PDFAITools
Continue
Open-source AI code assistant. Bring your own model (GPT, Claude, Ollama) to VS Code or JetBrains.
What is Continue?
What is Continue?
Continue is a free, open-source AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs that takes a bring-your-own-model approach. Rather than locking you into a single AI provider, Continue lets you connect any language model — GPT-4, Claude, Llama, Mistral, or locally-running Ollama models — giving developers complete flexibility over their AI backend, cost, and privacy trade-offs.
Open and Model-Agnostic
The open-source nature and model flexibility are Continue's core advantages. Developers can use the most powerful cloud models for complex tasks and switch to a free local model for routine completions — all within the same interface. Teams can self-host the entire stack for complete code privacy. The platform supports tab completion, inline editing, a chat sidebar, and codebase-aware context retrieval.
- Connect any AI model: GPT-4, Claude, Ollama, Llama, and more
- Local model support via Ollama for full privacy
- Tab completion with context-aware suggestions
- Chat sidebar for coding questions and generation
- Codebase indexing for relevant context retrieval
Who Uses Continue
Continue is popular with privacy-conscious developers, teams with specific model preferences, developers who want to use local open-source models without cost, and engineers who need the flexibility to choose different AI backends for different use cases.
Key Features
Connect any AI model — GPT-4, Claude, Mistral, Llama, or local Ollama.
Run completely offline with local models via Ollama for full privacy.
Context-aware inline code completions while you type.
Ask questions, generate code, and get explanations in a chat interface.
Index your codebase for semantically relevant context in AI responses.
Who Uses Continue?
Use local models to keep all code and queries completely off-cloud.
Mix free local models for completions with paid models for complex chat.
Switch between models to compare coding assistance quality.
Deploy with organization-approved models and self-hosted infrastructure.
Pros & Cons
✅ Pros
- Open-source and free — no subscription required
- Model flexibility is unmatched among AI coding assistants
- Local model support provides true code privacy
- Active open-source community with rapid development
- Supports both VS Code and JetBrains IDEs
❌ Cons
- Requires configuration to connect models — less plug-and-play than competitors
- Quality depends entirely on the model you configure
- Less polished UX than commercial products
- Local models require capable hardware for good performance
Continue Pricing
Open Source
- Full feature access
- Bring any model
- VS Code & JetBrains
- Community support
Enterprise
- Managed deployment
- Team configuration
- Priority support
- Custom integrations
Continue earns a 4.2/5 rating from our editorial team. It's completely free to use with no hidden costs, making it one of the most accessible tools in the Development space. Standout strengths include open-source and free — no subscription required and model flexibility is unmatched among ai coding assistants.
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