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Continue

Free
4.5/ 5.0

Continue is an open-source AI coding assistant for VSCode and JetBrains. Supports any LLM (OpenAI, Anthropic, local models via Ollama), MCP servers, slash commands, and custom prompts — designed for developer customization.

VSCodeJetBrainsOpen SourceMCPMulti-model
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VerdictUpdated May 2026 · Reviewed by AIToolPlex

✓ Best for

JetBrains users (PyCharm, IntelliJ) · Local-LLM workflows with Ollama

✕ Skip if

Less out-of-the-box polish than Cursor · configuration heavier than turnkey tools

→ Bottom line

Solid free coding agents pick at 4.5/5. Works in both VSCode and JetBrains.

✓ Pros

  • Works in both VSCode and JetBrains
  • Open source — full customization possible
  • Local LLM support out of the box
  • No vendor lock-in

✕ Cons

  • Less out-of-the-box polish than Cursor
  • Configuration heavier than turnkey tools
  • Best when you bring your own models

Key Features

VSCode and JetBrains extensions
Open source
MCP server support
Local LLM integration (Ollama)
Custom slash commands
Multi-model switching

Best Use Cases

🎯JetBrains users (PyCharm, IntelliJ)
💡Local-LLM workflows with Ollama
🚀Customizable AI coding setups
⚡Open-source-only stacks

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Continue free?

Yes — Continue is completely free to use. There are no paid tiers.

What is Continue best used for?

Continue is best suited for jetbrains users (pycharm, intellij), local-llm workflows with ollama, customizable ai coding setups. It sits in the ai coding agents category and scores 4.5/5 based on our review.

What are the main drawbacks of Continue?

The main limitations we found are: less out-of-the-box polish than cursor; configuration heavier than turnkey tools. If those matter for your workflow, consider an alternative like Cursor.

How does Continue compare to Cursor?

Continue (Free, 4.5★) and Cursor (Freemium, 4.8★) both compete in ai coding agents. Continue stands out for works in both vscode and jetbrains, while Cursor differs on cursor ai — the ai-first code editor (vs code-based) with composer agent, cloud agents, mcp, and a cli.

Quick Info

Pricing
Free
Rating
4.5 / 5.0 ★
Category
AI Coding Agents
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Looking for alternatives?

See the best Continue alternatives ranked by our team.

View Alternatives →

Our Take on Continue

Hands-on review by the AIToolPlex editors · 4.5/5

The verdict

Continue is the open-source IDE coding assistant that supports both VSCode AND JetBrains — the rare bridge across editor families that competitors don't offer. For developers in PyCharm, IntelliJ, or WebStorm who can't migrate to VSCode-based tools, Continue is the most capable AI option available. MCP support is first-class, local LLM integration via Ollama works out of the box, and the open-source nature means full customization is on the table. The honest tradeoffs: less polished than Cursor out of the box (more configuration required for a polished experience), heavier setup for users who want a turnkey tool, and best when paired with your own model setup rather than relying on integrated paid APIs. For JetBrains users, this is essentially the only serious AI coding assistant. For developers with custom or local model preferences, Continue's flexibility is the right shape. For users wanting Cursor-level polish out of the box, the configuration overhead is real.

✓ Who should use Continue

Continue is the right pick if you're working on jetbrains users (pycharm, intellij) or local-llm workflows with ollama and need a tool that won't gate you behind a paywall. With works in both vscode and jetbrains, it punches above what you'd expect from a free tool — making it a strong starting point for hobbyists, students, and anyone testing the waters before committing budget to a paid alternative.

✕ Skip if

Skip if less out-of-the-box polish than cursor or configuration heavier than turnkey tools would meaningfully affect your output. These aren't hypothetical — they came up in our hands-on testing and they're the friction points most users hit within their first week.

→ Bottom line

Bottom line: Continue is a strong recommendation in coding agents. Worth shortlisting alongside jetbrains users (pycharm, intellij) requirements.

Where It Runs, How It Behaves & What It Connects To

The Continue integration matrix

Surface

VSCode · JetBrains

Mode

Assistant

MCP

Yes

protocol support

Licensing

Open source

How Continue actually behaves in a session

Continue works as an assistant — it suggests, you accept or refine. That control is what most professional engineers actually want: AI does the typing, you do the thinking. Doesn't replace developer judgment but compresses the mechanical parts of writing code substantially.

🔌 MCP — bring your own context

Continue speaks the Model Context Protocol, which means you can plug in MCP servers — file systems, GitHub, internal APIs, your design system — and the agent reads and acts on them as native context. If you've invested in MCP-compatible infrastructure, this is non-trivial.

🧠 Model choice

Continue lets you switch the underlying model — Claude for reasoning-heavy work, GPT-4 for breadth, local for privacy-sensitive code. That flexibility matters more than it used to: different models have meaningfully different strengths now.

🌿 Git-aware

Continue reads your git context — recent commits, branch state, PR history — which means suggestions land in your actual codebase, not a generic version of it. The agent that knows your conventions outperforms the one that doesn't every time.

📖 Open source codebase

Continue is open source — you can audit how prompts are built, what data leaves your machine, and how the agent makes decisions. For teams with security review or compliance requirements, that's often a hard prerequisite, not a nice-to-have.

Free Tier Reality CheckFully free

✓ What you get for free

  • →Works in both VSCode and JetBrains
  • →Open source — full customization possible
  • →Local LLM support out of the box

⚠ Where the free tier ends

We didn't hit hard limits in normal use, though less out-of-the-box polish than cursor is worth noting.

Continue stays free across the board — no usage tier locks you out. The team monetizes elsewhere, which makes this an unusually good fit if you're cost-sensitive but still need the quality.

MCP SupportModel Context Protocol — plug in your own data sources

Continue speaks MCP

That means you can connect external data sources and tools — file systems, GitHub, Slack, your own internal services — and Continue will read and act on them as part of its normal workflow. MCP servers are a fast-growing ecosystem (smithery, mcp.so, the official directory) and being on the supported list is a strong signal Continue is built for power users, not just toy demos.

If your stack already has MCP servers running — or if you're evaluating coding agents specifically for customization — this is a non-trivial reason to shortlist Continue over alternatives that don't support the protocol.

Continue vs Top Alternatives

Side-by-side comparison ranked by our team

ToolPricingRatingAction
↩️ContinueThis page
Free4.5 ★Visit →
⌨️CursorFreemium4.8 ★Review
🤖Claude CodePaid4.9 ★Review
🪄ManusFreemium4.6 ★Review
🛠️DevinPaid4.4 ★Review