Gemini Code Assist Is Shutting Down for Free Users on June 18, 2026

If you rely on Google's free AI coding assistant in VS Code, JetBrains, or any other IDE, mark your calendar now. Starting June 18, 2026 -- just over two weeks away -- Gemini Code Assist will stop responding to requests for anyone not on a paid Google Cloud Standard or Enterprise plan. That includes users who get Gemini through a $20/month Google AI Pro or $100/month AI Ultra subscription. The free tier that made Google's developer tools so popular is disappearing, and the replacement product has a different name, a different architecture, and a very different set of quotas. Here is everything you need to know before the switch flips.

What exactly is shutting down on June 18, 2026?

According to Google's official FAQ page, two products are being retired for non-enterprise users on June 18:

• Gemini Code Assist IDE Extensions -- The plugin available for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Cloud Shell Editor, and other environments will stop serving AI requests. The extension can still be installed, but any prompts sent through it will receive no response after June 18.
• Gemini CLI -- The terminal-based coding assistant, which launched to significant praise earlier this year, will also stop responding for affected tiers. If you use gemini in your terminal to refactor code, generate tests, or plan multi-step tasks, that workflow ends on June 18.

Additionally, the consumer version of Gemini Code Assist on GitHub is being deprecated on the same date -- new installations are blocked immediately, and the existing GitHub integration stops functioning for unpaid accounts.

The shutdown affects a huge swath of developers. Gemini CLI launched in 2025 and quickly became one of the most-used free coding terminals, offering 1,000 requests per day per user at zero cost. Google AI Pro users had 1,500 daily requests, and Ultra subscribers had 2,000. All of those quotas go to zero on June 18, regardless of whether subscribers are paying $20 or $100 a month for access.

Who still gets to keep Gemini Code Assist access after June 18?

Not every Gemini Code Assist user is being cut off. Google is drawing a hard line between its consumer AI subscriptions and its enterprise developer platform. Here is who keeps access:

• Gemini Code Assist Standard subscribers -- Purchased through Google Cloud, this plan gives teams managed quotas and code customization features. These accounts are unaffected by the June 18 change.
• Gemini Code Assist Enterprise subscribers -- Enterprise customers with Google Cloud agreements keep full IDE extension and Gemini CLI access, along with advanced code customization and higher quotas.

Standard and Enterprise plans are sold through Google Cloud and are priced for teams and businesses. If you are an individual developer or a small team using the personal Google AI subscription tiers, you fall into the affected group and must migrate. Per Google's quota documentation, the transition is intentional: Google is consolidating its consumer AI developer tools under the Antigravity brand and keeping its enterprise coding tools under the Google Cloud umbrella.

The practical implication is significant. A developer paying $100/month for Google AI Ultra was getting 2,000 Gemini CLI requests per day. After June 18, their Ultra subscription still gives them access to Gemini in Google Docs, Gmail, and other Workspace features -- but the IDE coding assistant goes dark unless they switch to Antigravity. You are not losing your subscription; you are losing one of its most developer-relevant features.

What is Antigravity, and does it have a free tier?

Antigravity is Google's ground-up replacement for Gemini CLI and the Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions. It is not a rebrand -- it is a complete architectural rewrite that Google built to address several limitations of the original Gemini CLI design. The most important details for developers switching over:

• Free individual plan exists -- Google explicitly states in its FAQ that "you can access unpaid AI-assistance with Antigravity's individual plan." The free tier does not disappear; it moves platforms.
• Rewritten in Go -- The original Gemini CLI was built on Node.js and suffered from terminal locking when running multi-step agent tasks. Antigravity CLI is a compiled Go binary with a significantly lower memory footprint and near-instant startup.
• Agent-first architecture -- Antigravity 2.0 runs subagents as independent background processes. If you close your terminal or restart your IDE, background tasks survive. This was a common complaint about Gemini CLI, where closing the terminal killed all in-progress agent work.
• Cross-tool state sync -- Planning artifacts like task lists and implementation plans are shared in real time between Antigravity CLI, the IDE extension, and the Agent Manager GUI. You can start a refactoring task in the terminal and continue monitoring it in VS Code without losing context.
• Powered by Gemini 3.5 models -- Antigravity uses the same Gemini model family underneath, so the quality of completions and code generation should remain comparable to what Gemini CLI users have been getting.

The developer community's reaction has been mixed, according to discussions in the Google AI Developers Forum. Developers who struggled with Gemini CLI's synchronous execution model are enthusiastic about the asynchronous agent harness. Others are frustrated by the naming change -- "Antigravity" carries no obvious connection to coding or AI, and some developers report confusion about whether they need a new account or just a tool update.

To be clear: you do not need a new Google account. Antigravity uses the same Google identity system. The migration is primarily a matter of installing a different CLI binary and IDE extension, not signing up for a new service. If you currently have a free Gemini Code Assist account, you can migrate to Antigravity's free individual tier without any additional cost.

What are the best free alternatives to Gemini Code Assist?

If you would rather not follow Google to Antigravity, or if you want a backup for when Google changes the rules again, there are several strong free options available right now. Our full AI coding tools comparison covers each in detail, but here is the short version:

• GitHub Copilot (Free Tier) -- Microsoft's AI coding assistant has a permanent free plan that includes a limited number of completions and chat interactions per month. It integrates directly into VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, making it the most seamless drop-in replacement for developers already using those environments. The free tier is intentionally modest, but it is genuinely useful for lighter coding workloads.
• Windsurf by Codeium -- Codeium's Windsurf editor (formerly just "Codeium") offers generous free autocomplete with no monthly message cap on basic completions. It is one of the most commonly recommended free Copilot alternatives in developer communities and supports VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, and more. Agentic features are available on the free plan with some daily limits.
• Continue.dev -- A fully open-source AI coding extension for VS Code and JetBrains that lets you connect any LLM API, including free-tier APIs from Groq, Together AI, or your own local model. The extension itself costs nothing and never will. If you are comfortable managing your own API keys, Continue gives you more flexibility than any hosted tool.
• Aider -- An Apache-licensed CLI tool that works in your terminal much like Gemini CLI did. Aider connects to any OpenAI-compatible API, including free tiers from local model runners like Ollama. It has strong support for multi-file edits and git-aware changes, and it is actively maintained with frequent releases.
• Claude Code (Free Tier via API Credits) -- Anthropic's CLI coding agent is available with API credits. New Anthropic accounts come with free credits that cover meaningful usage. Claude Code is generally considered best-in-class for complex, multi-file refactoring tasks.

The landscape of free coding tools has become more competitive, not less. According to an independent review from May 2026, the gap between free and paid AI coding tools has narrowed considerably -- free tools are now good enough for real production work. The Gemini Code Assist shutdown is inconvenient, but it does not leave developers without options. Our free tier tracker monitors these tools in real time so you can see which ones are still offering free access.

One notable gap: the Gemini CLI's agentic multi-step planning features were ahead of many competitors when it launched. If that workflow is central to how you work, Antigravity is the most direct replacement. The open-source alternatives like Continue.dev and Aider require more configuration to reach a similar level of agent behavior, though they offer significantly more control over the underlying model. Per a 2026 comparison by CoderSera, Continue.dev and Cline are the top open-source picks for developers who want zero vendor lock-in.

How should developers migrate to Antigravity before the June 18 deadline?

Google has published a migration path in its official documentation. The process is straightforward but should be completed before June 18 to avoid any gap in your coding workflow. Here is the recommended sequence:

• Step 1 -- Install Antigravity CLI -- Google's docs point to developers.google.com/antigravity for the installation guide. The CLI is a compiled Go binary, so installation is faster than the old Node.js-based Gemini CLI. No Node.js runtime is required.
• Step 2 -- Replace your IDE extension -- Uninstall the Gemini Code Assist extension from your IDE and install the Antigravity extension in its place. Both VS Code and JetBrains IDEs are supported. Your Google account authentication carries over automatically.
• Step 3 -- Test your daily workflows before June 18 -- Run a few typical tasks in Antigravity before the deadline so you can identify any configuration gaps. The planning file format and slash commands are similar to Gemini CLI but not identical -- reviewing the Antigravity 2.0 docs for changed commands is worth the 20 minutes it takes.
• Step 4 -- Update any scripts or aliases -- If you have shell aliases, scripts, or CI/CD steps that call gemini directly, update them to call the Antigravity CLI binary instead. The command name changes; the authentication does not.
• Step 5 -- Re-evaluate your subscription -- If you are paying for Google AI Pro or Ultra primarily for Gemini CLI access, confirm that Antigravity's free individual tier meets your daily usage needs before your next billing cycle. You may be able to downgrade or cancel the paid plan without losing the coding assistance features you actually use.

Developers who use Gemini Code Assist on GitHub for pull request reviews have a separate consideration. The consumer version of that integration is deprecated starting June 18, meaning new installations are blocked immediately and existing installations go dark on the cutoff date. There is no direct like-for-like replacement for this specific GitHub workflow under Antigravity -- Google's docs do not currently describe a GitHub integration for Antigravity, so developers relying on AI pull request summaries may need to look at third-party tools like GitHub Copilot's PR review feature or CodeRabbit instead.

This is also a good moment to revisit your AI tool stack more broadly. Google is not the only company rethinking how it prices developer AI access. The trend across the industry in 2026 is toward tiered access models where generous free tiers are narrowed and redirected toward enterprise plans. Locking into a single vendor for your coding workflow is increasingly risky -- a diversified toolkit with at least one open-source option provides better long-term stability.