AI Tool Review

Is JetBrains AI Assistant worth it in 2026?

Plan prices since 2025 from JetBrains’ store and archive captures, the AI credit meter, and what users wrote about the plugin.

By Louis Corneloup·Updated October 27, 2026

The quick answer

<strong>AI Pro costs $10 a month or $100 a year, and AI Ultimate costs $30 a month or $300 a year, with no change in those list prices across the five US-dollar archive captures read for this page, dated September 3, 2025 to October 9, 2026.</strong> For a developer who works in a JetBrains IDE most days, AI Pro is the plan to start with, on yearly billing if you will keep it for twelve months. The open question is the credit meter: AI Pro gives 10 AI credits a month, and a January 2026 user report describes credits being spent while the chat window stayed blank.

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JetBrains has kept AI Pro at $10 a month and AI Ultimate at $30 a month in the five US-dollar archive captures of its buy page read for this page (September 3, 2025; December 9, 2025; January 28, 2026; June 17, 2026; October 9, 2026). As of October 25, 2026, the store page prints $100.00 per user, per year for AI Pro and $300.00 for AI Ultimate, with a “save 2 months” label on the Yearly billing option. The April 16, 2025 capture prints the same figures in euros, a currency display rather than a price change.

JetBrains AI plans against the tools people compare them with (list prices, October 25, 2026)

JetBrains: store page (yearly) and help center (monthly). GitHub, Cursor and Claude: their own pricing pages. Monthly list prices; each vendor meters usage in its own unit.

Plan	Monthly price	Usage basis as printed
JetBrains AI Pro	$10 a month, or $100 a year	10 monthly AI credits (store); 1 AI credit = $1 USD of AI use (help center)
JetBrains AI Ultimate	$30 a month, or $300 a year	35 monthly AI credits (store)
GitHub Copilot Pro	$10 a month	Monthly allowance; 1 AI credit = $0.01
GitHub Copilot Pro+	$39 a month	Monthly allowance
Cursor Plus	$8 a month	Third-party models billed separately by usage
Cursor Premium	$30 a month	Third-party models billed separately by usage
Cursor Ultra	$200 a month	Third-party models billed separately by usage
Claude Pro	$20 a month, or $17 a month billed annually	Usage limits
Claude Max	From $100 a month	Max 5x and 20x tiers at $100 and $200 a month

What you get

✓The yearly option saves $20 on AI Pro and $60 on AI Ultimate, labelled “save 2 months” on the store page.
✓AI Free costs nothing and includes three AI credits every 30 days.
✓The store lists Junie, Claude Agent, Codex and Gemini under AI Pro, inside the IDE.

The trade-offs

✕Credits run down: a January 2026 user report describes credits being spent while the chat window stayed blank.
✕Removal history: in December 2023 users said the bundled plugin could be disabled but not uninstalled, until the 2024.1 unbundling.
✕AI Free has edition limits: it needs an Ultimate subscription in IntelliJ IDEA or a Pro subscription in PyCharm, and it is not offered in Android Studio.
✕Organization pricing doubles: $20 USD and $60 USD per user for AI Pro and AI Ultimate, with 20 and 70 credits.

Worth it if…

→You work in IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm or another JetBrains IDE most days.
→Ten credits a month is enough for your work, and you will keep the subscription for the full year.
→You want agents such as Junie and Claude Agent inside the IDE.

Skip it if…

→You want the free tier in an edition that does not qualify for it.
→You run agent sessions most of the working day, since 35 credits may run out before the month does.
→You are buying for a team and want fixed seat prices, since organizations buy credits in any amount.

What each plan costs on monthly and yearly billing

The store page prints $100.00 per user, per year for AI Pro and $300.00 for AI Ultimate. The help center’s individual table prints “$10 USD” and “$30 USD” beside 30-day credit allowances, and the October 9, 2026 capture prints monthly prices of $10.00 and $30.00, with yearly-per-month figures of $8.33 and $25.00. Twelve monthly payments cost $120 and $360, so yearly billing saves $20 and $60.

The help center’s organization table lists AI Pro at $20 USD with 20 credits and AI Ultimate at $60 USD with 70, which the archive captures show as commercial monthly prices of $20.00 and $60.00. For organizations moved to JetBrains Central, the help page says “AI access is managed separately from product licenses”.

How has the price changed since 2025?

Five US-dollar captures of the buy page, dated September 3, 2025, December 9, 2025, January 28, 2026, June 17, 2026 and October 9, 2026, print the same list prices, including commercial prices of $20 and $60 a month. The April 16, 2025 capture prints the same numbers in euros. Across that range, the list price has not changed.

The captured price data lists AI Pro and AI Ultimate. The archive captures do not list AI Free; the store page lists it with 3 monthly credits at no charge.

The plugin itself changed in March 2024. JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA 2024.1 Beta post, dated March 7, 2024, says “AI Assistant has been unbundled and is now available as a separate plugin”.

In October 2026 JetBrains published a post on Air, a plugin for running coding agents inside its IDEs on October 1. It says “AI Assistant will remain available and supported as a separate plugin you can install from the marketplace.”

What do users say about JetBrains AI Assistant?

As of October 25, 2026, the JetBrains Marketplace listing for the AI Assistant plugin prints a two-star rating in its page metadata, with no review count next to it.

Early complaints were about removal. On a December 19, 2023 thread about the bundled plugin, one commenter wrote, “I thought it was going to be part of my subscription.” A December 20 comment in the same thread said “You can’t uninstall it, you can only disable it.”

The credit meter draws the recent complaints. On January 30, 2026, a commenter in a Hacker News thread said the assistant was “suddenly showing only blank window, nothing else”, then added: “But I can see my credits are being spent!”

On October 15, 2026, a commenter in a Hacker News thread about Air wrote, “Got an email that the Jetbrains AI Assistant is eventually going away and will be replaced by Air in all Jetbrain's IDEs.” JetBrains’ October 1, 2026 post says “AI Assistant will remain available and supported as a separate plugin you can install from the marketplace,” and also that it expects Air to become “the primary experience for agentic workflows in JetBrains IDEs” over time. The post does not confirm the commenter’s “going away” report, but it does not rule out a shift toward Air.

How the credit quota works

One AI credit equals USD 1.00 of AI use, charged in your local currency. Credits renew every 30 days from first activation, and the store FAQ says “Unused credits don’t roll over.” Purchased credits are valid for 12 months. Usage of third-party models in JetBrains AI is billed at public API rates with no surcharge. With your own provider key, usage is billed by the provider and does not use JetBrains AI credits.

AI Free includes three credits every 30 days, and AI Pro has a free 30-day trial. The store FAQ says the All Products Pack and dotUltimate include 10 credits every 30 days for individual users. It also says AI Free is not available in IntelliJ IDEA without an Ultimate subscription, in PyCharm without a Pro subscription, or in Android Studio.

Academy data: Of the 4 packs in our library whose SEO title contains the word coding, counted on October 25, 2026, none names JetBrains AI Assistant. The JetBrains prices on this page come from JetBrains’ pages or their archive captures; the GitHub, Cursor and Claude prices come from those vendors’ pricing pages. For coding prompts, our Claude Prompts for Coding pack is the next stop.

Price against the tools people compare it with

As of October 25, 2026, GitHub’s plans page lists Copilot Pro at $10 a month and Pro+ at $39. Cursor’s pricing page lists Plus at $8 a month, Premium at $30 and Ultra at $200. Claude’s pricing page lists Pro at $17 a month billed annually or $20 billed monthly, and Max from $100.

AI Pro matches Copilot Pro, sits $2 above Cursor Plus and $10 below Claude Pro’s monthly rate. AI Ultimate matches Cursor Premium and costs less than Copilot Pro+. The units differ: a JetBrains credit is worth $1 of AI use, and a GitHub AI credit is worth $0.01.

The verdict

For a developer who works in a JetBrains IDE most days, AI Pro is the plan to buy. At $10 a month it has the same list price as GitHub Copilot Pro, though the two credit meters use different units, and it keeps the assistant inside the IDE. Pay yearly if you will keep it for twelve months.

Move up to AI Ultimate if the 10-credit allowance runs out before the month does: it gives 3.5 times the credits for 3 times the price. What would change this verdict is a list-price change, which the archive does not show, or a change in the plugin’s availability or primary role, which JetBrains’ October 2026 post addresses only in part.

Better alternatives?

If it is not the right fit, these are worth a look.

GitHub Copilot

Pro at $10 a month and Pro+ at $39, per GitHub’s plans page on October 25, 2026. Our review covers its plans.

Compare →

Cursor

Plus at $8 a month and Premium at $30, per Cursor’s pricing page on October 25, 2026. Our review covers its tiers.

Compare →

Claude Code

Claude Pro at $20 a month, or $17 billed annually, per Claude’s pricing page on October 25, 2026.