niche Player for AI coding agents. Claude Code, Codex, Kilo Code, Continue and Augment Code all work inside JetBrains IDEs, so you are not tied to JetBrains AI.
Pricing. Per JetBrains’ licensing page, where one credit equals $1:
- AI Free: 3 credits every 30 days; not available in Android Studio or Community editions.
- AI Pro: from $10 a month, and included with the All Products Pack and dotUltimate.
- AI Ultimate: from $30 a month.
- AI Enterprise: $60 per user a month, billed annually.
The IDE licence is separate from the AI plan.
4. Zed: best for speed and openness
Zed is an open-source editor written from scratch rather than forked from VS Code. It is used regularly by 11.4% of developers and admired by 57.3%, the highest loyalty of any AI editor with real scale in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey. It also has more developers wanting to use it next year (9.7%) than Cursor (7.9%).
Zed’s selling point is that the AI is open-ended. Its hosted models include Claude and GPT models, per Zed’s docs, and it connects to your own keys for Anthropic, Amazon Bedrock, OpenRouter, Ollama and others. It also runs external agents such as Claude Code and Codex inside the editor.
Pricing. Per Zed’s pricing page:
- Free: the full editor, with your own API keys or external agents but no Zed-hosted AI.
- Pro, $10 a month: $5 of model usage included, then API list price plus 10%, and unlimited edit predictions.
- Business: $30 per seat a month.
The trade-off. Zed has a smaller extension ecosystem than VS Code and no volume of G2 reviews yet, so its ranking rests on the survey.
AI agents that run inside your editor
Most developers now pair an editor with an agent. These are the agents that matter most inside VS Code, JetBrains and Zed, ranked on use in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey (12,255 respondents):
| Agent | Used in past year | Works in | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 65.5% | Terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, Zed, desktop | Included with Claude Pro, $20 a month, Max and Ultra |
| GitHub Copilot | 58.7% | VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains, GitHub | Free; Pro $10 a month |
| OpenAI Codex | 29.5% | Terminal, VS Code, desktop, cloud | Included with ChatGPT plans |
| Cline | 4.5% | VS Code (JetBrains on Teams) | Free with your own API key |
| Continue | 3.8% | VS Code, JetBrains | Open source; paid team plans |
| Kilo Code | 3.2% | VS Code, JetBrains, terminal | Free extension; paid Kilo Pass |
Claude Code also leads JetBrains’ mid-2026 survey: about 39% of professional developers used it at work, about twice the share for GitHub Copilot. For the models behind these agents, see best AI for coding.
Other tools worth knowing (not ranked)
These tools are real and widely discussed, but there isn’t enough independent evidence yet, or their survey numbers are too low, to rank them.
More AI-first editors
| Editor | What it is | Price | Why it isn’t ranked |
|---|---|---|---|
| Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) | Cognition’s VS Code fork, renamed from Windsurf in June 2026 and now the desktop client for Cognition’s Devin agent, with its own SWE-1.6 model | Free; Pro $20; Max $200 a month; Teams from $80 a month | Windsurf had the lowest loyalty of any editor in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey (3.2% use, 22.7% admired) and 35 G2 reviews; Cognition is a Challenger in Gartner’s 2026 AI coding agents report |
| Kiro | Amazon’s AI editor and agent | Free (50 credits); Pro $20; Pro+ $40; Pro Max $100; Power $200 a month | 2.8% regular use and 31.2% admired; little user-review data yet |
| Google Antigravity | Google’s agent-first coding app; version 2.0 is an agent “mission control” app and CLI, with the original editor kept as Antigravity IDE | Free tier; higher limits through Google AI plans | 0.4% use it as an IDE, though 16.0% of agent users tried it; version 2.0 moved away from being an editor |
| Trae | ByteDance’s VS Code-based AI editor with a SOLO agent mode | Low-cost paid plans | 0.7% regular use; few independent reviews |
Established editors with AI options
- Visual Studio: Microsoft’s full IDE for .NET and C++, used regularly by 27.6% of developers in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey, with GitHub Copilot built in on the same plans as VS Code.
- Neovim: the most-admired editor in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey at 69.9%. AI comes from plugins and terminal agents such as Claude Code and Codex, which suits developers who already live in the terminal.
AI extensions for any editor
- Augment Code: an agent for VS Code and JetBrains built around a context engine for large codebases; aimed at professional teams.
- Tabnine: an enterprise coding assistant, rated a Visionary by Gartner in 2026 and acquired by Tricentis in July 2026; paid plans from $39 per user a month, with no free tier.
- Amp: Sourcegraph’s coding agent, with a free tier and no markup on model costs.
- Warp: a terminal rebuilt as an agentic development environment rather than an editor; free plan, Build from $20 a month.
Gone or going
- Roo Code shut down on 15 May 2026; Kilo Code is the closest open-source replacement.
- Void, the open-source Cursor alternative, paused development in January 2026.
- Firebase Studio is closing: new workspaces were disabled from 22 June 2026 and it shuts down on 22 March 2027; Google points users to AI Studio and Antigravity.
AI plans compared
| Editor | Free tier | Entry paid plan | Higher tiers | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| VS Code + GitHub Copilot | 2,000 completions a month, limited chat and agent | Pro $10 a month | Pro+ $39, Max $100 | Multiple vendors, billed at API rates from credits |
| Cursor | Limited requests | Plus $8 a month (Grok only) | Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200 | Grok and Composer included; others at API list price |
| JetBrains AI | 3 credits a month | AI Pro from $10 a month | AI Ultimate from $30; Enterprise $60 | Multiple vendors, own keys or local models |
| Zed | Full editor with your own keys | Pro $10 a month | Business $30 a seat | Hosted models on Pro, or your own keys |
| Devin Desktop | Limited usage, unlimited Tab | Pro $20 a month | Max $200 | SWE-1.6 plus Claude, GPT and Gemini |
| Kiro | 50 credits a month | Pro $20 a month | Pro+ $40, Pro Max $100, Power $200 | Claude models plus open-weight models |
Prices are monthly in USD. Code completions are unmetered on most paid plans; agent work is what uses up credits.
Best AI IDE for each need
Best overall: VS Code with the agent of your choice
VS Code is the best AI IDE for most developers, because it is the most-used editor (70.9%), rates 4.7 from 2,742 G2 reviews, is free, and runs every major coding agent, from Claude Code and OpenAI Codex to GitHub Copilot.
Best AI-first editor: Cursor
Cursor is the best editor built around AI, because it is the most-used AI-first editor (14.9%) and a Gartner Leader, with fast, cheap Composer models; check its model plans first, as the $8 plan is Grok only.
Best for Java and Kotlin: IntelliJ IDEA
IntelliJ IDEA with JetBrains AI is the best choice for Java and Kotlin, because 24.3% of developers use it regularly, it rates 4.6 from 2,393 G2 reviews and runs Claude Code and Codex alongside its own AI.
Best for speed and open source: Zed
Zed is the best choice for a fast, open-source editor, because it has the highest loyalty of any widely used AI editor (57.3% admired) and lets you bring any model or agent.
Best for .NET: Visual Studio
Visual Studio is the best choice for .NET and C++ teams, because 27.6% of developers use it regularly and it has GitHub Copilot built in.
Best free option: VS Code with Copilot Free
VS Code with Copilot Free is the best free AI editor, because it gives up to 2,000 completions a month plus limited chat and agent use at no cost; Zed is free too if you bring your own API key.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best AI IDE?
The best AI IDE for most people is Visual Studio Code with the coding agent of your choice, because it is used regularly by 70.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow 2026 survey, rates 4.7 from 2,742 G2 reviews and runs every major agent: Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and OpenAI Codex, the three most-used, all work inside it. Cursor is the best AI-first editor, and Zed has the most loyal users.
What is the best AI code editor?
The best AI code editor for most developers is VS Code, paired with whichever coding agent you prefer. Cursor is the most-used editor built specifically around AI, at 14.9% regular use, and Zed is the best open-source option, with 57.3% of its users wanting to keep using it.
Is Cursor better than VS Code?
Cursor is built around AI and has its own fast Composer models, but VS Code is used by far more developers (70.9% against 14.9%) and keeps more of them (55.7% admired against 33.0%). Cursor’s plans now centre on Grok, with other companies’ models billed at API list price, while VS Code runs Claude Code, Codex or Copilot on their own plans, so VS Code is the safer default and Cursor suits developers who want an AI-first workflow.
What is the best free AI code editor?
VS Code with Copilot Free is the best free AI code editor, with up to 2,000 completions a month and limited chat and agent use. Zed is free with your own API key, and Cursor, Kiro and Devin Desktop all have limited free tiers.
What happened to Windsurf?
Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop in June 2026 by its owner, Cognition, and is now the desktop client for Cognition’s Devin agent. Pricing is Free, Pro at $20 a month and Max at $200 a month.
Is Cursor still worth it after the SpaceX deal?
Cursor is still the most-used AI-first editor, but SpaceX’s purchase closed on 14 August 2026, the $8 Plus plan offers only Grok models, and OpenAI says it will stop supplying its models to Cursor on 12 November 2026. It remains worth it if you like Grok and Composer models; if you want Claude or GPT models on a flat subscription, VS Code with Copilot or an agent extension is simpler.
What is the best AI IDE for Java?
IntelliJ IDEA with JetBrains AI is the best AI IDE for Java, because 24.3% of developers use it regularly, it rates 4.6 from 2,393 G2 reviews, and runs JetBrains’ Junie agent plus Claude Code, Codex and other agents.
Do I need an AI IDE or just an AI extension?
Most developers do not need to switch editors: Claude Code, OpenAI Codex and GitHub Copilot all run inside VS Code and JetBrains IDEs. An AI-first editor such as Cursor is worth it when you want AI edits, chat and agents designed into every part of the editor.
How much does an AI code editor cost?
Most AI code editors have a free tier and an entry plan between $8 and $20 a month: Cursor Plus is $8, GitHub Copilot Pro and Zed Pro are $10, and Kiro Pro and Devin Desktop Pro are $20. Heavy agent use costs more, with top individual plans at $100 to $200 a month.
What is the difference between an AI IDE and an AI coding agent?
An AI IDE is the editor you write and read code in, with AI built in. An AI coding agent takes a task, edits files across the project, runs tests and hands back a change, often from a terminal or the cloud. Most AI IDEs now include an agent, and most agents now plug into an IDE.