The most-installed AI coding extensions for VS Code in 2026 are GitHub Copilot and Copilot Chat, Claude Code, OpenAI’s Codex, Cline, Gemini Code Assist, and Continue. For everyday productivity, the long-standing leaders are Pylance, Prettier, ESLint, GitLens, Docker, and Dev Containers. Several names that used to top lists are gone: Roo Code shut down in May 2026, and Amazon Q Developer’s plugins reach end of support in April 2027. Install counts below come from the Visual Studio Marketplace on October 17, 2026. Popularity is not a quality ranking, and in 2026 extension security deserves as much attention as features.
AI Coding Extensions
GitHub Copilot and Copilot Chat
The Marketplace listed GitHub Copilot at about 74.8 million installs and GitHub Copilot Chat at about 78.8 million. The VS Code team open-sourced the Copilot Chat extension under the MIT license on June 30, 2025, with a stated goal of refactoring parts of it into VS Code itself, while the original inline-completion extension stayed closed. VS Code’s Copilot overview describes a Chat view with an Agent option and support for MCP servers.
Copilot Billing Changed
GitHub announced on April 27, 2026 that Copilot would move to usage-based billing on June 1, 2026. Premium request units were replaced by GitHub AI Credits, consumed by token usage. The blog lists Pro at $10 a month (with $10 in credits), Pro+ at $39, Business at $19 per user, and Enterprise at $39 per user. It says “Code completions and Next Edit suggestions remain included” and do not consume credits, and that fallback to a lower-cost model is removed. GitHub Docs shows Pro with 1,500 AI credits (1,000 base plus 500 flex) and Pro+ with 7,000, and says Copilot Free is “Limited to 2000 completions per month.” The blog and Docs describe Pro’s credits differently, and neither defines a credit-to-dollar rate, so do not convert between them. Copilot Free’s chat allowance under the new billing was not clear.
Claude Code for VS Code
The Marketplace showed about 27.9 million installs for the Claude Code extension from Anthropic.
Codex (OpenAI)
OpenAI’s extension, listed as Codex, had about 15.6 million installs, and its page says it is included with ChatGPT Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, and Enterprise plans.
Cline, Kilo Code, and Continue
Cline had about 5.6 million installs, Continue about 4.4 million, and Kilo Code about 1.6 million. Kilo Code’s page describes it as free and open source with 500 or more models.
Gemini Code Assist
About 5.5 million installs, listed as free. Its free-tier limits were not retrieved, so check Google’s page.
AI Extensions to Avoid or Treat With Care
Roo Code
Roo Code’s suite of extension, cloud, and router shut down on May 15, 2026, announced on April 20, 2026, according to Distill Intelligence. The Marketplace page still shows about 2.1 million installs and says it shut down. Kilo Code and Cline are named as alternatives.
Amazon Q Developer
The Marketplace page states that “Amazon Q Developer IDE plugins reach end of support on April 30, 2027” and tells users to explore Kiro. It showed about 1.9 million installs.
Tabnine
The legacy plugin has about 9.6 million installs but “does not onboard new users,” per its listing.
Cursor and Windsurf Are Editors, Not Extensions
Cursor and Windsurf often appear in these lists, but they are separate editors. Cursor’s pricing page lists Free at $0, Plus at $8, Premium at $30, Super at $100, Ultra at $200, and Teams from $30 per user, with third-party model usage billed separately. Windsurf lists Free, Pro at $15 a month, Teams, and Enterprise. Its page did not name an owner, so this article does not either.
Productivity Extensions
Marketplace installs as of October 17, 2026:
| Extension | Installs |
|---|---|
| Pylance | 208.2 million |
| Prettier | 72.3 million |
| ESLint | 53.4 million |
| GitLens | 53.4 million |
| Docker | 53.0 million |
| Dev Containers | 42.3 million |
| Remote – SSH | 38.1 million |
| Live Share | 24.3 million |
| Error Lens | 10.1 million |
| REST Client | 7.7 million |
| Thunder Client | 7.6 million |
| Ruff | 4.8 million |
Ruff’s page says it replaces Flake8, Black, isort, and pyupgrade. Thunder Client shows a “Free Trial” label, with plans at $3 (Starter), $7 (Business), and $16 (Enterprise) per user a month billed annually, and collection runs capped at 250 and 500 per user per month on the first two.
Extension Security Is Now a Real Concern
GlassWorm
The Cloud Security Alliance published a research note on April 27, 2026, saying Socket had disclosed a second wave of the GlassWorm campaign on April 25. It reported 73 impersonation extensions, six activated and 67 dormant “sleepers,” and more than 320 artifacts linked to GlassWorm since December 21, 2025. The October 2025 wave hid code in invisible Unicode characters, while the April wave published harmless extensions and later pushed malicious updates. It targets Open VSX, the registry used by Cursor, Windsurf, and Antigravity. The payload is a remote access trojan that steals GitHub, npm, Open VSX, and crypto-wallet data, with Solana used as a fallback command channel.
The Nx Console Compromise
According to another Cloud Security Alliance note, a trojanized version 18.95.0 of the nrwl.angular-console extension was live on the Visual Studio Marketplace for about 18 minutes on May 18, 2026. It compromised a GitHub employee’s device, and attackers took about 3,800 internal GitHub repositories. GitHub reported no evidence of customer repository impact, and the investigation was ongoing at the time of the note.
How to Protect Yourself
Install only what you need. Check the publisher name and install count before installing, and be suspicious of near-identical names. Review updates for extensions that handle credentials. Prefer the official Marketplace when you can. Use a separate profile or dev container for experiments, and keep tokens out of your editor environment where possible. These steps are general good practice, not specific advice from the research notes.
How to Choose
If you already pay for GitHub, start with Copilot. If you want an agent that works in your terminal and editor, try Claude Code or Codex. If you want open-source and bring-your-own-key tools, look at Cline, Continue, and Kilo Code. For productivity, install a formatter, a linter, and a language server for your stack first, then add GitLens and Docker if you use them daily. Keep the list short, since each extension adds risk and startup time.
How to Audit an Extension Before You Install It
Open the Marketplace page and look at the publisher name, the install count, the release history, and the repository link. A popular extension with a very recent publisher change deserves a second look. Compare the name against the official one, since impersonation was the core technique in the GlassWorm campaign. Check what permissions or services the extension needs, and whether it asks for tokens. For AI extensions, read what data leaves your machine, since coding assistants send code context to model providers. The research notes did not cover each vendor’s data policy, so read it before using one on private code.
Building a Small, Safe Setup
A sensible starting kit for a web developer is one AI assistant, a formatter, a linter, and a language server. Add GitLens if you work in large repositories, Docker and Dev Containers if you run containers, and a REST client if you test APIs. Each extra extension adds update traffic and potential risk, so review the list every few months and remove what you do not use. If you experiment with new tools, do it in a separate VS Code profile or a throwaway dev container.
Paying for AI Tools Wisely
Pricing has moved toward usage-based models. GitHub’s AI Credits are consumed by token usage, with code completions and Next Edit suggestions remaining included, per its blog. Cursor lists a range of plans from free to $200 a month. Before you commit, estimate your use for a week on a free tier, and check whether the plan counts credits, requests, or tokens. Because the Copilot blog and Docs describe Pro’s credits differently, rely on the billing page in your own account for what you will actually be charged.
Reading Install Counts Sensibly
Install counts show popularity, not quality or safety. Pylance leads at 208 million because it is bundled into Python workflows, and Copilot’s counts reflect default promotion inside VS Code. Newer tools such as Claude Code and Codex have large counts after only a short time on the market. Counts also include reinstalls and automated installs, though the Marketplace pages reviewed do not break them down. Use the numbers to find what other developers try, and then read reviews and documentation.
Open VSX and Microsoft’s Marketplace
VS Code uses the Visual Studio Marketplace, while editors derived from it, such as Cursor and Windsurf, rely on Open VSX, according to the Cloud Security Alliance. That matters for security: GlassWorm’s second wave targeted Open VSX, and the Nx Console compromise happened on the Visual Studio Marketplace. Who operates Open VSX was not confirmed in the research. If you use a VS Code fork, check which registry it uses and apply the same caution to both.
Matching Extensions to Roles
A front-end developer might choose Prettier, ESLint, and an AI assistant, plus GitLens for history. A Python developer would add Pylance and Ruff, which the Marketplace page says replaces Flake8, Black, isort, and pyupgrade. A back-end or DevOps engineer would add Docker, Dev Containers, and Remote – SSH to work inside containers and servers. An API developer might add REST Client or Thunder Client, noting the latter’s paid tiers. A team lead might use Live Share for pair sessions, which has about 24 million installs. These pairings come from the install lists and the tools’ descriptions, not from a ranking by the Marketplace.
What Is Not in This List
Several popular tools are deliberately absent. Roo Code is gone. Amazon Q is on a countdown to end of support. Tabnine’s legacy plugin is closed to new users. Cursor and Windsurf are editors, not extensions. The research also did not review every category, such as theme, testing, or database extensions, so the list is limited to AI coding and core productivity tools. If you need those categories, search the Marketplace and apply the audit steps above.
The Bigger Trend
Two trends stand out in the sources. First, AI assistants are moving from autocomplete to agents, which is why the VS Code documentation now talks about an Agent option and MCP servers. Second, pricing is moving from flat subscriptions to usage, as GitHub’s AI Credits show. Expect more changes, and check the vendor pages before committing to an annual plan.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the most popular AI extension for VS Code?
By Marketplace installs on October 17, 2026, GitHub Copilot Chat led, at about 78.8 million.
Is Roo Code still available?
No. The suite shut down on May 15, 2026.
Is Copilot free?
There is a free plan limited to 2,000 completions per month, per GitHub Docs.
Are Cursor and Windsurf extensions?
No. They are separate editors.
Can VS Code extensions be malicious?
Yes. GlassWorm and the Nx Console incident are documented examples.
References and Sources
GitHub Blog, “GitHub Copilot is moving to usage-based billing”: https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/github-copilot-is-moving-to-usage-based-billing/
GitHub Docs, “Plans for GitHub Copilot”: https://docs.github.com/en/copilot/get-started/plans
VS Code Blog, “Open Source AI Editor: First Milestone”: https://code.visualstudio.com/blogs/2025/06/30/openSourceAIEditorFirstMilestone
VS Code Docs, “GitHub Copilot in VS Code”: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/overview
Visual Studio Marketplace, “GitHub Copilot Chat”: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GitHub.copilot-chat
Visual Studio Marketplace, “Claude Code for VS Code”: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=anthropic.claude-code
Visual Studio Marketplace, “Amazon Q”: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=AmazonWebServices.amazon-q-vscode
Distill Intelligence, “Roo Code sunsets Extension, Cloud, and Router”: https://www.distillintelligence.com/news/roomote
Thunder Client, “Pricing”: https://www.thunderclient.com/pricing
Cursor, “Pricing”: https://cursor.com/pricing
Windsurf, “Pricing”: https://windsurf.com/pricing
Cloud Security Alliance, “GlassWorm v2: 73 Sleeper Extensions Target AI Developer Toolchains”: https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-glassworm-v2-openvsx-ai-dev-supply-chain-2/
Cloud Security Alliance, “VSCode Marketplace Poisoning: How 18 Minutes Breached GitHub”: https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-vscode-extension-supply-chain-breach-20260/
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