Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing how we work in today’s world. It is affecting how we work, communicate, and solve problems. AI has helped to enhance our efficiency and open new possibilities across various sectors. In this article, I will be discussing JetBrains AI Assistant – AI Tool for [AI Coding Assistant] and exploring its features, user benefits, pros & cons, how it works, pricing and the impact they are making today.
JetBrains AI Assistant is an AI-based tool that has been embedded in JetBrains Integrated Development Environments (IDEs) such as IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, etc. It enables developers to have assistance based on their work with contextual information throughout the process of writing software. The assistant seeks to enable developers to increase productivity and code quality by automating some of the more tedious tasks, generating code, explaining complex code snippets, and assisting with multiple coding activities. This eliminates the need for developers to move out of their preferred IDE environment.
What is JetBrains AI Assistant?
JetBrains AI Assistant is another big deal for the industry since it tightly integrates AI functionality into its industry-leading set of professional IDEs. Designed to be an AI pair programmer, GitHub Copilot utilizes large language models to understand the context of a project and offer relevant suggestions on code completions, refactoring, documentation, etc. The result enables developers to focus on their creative zone, offload less creative/repetitive tasks, turn around development cycles faster, and contribute to better code quality and developer efficiency as a whole on top of the entire JetBrains pile.
How JetBrains AI Assistant Works?
JetBrains AI Assistant works in a way that it uses third-party large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI (GPT-3, etc.) 5, GPT-4, and Gemini from Google, as well as JetBrains’ own proprietary models like Mellum trained for advanced code completion. With deep context awareness built in — knowing the full project and its structure, the related code and most recent files open, and also customizable inputs for a code base to offer more accurate and propositionally relevant suggestions. It uses approaches such as RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) to identify related files to be changed (in case of multi-file changes) and enhance the quality of AI responses. These AI models are built to provide code completion, explanations, and refactoring acts on natural language prompts and code context, and will be included directly inside the IDE.
Features of JetBrains AI Assistant:
- Context-aware code completion (single-line, multi-line, and whole code blocks)
- AI Chat with project context, allowing selection from various LLMs and local models
- Code generation from natural language descriptions directly in the editor
- Automatic documentation generation for functions, classes, and code snippets
- Commit message generation based on code changes
- Automated unit test generation to ensure code reliability and coverage
- AI-powered refactoring suggestions and explanations to improve code quality
- Explanation of code, regular expressions, SQL, cron, and runtime errors, along with fix suggestions
- Multi-file changes (Edit Mode) to apply modifications across several project files (Beta)
JetBrains AI Assistant is Perfect For:
- Developers already immersed in the JetBrains IDE ecosystem seeking integrated AI assistance
- Individuals and teams aiming to accelerate their coding speed and reduce time spent on boilerplate or repetitive tasks
- Programmers focused on improving code quality, maintainability, and adherence to best practices through AI-driven analysis and refactoring
- Those learning new programming languages, exploring unfamiliar codebases, or needing quick explanations of complex logic
- Developers looking to streamline version control by automating commit message generation and understanding commit history
Pros and Cons of JetBrains AI Assistant
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Deep, native integration with JetBrains IDEs | Limited to JetBrains ecosystem for optimal integration |
| Context-aware suggestions based on project structure | May not perform equally well across all programming languages or complex scenarios |
| Advanced refactoring and code analysis capabilities | Occasional issues with inline suggestions or generic answers for deep code analysis |
| Automates documentation and test case generation | Subscription cost for advanced features can be a barrier |
| Privacy-focused; user data/code not used for training generative models | Initial setup or potential difficulty removing the bundled plugin (though JetBrains is addressing this) |
| Supports a choice of cloud and local AI models | The free tier has credit-based limits for cloud-based AI assistance |
| Significantly improves developer productivity and efficiency | Generated commit messages may need further refinement |
User Benefits of JetBrains AI Assistant:
- Increased Productivity: Automates routine tasks like generating documentation, tests, and commit messages, allowing developers to focus on more complex problem-solving.
- Improved Code Quality: Offers intelligent refactoring suggestions, bug detection, and context-aware recommendations that lead to cleaner, more efficient, and maintainable code.
- Faster Code Comprehension: Provides instant explanations of code snippets, regular expressions, or complex logic, aiding in understanding unfamiliar codebases or learning new concepts.
- Streamlined Workflows: Deeply integrated within JetBrains IDEs, ensuring a natural and continuous development experience without switching tools.
- Reduced Errors and Debugging Time: Proactively flags potential issues and suggests fixes for runtime errors, helping to catch bugs earlier in the development process.
- Enhanced Learning: Acts as a knowledgeable assistant, providing insights and suggestions that can help developers learn best practices and new approaches on the fly.
How Can JetBrains AI Assistant Help Me Improve My Experience?
JetBrains AI Assistant enhances a user experience to a level much higher than before, ideally providing AI abilities within their IDE of choice, allowing them to remain in a flow state without context switching. It provides instant, context-aware help for a range of tasks — from smart code completion and generation to refactoring and error explanation — making development easier and more productive, streamlining the process. Just the ability to have conversations with the AI regarding project-specific queries, the auto-generation of boilerplate code, and suggestions that are in line with the current codebase promotes a collaborative coding experience. This ultimately feels less like a chore and more like a productive and entertaining experience.
Pricing and Licensing
| Plan | Price (Individual, Per Year) | Features |
|---|---|---|
| AI Free | Free | Unlimited code completion, access to local AI models, credit-based usage of cloud AI assistance. |
| AI Pro | $100.00 (or $10/month) | AI-assisted coding, extensive AI chat usage, limited Junie usage (10 AI Credits/month). Often included with JetBrains All Products Pack or dotUltimate subscriptions. |
| AI Ultimate | $300.00 | Larger credit quota for more demanding workflows, daily coding with Junie (35 AI Credits/month). |
| AI Enterprise | Contact Sales | On-premises installation, customization of AI models for specific codebases, tailored for organizational needs. |
*Note: All paid plans require an active commercial JetBrains IDE product license.
Alternatives to JetBrains AI Assistant AI tool:
- GitHub Copilot: An AI coding assistant offering real-time code suggestions, code generation, and chat functionality across a broad range of IDEs and languages.
- Cursor: An AI-first code editor that provides intelligent code completion, natural language chat for explanations and debugging, and inline code edits using AI.
- Tabnine: An AI-driven code completion and generation tool that integrates with major IDEs, known for its privacy features and ability to be customized to team codebases.
- Codeium: A free AI-powered coding assistant that offers fast, AI-powered code completion, chat, and generation with extensive IDE support.
- Amazon CodeWhisperer: An AI coding companion designed for developers working within AWS environments, providing code suggestions, testing, and security scans.
- Google Gemini CLI: A command-line interface that brings Google Gemini’s capabilities directly into the developer’s terminal for code generation and assistance.
- Cody by Sourcegraph: An advanced AI coding assistant that integrates with popular IDEs to provide AI-driven chat, code autocompletion, and inline editing with codebase awareness.
FAQs
Q: What is JetBrains AI Assistant?
A: JetBrains AI Assistant is an AI-powered tool integrated into JetBrains IDEs that helps developers with intelligent code suggestions, documentation generation, refactoring, and other coding tasks.
Q: Which JetBrains IDEs support AI Assistant?
A: JetBrains AI Assistant is available across most JetBrains IDEs, including IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, PhpStorm, ReSharper, GoLand, and Fleet.
Q: Does JetBrains AI Assistant use my code for training its models?
A: No, JetBrains states that any data sent to the AI service is not used for training generative models, and on-device models for completion do not send data off-device.
Q: What is the difference between JetBrains AI Assistant and Junie?
A: JetBrains AI Assistant provides context-aware help and suggestions to complement your workflow, while Junie is an AI agent designed for more autonomous, multi-step tasks like planning, writing, refining, and testing code.
Q: Are there different pricing tiers for JetBrains AI Assistant?
A: Yes, JetBrains AI Assistant offers AI Free, AI Pro, AI Ultimate, and AI Enterprise tiers, each with varying levels of access to cloud-based AI features and credit quotas.