Looking for an alternative to IntelliJ? Keep IntelliJ — swap the AI.
IntelliJ is a great IDE. Its debugger, refactoring, Spring tooling, and database tools are why people stay. The part worth replacing is the AI layer.
Quick Comparison
Updated May 2026 — based on current public JetBrains AI pricing, model availability, and Community Edition support.
| Kilo Code | JetBrains AI | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | 0% markup Provider cost + BYOK free | $10–30/mo Monthly credit quota |
| AI Models | 500+ | ~40 |
| Model Selection | Open | Limited |
| Agent Modes | Code, Ask, Plan, Debug | Code / Ask focused |
| BYOK | All providers, all plans $0 platform fee | Limited providers |
| Community Edition | ||
| Open Source |
Open Pricing
Provider-cost AI with 0% markup. BYOK on every plan at $0 platform fee.
JetBrains AI charges $10–30/month with a monthly credit quota.
Open Source
Apache-2.0. Inspect prompts, audit context handling, fork it, or self-host.
JetBrains AI Assistant and Junie are proprietary closed-source software.
Open Model Choice
500+ models via Kilo Gateway, plus BYOK and local Ollama or LM Studio.
JetBrains AI ships ~40 frontier models with more limited provider choice.
Two ways to use Kilo Code with IntelliJ
Use it instead of JetBrains AI
Get more models, transparent per-session pricing, and no monthly credit quota. Works on IntelliJ Community Edition.
Use it alongside Junie and AI Assistant
Both plugins run together with no conflict. Reach for whichever model or agent mode fits the task.
Kilo Code vs. JetBrains AI
As of May 2026.
| Feature | Kilo Code | JetBrains AI |
|---|---|---|
Plugin license | Free | Paid subscription |
AI pricing | Pay-as-you-go at provider cost, 0% markup | Credit system (1 credit ≈ $1), monthly quota |
Cost visibility | Per-session cost in real time | Remaining-quota progress bar |
Cloud models | 500+ via Kilo Gateway (60+ providers) | ~40 frontier models |
Budget & open-weights | DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, and more | None |
BYOK | All providers, all plans, $0 platform fee | OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, xAI, OpenRouter |
Local models | Ollama, LM Studio | Ollama, LM Studio |
IntelliJ Community Edition | Full support | Paid IDEs only |
Open source | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary |
Team plan | $15/user/mo | AI Enterprise $60/user/mo |
Why people switch
500+ models in one place
JetBrains AI ships ~40 frontier models. Kilo Gateway adds DeepSeek, GLM, Kimi, MiniMax, and open-weights via Ollama and LM Studio. Pick a frontier model for hard work and a budget model for the rest.
Pay what the provider charges
No credit conversion. No quota to top up. You see the cost of each session in real time and pay providers at their listed rates.
BYOK without a tax
Bring your own API key on any plan at a $0 platform fee. JetBrains AI restricts BYOK to a subset of providers and some features still require their service.
Works on Community Edition
Kilo runs fully in IntelliJ IDEA Community, PyCharm Community, and other free IDEs. JetBrains AI Free is paid-IDE only.
Open source
Apache-2.0. Inspect every prompt, audit context handling, fork or self-host. Useful for security review.
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The native plugin
The current Kilo plugin works in IntelliJ IDEA Community and Ultimate, PyCharm, WebStorm, and other JetBrains IDEs through the Marketplace.
The native plugin is a ground-up rebuild — not an ACP bridge. First-class JetBrains Gateway and Remote Development support is the main focus of the rebuild. Because the code is ours, feature requests ship without waiting on a third-party bridge layer.
Get started
- 1
Install the Kilo Code plugin
From the JetBrains Marketplace.
- 2
Pick your models
Kilo Gateway, your own API keys, or local via Ollama or LM Studio.
- 3
Sign up for the native plugin early access
If you want first access to the rebuild.
Both plugins run alongside JetBrains AI Assistant and Junie.
FAQ
Keep IntelliJ. Swap the AI.
Free plugin. Pay only for the AI you use, at provider cost.