JetBrains IDEs are the analysis-heavy editors for Java, Kotlin, Python, and friends, whose AI layer now spans AI Assistant and the Junie agent from IDE to CI.
JetBrains is the only major IDE vendor whose entire AI layer is removable and provider-agnostic, and it got there by backlash: the late-2023 forced-bundling outcry is why you can now uninstall the whole thing.
What it is #
The IDEs are proprietary (Community editions excepted) and built on the IntelliJ platform’s inspection and refactoring engine. The AI stack has two layers: AI Assistant for chat and completion, and Junie, the plan-first agent that ships in the IDEs, in CI, and as an LLM-agnostic CLI. ACP-speaking harnesses (OpenCode among them) can host inside JetBrains IDEs, so the editor works with rival agents. Pricing runs through JetBrains AI Pro and AI Ultimate subscriptions metered in AI credits, with Junie BYOK at provider rates as the escape hatch.
Status #
Active and shipping. Junie went from IDE agent (January 2025) to GA (April 2025) to an LLM-agnostic CLI with plan files and CI integration; the harness side is profiled in the Junie note. On September 22, 2026 the vendor wrapped this stack into JetBrains Air, a system of products spanning Air in the IDEs, Air Teams for coordinating delivery workflows of developers and autonomous agents, and Air Governance (the former JetBrains Central) for organizational policy, cost, and audit, with Junie supported across all Air surfaces. The vendor’s 2025 statutory results surfaced on October 6, 2026 and show the AI race reaching its income statement: revenue for the Czech entity JetBrains s.r.o. rose 6.3% to a record CZK 16,008 million while the same filing recorded a net loss of CZK 315 million. The figures are unconsolidated Czech GAAP statements from the business register, so they describe the home entity rather than the full group, and the story drew a 579-point Hacker News thread. The AI layer was unbundled into a separate, removable plugin in March 2024 after the backlash.
Strengths #
- The deepest static-analysis grounding in the business: a decade of inspections feeds edits the way LSP feeds lighter editors.
- One vendor covers IDE, terminal CLI, and CI pipelines with a single AI identity.
- Removability means policy-restricted teams can run the IDEs AI-free without forks or workarounds.
- Junie’s plan artifacts land in the repository as reviewable files.
Cautions #
- Community mindshare is the gap: launch threads for JetBrains AI drew a fraction of the attention Claude Code or Cursor get, and vendor benchmarks fill the silence.
- The client is proprietary, so unlike VS Code or Zed you cannot audit the editor.
- Subscription credits are thin enough that BYOK is effectively required for heavy work (verified counts are in the Junie note).
- The December 2023 bundling thread (“cannot be completely removed”) is old, but it set the trust baseline some engineers still apply.
Pricing #
AI Pro is $8.33 per user/month (annual) and AI Ultimate is $25 per user/month, metered in AI credits, re-observed on 2026-09-27 (the junie.jetbrains.com page again exposed both numbers to static fetch, as it also did on 2026-09-22 after briefly hiding them on 2026-09-20). The redesigned page hid both numbers from 2026-10-04 while pitching free-to-start Junie CLI and Junie Local, and the pricing route the AI pages linked (jetbrains.com/ai-ides/buy/) rendered only through JavaScript; as of 2026-10-09 the redesigned page exposes both figures again, unchanged, with the credit metering now stated per 30 days (AI Pro 10 AI Credits, AI Ultimate 35 AI Credits, both with anytime top-ups). Junie BYOK bypasses metering at provider rates (the page states provider-rate pricing with zero markup and support for locally running models), and the tier starts free: the page now describes that start as Junie Lite, a free model always on in every JetBrains account, where the 2026-09-27 reading recorded it as 5 credits with no card. A static fetch on 2026-10-12 rendered both figures again, unchanged ($8.33 and $25.00 per user/month, 10 and 35 AI Credits per 30 days, Junie Lite as the free start), and one on 2026-10-22 did the same, so the ladder stands re-observed 2026-10-22.
Price history #
| Date | Plan | Change | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-09-16 | AI Pro, AI Ultimate | Baseline: AI Pro $8.33/user/mo annual, AI Ultimate $25/user/mo, credit-metered; BYOK at provider rates; the tier starts free with 5 credits. |
Compared to #
- VS Code + Copilot: breadth and openness versus depth of analysis; polyglot teams drift to VS Code, Java and Kotlin shops stay.
- Cursor: the AI-first bet versus the IDE-first bet.
- Zed: raw speed versus inspection depth.
Bottom line #
Recommended for teams whose languages are JetBrains-strong and who want one analysis engine under chat, agent, and refactor. Not for anyone who needs an open editor or a large community ecosystem.
Changes #
- 2026-08-23 - Created as one of the five seed notes of the Surfaces category.
- 2026-09-20 - Added the Price history section tracking price changes in a table, per the new owner rule.
- 2026-09-27 - Re-confirmed the AI Pro and AI Ultimate prices on junie.jetbrains.com; unchanged.
- 2026-09-29 - Recorded the September 22, 2026 JetBrains Air announcement (Air in IDEs, Air Teams, Air Governance ex-Central) as the system-of-products layer above the AI stack.
- 2026-10-04 - Recorded the junie.jetbrains.com redesign: the page no longer exposes plan prices and now leads with free-to-start Junie CLI and Local, and the new jetbrains.com/ai-ides/buy/ route is a JavaScript shell, so the $8.33 and $25 numbers stand as the 2026-09-27 observation.
- 2026-10-07 - Added the vendor’s 2025 statutory results to Status: the Czech entity’s revenue up 6.3% to a record CZK 16,008 million against a net loss of CZK 315 million, published October 6, 2026.
- 2026-10-09 - Recorded the redesigned junie.jetbrains.com page exposing both figures again, unchanged ($8.33 and $25.00 per user/month), now with per-30-day credit allotments stated (AI Pro 10 AI Credits, AI Ultimate 35 AI Credits) and the free start described as Junie Lite rather than the earlier 5-credit allotment.
- 2026-10-12 - Re-observed both plan figures on junie.jetbrains.com with a static fetch (the page rendered them again after the 2026-10-11 client-shell reading); prices unchanged.
- 2026-10-22 - Rotation re-verification, all cited URLs re-fetched live: the $8.33 and $25.00 ladder with 10 and 35 AI Credits and Junie Lite stands re-observed on junie.jetbrains.com, the AI family entry page now presents itself as JetBrains Air, and the Air announcement, the 2025 statutory-results coverage, and all three threads stand; prices unchanged.
See also #
- Agentic Coding Tools Landscape - the surface layer this note belongs to
- Junie - the agent that ships inside these IDEs
- Iterating on Agent Skills - the skill formats the AI layer consumes
- my-ai-workflow - keeping a heavy IDE and a lean agent in the same rotation
References #
https://www.jetbrains.com/ai/ - the AI product family entry point
https://junie.jetbrains.com/ - plans, credits, and BYOK through 2026-09-27; hidden on the redesigned page from 2026-10-04; both figures exposed again as of 2026-10-09 ($8.33 and $25.00 per user/month, 10 and 35 AI Credits per 30 days, Junie Lite as the free start, BYOK at provider rates with zero markup); a static fetch on 2026-10-11 rendered a client shell, and one on 2026-10-12 rendered both figures again, unchanged
https://blog.jetbrains.com/blog/2026/09/22/introducing-jetbrains-air/ - the Air announcement: Air in IDEs, Air Teams, Air Governance (formerly JetBrains Central), and the ACP Registry
https://www.helgilibrary.com/companies/jetbrains - the 2025 Czech statutory figures (revenue CZK 16,008 million, up 6.3%, net loss CZK 315 million), read from the business register and updated October 6, 2026
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49977072 - the October 6, 2026 thread on the 2025 results, 579 points