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One of the most exciting aspects of artificial intelligence is its surprising ability to write code. These days, various AI systems can create programs, translate code between programming languages, and even assist with tasks like auto-generating documentation or quickly finding code snippets with AI code generators.
A standout tool is OpenAI’s Codex, an AI that translates natural language into code. Codex powers GitHub Copilot, a favorite among developers. What makes Codex so useful is its ability to understand simple commands in plain English and turn them into functional code, making it easier for programmers to expand on existing applications using natural language.
Another exciting player in the field is DeepMind’s AlphaCode, which is making waves by outperforming human programmers in specific scenarios. For instance, in coding competitions with over 5,000 participants, AlphaCode managed to outscore 45% of human coders—a pretty impressive feat.
Of course, AI-generated code isn’t without its challenges. These tools are best seen as productivity boosters rather than replacements for human developers. For example, a research team affiliated with Stanford found that developers using AI coding assistants were more likely to introduce security vulnerabilities into their applications. On top of that, unresolved copyright concerns add another layer of complexity.
So, while AI coding tools aren’t completely risk-free yet, their growing popularity means they’re impossible to ignore. They offer enormous potential to make developers more efficient, even as we navigate the challenges they bring to the table.
What is AI code written in?
AI-generated code is written in languages that the code generator supports. OpenAI Codex is particularly skilled in Python but also works well with other languages like JavaScript, Ruby, and TypeScript.
Now, let’s explore some of the best AI-powered tools for coding.
So, which AI tools are making waves in the coding world? The big names include GitHub Copilot, and open-source models like Llama 3.
But that’s just scratching the surface. There’s a whole world of AI coding tools out there, each with unique features, capabilities, and backing companies. Let’s take a closer look at some of the best AI code generator options and what they bring to the table.
Best AI code generators of 2024
OpenAI Codex (ChatGPT, GPT-4, o1)
Up until September, GPT-4 was OpenAI’s flagship AI model, and for good reason. This powerful multimodal tool shone for its programming abilities—excelling at understanding and explaining code, writing new code, and outshining previous models, especially in Python. That said, it wasn’t perfect. It occasionally made reasoning mistakes and could generate code with security vulnerabilities.
"Hello World" from OpenAI Codex.
Full video: https://t.co/5YiqVkKYS3 pic.twitter.com/xaD90SuX3n
— OpenAI (@OpenAI) August 11, 2021
Meanwhile, ChatGPT acts as your easy-to-use interface for these advanced AI models, like GPT-4 and the o1-mini series. While many refer to ChatGPT as a model itself, it’s really the platform that makes interacting with these AIs simple and conversational. Whether you need to write new code, debug issues, or handle other text-based tasks, ChatGPT bridges the gap between you and the underlying AI powerhouses.
When OpenAI introduced GPT-4o in May, it quickly became the star of the show. It matched the capabilities of GPT-4 Turbo but came with big advantages: 50% lower costs and twice the speed. Naturally, this made it a hit.
By September, OpenAI’s new o-series models took things a step further. With improved reasoning abilities, these models spend more time carefully thinking through problems, making them excellent at tackling complex tasks in areas like science, coding, and math. One standout is o1-mini—a fast, budget-friendly model that’s especially effective for coding tasks. It’s perfect for situations where you need solid reasoning but don’t require deep world knowledge.
o1-pro is probably the best model i've used for coding, hands down
i gave it a pretty complicated codebase and asked it to refactor while referencing docs
the difference between claude/gemini/o1 and o1 pro is night and day.
first time in a while i've been this impressed.… pic.twitter.com/eAQlEMvFN8
— Sully (@SullyOmarr) December 7, 2024
Both GPT-4o and o1-mini are now integrated into ChatGPT and available through the API, giving users powerful tools to solve tough problems efficiently and affordably.
Pricing: Free or $20 for GPT Plus
Github Copilot
GitHub Copilot uses publicly available code from GitHub repositories, giving users access to a vast dataset that helps you write accurate code faster. It’s also great for spotting errors and suggesting improvements. Getting started is simple—just install the extension for your favorite development environment.
GitHub Copilot is definitely more than just an autocompletion tool, it tries to understand the code you're writing. Have been using it for weeks and it's truly amazing. pic.twitter.com/nx84tWT8pw
— Shu (@shuding_) July 1, 2021
As of May, GitHub’s blog reported that 1.3 million users were paid subscribers, and more than 50,000 organizations had signed up for Copilot. In a ResearchGate survey comparing six AI code generation tools, Copilot came out on top, outperforming the competition in generating correct code across Java, Python, and C++ tasks, whether they were easy, medium, or hard. It’s considered one of the best free AI code generators out there in the market at the moment.
That said, Copilot isn’t always accurate—it can occasionally generate incorrect or insecure code. Plus, while you can try it out with a limited free trial, you’ll need a subscription to continue using it.
Pricing: Copilot costs between $10 and $19, but it’s free for verified students, teachers, and maintainers of popular open-source projects.
Codeium
Codeium is like having a super-smart assistant, designed to make a developer’s life much simpler. From fixing bugs to generating documentation, it’s packed with tools to handle tedious tasks. But its real impressive feature is Code autocomplete.
This is wild.
Codeium Windsurf just completely changed the AI coding game.
Anyone can now code in Flow state that just feels magical.
10 wild examples: pic.twitter.com/Bs0U3tI3a9
— Min Choi (@minchoi) November 23, 2024
Autocomplete doesn’t just toss random suggestions your way. Codeium dives deep into your codebase, analyzing everything from the basic patterns to the finer details of your unique coding style and project requirements. With this understanding, it suggests or generates code snippets that not only work but feel like a natural extension of your project. The result? Your workflow stays smooth, efficient, and free of unnecessary hiccups.
By taking care of repetitive tasks and ensuring your code stays consistent with your project’s guidelines, Codeium helps you work smarter, not harder. This is a game-changer for large projects where maintaining quality and standards can be a challenge.
Codeium also supports 70+ programming languages and integrates seamlessly with over 40 code editors. Beyond its smart autocomplete, it lends a hand with fixing code issues, generating documentation, and much more.
In November, the company launched its new Windsurf Editor, a futuristic version of coding, bridging the gaps between humans and AI through “agents” and “copilots.”
Pricing: It is free for individual use, but the pro-plan starts from $10 per month.
Amazon Q
Amazon Q Developer, brought to you by Amazon Web Services (AWS), is one of the most advanced AI assistants out there for AWS users, making coding smoother, and smarter. Powered by cutting-edge generative AI, it’s packed with tools to make your development process seamless.
It is packed with features that make coding on AWS a breeze. For starters, it can generate code that’s perfectly optimized for AWS services, so you’re always working with the most efficient solutions. Need help with unit tests or ensuring your code is secure? It’s got you covered by writing tests and spotting vulnerabilities before they become problems.
Two’s company, & this pair means business. 🔄🤝💻
GitLab Duo with Amazon Q = AI-driven DevSecOps for the future of software development. @gitlab & #AWS have teamed up to deliver one seamless developer experience across tasks, teams, & workflows.
👉 https://t.co/6Bi1jSJWLV pic.twitter.com/9fGUqMH4k0
— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) December 5, 2024
What’s really cool is how it connects to your private repositories. By understanding your specific coding style and project needs, it provides personalized code recommendations that feel like they were written just for you. It also supports popular languages like Python, Java, and JavaScript, making it versatile for different projects.
And don’t worry about switching tools—it integrates with your favorite IDEs, like JetBrains, IntelliJ IDEA, Visual Studio, and VS Code, providing real-time, inline suggestions as you work.
It’s perfect for building serverless applications on AWS, adding new features, and keeping your code well-documented. It’s also a pro at cloud-based application development and even helps with analyzing business data for deeper insights.
Pricing: The free tier of Amazon Q Developer allows developers to explore its capabilities before opting for the paid tier, which starts at $19 per user per month.
Tabnine
Tabnine is like having a coding partner right in your editor. It’s an AI-powered code completion tool that uses deep learning to make writing code faster and smarter. With Tabnine, you get intelligent suggestions that help you complete code snippets quickly and accurately.
👀Here's Uri, Tabnine #DataScientist, sharing the challenges he faces writing #code that lives up to his standards — and how Tabnine’s Code Review Agent helps him write better code faster, improve tests, resolve security issues, and reduce risks. 🪄#SoftwareEngineer… pic.twitter.com/VpLNpVZQN3
— Tabnine (@tabnine) November 28, 2024
It’s extremely adaptable too, supporting a bunch of programming languages like Java, Python, C++, and many more. It’s open-source and trusted by tech giants like Facebook and Google.
Pricing: Tabnine has a free Starter plan that’s perfect for individual developers working on simpler projects. If you’re looking for more advanced capabilities, their paid plans start at just $12 per month per seat.
CodeT5
CodeT5 is your go-to AI-powered tool for generating reliable, bug-free code effortlessly. It’s open-source and works with a variety of popular programming languages, including Java, Python, and JavaScript. Whether you need an online solution or prefer an offline option for better data security, it’s designed to make coding faster, easier, and stress-free.
Pricing: Free
Deepcode
DeepCode takes the hassle out of finding bugs and vulnerabilities in your code. It automatically scans your project’s codebase and flags any potential issues, so you can focus on building awesome stuff. Supporting languages like Java, Python, and JavaScript, it’s known for being super accurate at catching bugs. Plus, since it’s cloud-based, you can easily integrate it into your workflow.
Pricing: DeepCode has a free version that includes unlimited public repositories and up to 30 private repo scans per month.
AskCodi
AskCodi is an AI-powered code generator packed with tools to help you build and ship projects faster. Whether you’re working on web or mobile apps, AskCodi makes the process smoother by helping you write cleaner, shorter code with fewer errors.
Pricing: AskCodi has a free plan with 50 credits to explore its full suite of features.
Codiga
Codiga is a powerful static analysis tool designed to keep your code secure and efficient. Supporting popular languages like JavaScript, Python, Ruby, Kotlin, and more, it helps you catch vulnerabilities and security issues in real-time. It comes with a handy auto-fixer to resolve problems quickly, so you can focus on building great code without the hassle.
Pricing: Codiga gives all its basic features for free, making it accessible to everyone. For those needing advanced capabilities, premium and enterprise features are available as paid options.
Cody (Sourcegraph)
Cody, Sourcegraph’s AI-powered coding assistant (not to be confused with AskCodi), is like having an expert developer on your team. It gets to know your entire codebase, answers your questions, and even writes code for you. On top of that, Cody provides clear explanations of your code, helps you find specific components, and flags potential issues with suggested fixes. You can integrate Cody directly into VS Code with an easy-to-install extension.
Advent of Cody Day 8
Inline Code Edits
With the CMD + K hotkey, you can have Cody edit, generate new code, or execute prompts directly in your working file. You'll always get a diff showing what changes were made and you can accept them all or one at a time. pic.twitter.com/0uqAe5cYlY— Sourcegraph (@Sourcegraph) December 8, 2024
Pricing: Cody is free for personal use, including unlimited autocompletion suggestions per month. Paid services start from $9 per month.
Gemini (Google)
Gemini can handle tasks like code generation, debugging, and explaining code, supporting over 20 programming languages, including C++, Go, Java, JavaScript, Python, and TypeScript.
The Google product can also export Python code to Google Colab. It’s also great for writing functions in Google Sheets, making your workflow even smoother.
Pricing: Google Gemini is Free
Code Llama (Meta)
Code Llama is a suite of advanced language models designed specifically for coding, built on the Llama 2 framework. The lineup includes models tailored to different use cases: the general-purpose Code Llama, Code Llama – Python for Python-specific applications, and Code Llama – Instruct for instruction-based coding tasks. The models come in various sizes—7B, 13B, and 34B parameters—and support up to 16k token inputs, with some enhancements extending to 100k tokens. In addition, the 7B and 13B variants include a feature for content-based infilling.
Pricing: The training recipes for Code Llama are publicly available on their GitHub repository, along with model weights for further exploration, so it’s free.
Claude 2 & 3, 3.5 (Anthropic)
Claude 3.5 Sonnet is the latest natural language AI model from Anthropic, a company founded by former OpenAI executive Dario Amodei. This iteration has better capabilities for processing longer inputs and outputs while delivering superior performance compared to its predecessors.
Claude can now write and run code.
We've added a new analysis tool. The tool helps Claude respond with mathematically precise and reproducible answers. You can then create interactive data visualizations with Artifacts.
Enable the feature preview: https://t.co/bJ8BjBT6zG. pic.twitter.com/Jq5xOHBmiR
— Anthropic (@AnthropicAI) October 24, 2024
In an internal agentic coding evaluation, Claude 3.5 Sonnet solved 64% of problems, almost double the amount of Claude 3 Opus, which solved 38%. Users can input up to 100,000 tokens per prompt, enabling the model to handle hundreds of pages of technical documentation. Claude 2 also previously achieved a 71.2% score on the Codex HumanEval Python coding test, up from 56.0%.
Claude 3.5 Sonnet shines when it comes to tasks like fixing bugs or adding new features to open-source codebases, all from simple natural language instructions. Give it the right tools and directions, and it can independently write, edit, and even run code. It’s also a pro at translating code, making it perfect for updating old systems or migrating entire codebases with ease.
Pricing: Claude has a free plan with essential features for users who want to explore the platform.
Replit AI
Replit AI is a pioneering code completion tool designed to improve your coding workflow by providing context-aware suggestions tailored to the file you’re working on. While you’re coding, Replit AI jumps in with smart inline suggestions to help you code faster and more accurately.
Replit has just received a major update
You can clone any interface with a screenshot and a prompt.
Screenshot → Paste into Replit Agent → “Clone this app” → Done!
All that's left is to add your features, a backend and more (without coding). More below. pic.twitter.com/eUGxKgH7Hd
— Paul Couvert (@itsPaulAi) November 24, 2024
It also comes with some cool advanced features—like tweaking suggestions through code comments, using prompt engineering for more spot-on results, and giving you the option to turn the code completion feature on or off in the editor settings. In November, the company launched a new function that allows users to clone any interface with a screenshot and a prompt.
Pricing: Replit AI is accessible through Replit’s Free tier (with limited features) and their Core tier (offering access to the advanced model).
Meta AI (Meta Llama 3)
Meta has introduced Meta AI, driven by the powerful Llama 3 model with 70 billion parameters. The model positions itself as a serious tool for improving application functionalities, but it falls short of the customization and transparency offered by advanced models like GPT-4 Turbo and Claude Opus.
I just created my own OCR app using Llama 3.2 vision!
.
.
Upload an image, and it converts it into structured markdown using Llama 3.2 multimodal!Here's what I use:
– Ollama for serving Llama 3.2 vision locally
– Streamlit for the UIEverything in just 50 lines of code!
Link… pic.twitter.com/QJWTyAYPw9
— Akshay 🚀 (@akshay_pachaar) December 2, 2024
The tech giant’s approach to open-source AI comes with several advantages: attracting top talent, benefiting from community contributions, fostering standardization, reducing costs, building goodwill, and aligning with business models that aren’t entirely dependent on AI products.
While the model is described as “open weight,” meaning its weights are accessible, it doesn’t provide the complete toolkit needed for full reproduction. Meta actually co-developed Llama 3 with Torchtune, a new PyTorch-native library designed for easily authoring, fine-tuning, and experimenting with large language models (LLMs).
In an ambitious step forward, Meta is also pretraining a massive 405-billion-parameter model, signaling its intent to expand its AI capabilities even further. Once released, this larger model could potentially outpace industry leaders like GPT-4 and Claude Opus, setting a new standard for AI performance.
Such a move could elevate Meta’s position in the AI space and also challenge the industry’s more cautious stance on model sharing and usage, often justified by safety concerns.
Pricing: Free
Aider
Aider is a command-line tool that lets you collaborate with LLMs right from your terminal, enabling seamless pair programming. It works well with your local Git repository, making edits directly in your source files and even writing smart commit messages for every change.
Pricing: It’s open-source and available on GitHub for anyone to explore and contribute to.
Featured image: Canva / Ideogram
