GitHub Copilot launched as a technical preview last year, and the company has found huge adoption with the editor extension distilling the collective knowledge of the world's developers to suggest code in real-time, aiding programmers in building great software.
When you type code or comments GitHub Copilot suggests the next line of code - but not only a single word or line of code; it will suggest complete methods, boilerplate code, entire unit tests, and even complex algorithms.
AI is being used in many fields, and with GitHub Copilot, AI can now be broadly harnessed by developers to write and complete code for the first time in the history of software. GitHub believes AI-assisted coding will fundamentally change the nature of software development just like the rise of compilers and open source. It provides developers with a new tool to write code easier and faster and helps them be more productive and happier.
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GitHub Copilot enables developers to:
- Get AI-based coding suggestions: Get code suggestions that match a project’s context and style conventions, and cycle through different options to decide what to accept, reject, or edit.
- Use your preferred environment: Integrate GitHub Copilot with popular editors, including Neovim, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Visual Studio Code as an unobtrusive extension.
- Code confidently in unfamiliar territory: Code in new languages, or try something new, and let GitHub Copilot suggest syntax and code in dozens of languages—so you can spend more time learning by doing.
Over 1.2 million developers used the technical preview, and GitHub says users quickly said it became an indispensable part of daily workflows. Where it has been enabled, nearly 40% of code has been written by GitHub Copilot in popular languages, and that fundamentally creates more time for developers to focus on solving bigger problems.
The product is now available to all developers, at $US100/year, or $US10/month, with a free 60-day trial.
Also, it's free for verified students and for maintainers of popular open-source projects, because GitHub wants to give back to its vibrant community of students and creators.
If you're a student and want to participate in the program, apply for the GitHub Student Pack to get started. And if you’re an open-source maintainer, check out GitHub's FAQs to see if you qualify to start using GitHub Copilot at no cost.
The feature will be released to companies later this year.
