Open-source AI code assistant for VS Code and JetBrains with any model backend
Continue is an open-source AI code assistant extension for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs that connects to any AI model — OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, local Ollama models, or self-hosted LLMs — providing code completion, chat, and inline editing. Its open-source nature, model flexibility, and VS Code integration make it the most customisable AI coding plugin for developers who want control over their AI backend.
Continue is a strong fit if its core strengths match your workflow, budget, and support needs. Use the quick signals below before opening the full review.
Continue's position is: you should not have to switch editors to get a good AI coding assistant, and you should not be locked into a vendor's model or pricing. Its VS Code and JetBrains extensions provide chat, inline editing, and completion within the existing development environment, powered by whatever model the developer chooses.
Continue's configuration accepts any OpenAI-compatible API endpoint, any Anthropic model, Google Gemini, local Ollama models, and custom LLM servers. A developer can use Claude 3.5 Sonnet for complex chat, a fast local model for inline completions (preserving privacy and reducing latency), and GPT-4o for specific code generation tasks — all from the same plugin configured in a JSON file.
Continue's context system allows pulling external content into AI chat: @docs fetches documentation from a specified URL, @terminal pulls recent terminal output, @github references issues, and @codebase indexes the repository for semantic search. This extensible context model makes it adaptable to custom workflows that commercial tools with fixed context behaviour cannot accommodate.
Continue's open-source nature means teams can inspect every prompt template, modify system prompts, add custom context providers, and self-host the backend components. For teams with unique requirements — proprietary code context sources, custom model fine-tunes, or specific security policies — Continue provides a customisable foundation that commercial black-box tools cannot match.
Score: 7.8/10 — Best open-source AI assistant for existing VS Code/JetBrains users with model flexibility; configuration overhead versus drop-in commercial tools.
Free
Free billed annually
Continue is best for Developers who want AI code assistance in VS Code or JetBrains without leaving their existing editor or paying a platform fee, Privacy-conscious developers who want to run fully local AI models (Ollama, Llama.cpp) for code assistance without cloud API calls, Teams that want to customise AI assistant behaviour, prompts, and context sources beyond what commercial tools allow.
Yes. Continue currently lists a free plan in ToolRankr data.
It has a free plan.
Continue is reviewed using ToolRankr's scoring model for ease of use, value, features, support, and overall quality. Affiliate links may earn a commission, but sponsored labels do not change editorial scoring.
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