Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is Microsoft's free, open-source code editor. Explore its features, extension marketplace, and how it compares to alternatives.
Visual Studio Code is a free, cross-platform source code editor developed by Microsoft. It was first announced on April 29, 2015 at Microsoft's Build conference, and the underlying open-source project, Code - OSS, was released under the MIT license on GitHub later that year.
Built with Electron and TypeScript, VS Code runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux and has become one of the most widely used development tools among professional programmers, repeatedly topping the Stack Overflow Developer Survey's most-used development environment rankings.
VS Code provides IntelliSense code completion, an integrated debugger, built-in Git and source control tooling, an integrated terminal, and support for the Language Server Protocol, which enables rich language features for dozens of programming languages.
Its extension marketplace, the Visual Studio Marketplace, lets developers add themes, linters, formatters, remote development tools such as Dev Containers and Remote-SSH, and AI coding assistants including GitHub Copilot, all without leaving the editor.
Visual Studio Code itself is completely free to download and use, for both individuals and commercial organizations, with no paid tiers for the core editor.
Optional paid add-ons come from connected Microsoft services rather than the editor itself, such as a GitHub Copilot subscription for AI code completion or Visual Studio subscriptions for enterprise developer tooling.
Yes, Visual Studio Code is free to download and use for individuals and businesses, with no paid tiers for the editor itself.
It was first announced on April 29, 2015, with the underlying Code - OSS project open-sourced under the MIT license later that year.
The core Code - OSS project is open source under the MIT license, but the official Microsoft-distributed VS Code build adds proprietary telemetry and marketplace terms, making it not fully open source in its shipped form.
Visual Studio Code is a lightweight, free, cross-platform code editor, while Visual Studio is Microsoft's larger, Windows-centric full IDE aimed mainly at .NET and C++ development.
Yes, it has a large extension marketplace offering themes, language support, linters, debuggers, and AI tools like GitHub Copilot.
Yes, its Remote Development extension pack allows editing code inside containers, WSL, or remote SSH servers as if working locally.
It supports dozens of programming languages out of the box or via extensions, including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, Java, C++, and Rust.
VS Code runs on Windows, macOS, and Linux, and also has a browser-based version called VS Code for the Web.