Best for
Best for developers already working in JetBrains IDEs who want AI completion, chat and the Junie agent under one subscription.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
AI Code Comparison
JetBrains AI Assistant vs. Kilo Code
At a glance
At a glance
Best for
Best for developers who want an open-source agent and want to pay for model calls at cost.
- Freelancers
- Small and mid-sized
- Enterprise
Cataleo does not name a winner. Both statements come from the vendors themselves.
Full Comparison
| Criterion | JetBrains AI Assistant | Kilo Code |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | Free tier; AI Pro $20 / month AI Ultimate $60 per month. Each tier includes a monthly AI credit quota, 3 on AI Free, 20 on Pro and 70 on Ultimate, and 1 credit equals 1 US dollar of third-party model usage. AI Enterprise is sold to organisations. | lower value Free and open source; Teams $15 / user / month Inference is billed separately: exact provider rates through the Kilo Gateway with no markup, your own keys, or an optional Kilo Pass credit subscription at $19, $49 or $199 a month. Enterprise is quoted. Cloud compute is billed per second, Gas Town at $1.20 an hour and code review at $0.33. |
| Free trial | Free tier (AI Free) | Free plan for individuals; a 14-day Enterprise trial for teams |
| Commercial use | Yes | Yes, the source is MIT licensed |
| Output | Code completion, chat, generation and coding agents inside JetBrains IDEs | Code, refactors, pull-request reviews and agent sessions |
| API | No, the assistant is used inside JetBrains IDEs | Yes, the Kilo Gateway is a single endpoint to hundreds of models, with streaming, BYOK and usage tracking |
| Hosting | Not stated | Cloud (SaaS), with editor extensions and a CLI on your own machine |
| Where it runs | JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, GoLand, PhpStorm, Rider, CLion, RubyMine, RustRover, DataGrip, DataSpell) as a Marketplace plugin, not bundled and disabled by default | VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin for IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm and others, a CLI installed with npm, cloud agents, Slack and mobile apps |
| Inline completions | Yes, in-editor completion of lines and blocks in your coding style, plus chat, code generation, documentation and tests | Yes, fill-in-the-middle autocomplete routed through the Kilo Gateway, on by default as ghost text accepted with Tab, using Codestral by default or Mercury Edit 2 with your own Inception key; a status bar item snoozes it |
| Agent mode | Yes, JetBrains' own Junie agent for multi-step tasks, and Claude Agent, Codex and GitHub Copilot agents can be driven from the same place | Yes, Code, Architect, Debug, Ask and custom modes, an automated pull-request code reviewer, and an Agent Manager running parallel worktree-isolated local and cloud sessions |
| Model choice | Yes, models through the JetBrains AI service, a provider key of your own, or local models via Ollama, LM Studio and other OpenAI-compatible servers | Yes, more than 500 models across over 60 providers through the Kilo Gateway, Auto Model routing across Frontier, Efficient and Free tiers, your own Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure or AWS Bedrock keys, and local models with Ollama or LM Studio |
| Data control | Local models can be used for chat, code generation, commit messages and inline documentation; AI Enterprise adds organization-level controls | MIT-licensed source with the prompt and context window open to inspection and no silent model switching; Teams adds data privacy controls and shared BYOK, Enterprise adds SSO, OIDC and SCIM, audit logs and limits on which models and providers may be used |
| Ecosystem fit | Deeply integrated into JetBrains IDEs and their refactoring and inspection tools | MCP servers, GitHub integration for automated pull-request reviews, plugins, shell integration, custom rules and shared agent modes |
| Deployment | Cloud (SaaS) | more entries Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based |
| Support | more entries Email helpdesk, Community forum | Community forum |
| Onboarding | more entries Documentation and knowledge base, Video tutorials | Documentation and knowledge base |
| Company size | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise | Freelancers, Small and mid-sized, Enterprise |
| Integrations | Ollama, LM Studio, GitHub Copilot | more entries GitHub, Slack, Ollama, LM Studio |
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The short version
Key Differences
- Starting price JetBrains AI Assistant Free tier; AI Pro $20 / month Kilo Code Free and open source; Teams $15 / user / month
- Free trial JetBrains AI Assistant Free tier (AI Free) Kilo Code Free plan for individuals; a 14-day Enterprise trial for teams
- Deployment JetBrains AI Assistant Cloud (SaaS) Kilo Code Cloud (SaaS), Browser-based
- Support JetBrains AI Assistant Email helpdesk, Community forum Kilo Code Community forum
- Commercial use JetBrains AI Assistant Yes Kilo Code Yes, the source is MIT licensed
Every line is one datapoint from the table above, picked automatically. Nothing here is written text.
The trade-offs
Strengths and Limitations
JetBrains AI Assistant
Strengths
- Deeply integrated into JetBrains IDEs and their refactoring and inspection tools
- One subscription covers AI Assistant and the Junie agent, and external agents can be driven from the same chat
- Local models via Ollama or LM Studio work for chat, generation, commit messages and documentation
- The credit quota is denominated in dollars, so usage is legible before it runs out
Limitations
- Only useful inside JetBrains IDEs, and AI Free is unavailable in Android Studio and the Community editions
- Cloud features are metered by a monthly AI credit allowance, with top-ups sold separately
- The plugin is not bundled and is disabled by default, so it has to be installed and enabled
Kilo Code
Strengths
- MIT licensed, with the prompt, context window and decisions open to inspection
- Model calls billed at exact provider rates with no markup, or run on your own keys and local models
- One account across VS Code, JetBrains, the CLI, cloud agents, Slack and mobile
Limitations
- Usage is metered per model call rather than per seat, so budgeting takes attention
- Kilo Deploy has reached end of life and is closed to new users
Plans
Pricing
JetBrains AI Assistant
- AI Free $0 3 AI credits per 30 days, no top-ups. Not available in Android Studio, PyCharm Community or IntelliJ IDEA Community.
- AI Pro $20 Per month. 20 AI credits per 30 days, top-ups available.
- AI Ultimate $60 Per month. 70 AI credits per 30 days, top-ups available.
- AI Enterprise Custom For organizations. Quota on par with AI Ultimate or higher.
Kilo Code
- Free & Open Source $0 For individuals. Open-source VS Code, JetBrains and CLI extensions; usage is billed separately.
- Teams $15 Per user per month. Usage analytics, shared agent modes, shared BYOK, centralised billing, data privacy controls and priority support.
- Enterprise Custom SSO, OIDC and SCIM, audit logs, model and provider limits, a shared private gateway and SLA commitments.
- Kilo Pass From $19 Per month. Optional credit subscription for inference, at $19, $49 or $199, with up to 50 percent bonus credits.
What users say
Review Scores · opens after launch
JetBrains AI Assistant
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Kilo Code
- Ease of use
- Not rated yet
- User interface
- Not rated yet
- Onboarding
- Not rated yet
- Support and service
- Not rated yet
- Value for money
- Not rated yet
- Features
- Not rated yet
No reviews yet. Be the first to review this tool. Every review is checked for fairness before it appears, and the vendor cannot have one removed.
Where this comes from
Where this comes from
JetBrains AI Assistant https://www.jetbrains.com/ai/ · checked against the official source on 2026-08-30
Kilo Code https://kilo.ai · checked against the official source on 2026-09-10
This table lists factual criteria taken from information the vendors publish themselves. For how we put it together, see the methodology.