Ok so, in my experience, I've spent literally thousands on dev tools over the last decade, and I've learned that you highkey don't need to pay for Copilot anymore if money is tight. A few years ago, you had to shell out for anything decent, but nowadays the free tiers are actually INSANE. I remember struggling with a complex React hook last year and realized my free setup was hitting the mark just as well as the paid ones I was using at work.

For your situation, here is what I recommend:
- Use the Codeium Individual Extension for VS Code—it's honestly the GOAT for free users because it doesn't have those annoying daily limits and the autocomplete is super snappy for both Python and React.
- Check out Amazon Q Developer (formerly CodeWhisperer) for your Python stuff; it's free for individuals and gives really solid suggestions based on your codebase.
- If you wanna get fancy, grab the Continue VS Code Extension and hook it up to a free API.

The lesson I've learned over the years? Don't get locked into one ecosystem. These tools evolve sooo fast, so keeping your setup modular lets you swap the "brain" without changing your entire workflow. Anyway... stick to Codeium for now and you'll be golden. gl!

The free tier of Cursor AI Code Editor is basically the best value right now. I went through this last year after getting frustrated with tools that didnt handle complex React projects well. It's a VS Code fork, so it actually indexes your local files for way better context than standard plugins. Setup was a bit of a pain and migration was annoying... but its been a total lifesaver for my budget. Just sharing my experience!!

Honestly, I was just looking into this too because I'm basically a beginner and all the paid options seem so pricey... anyway, one thing I've noticed from doing some market research is that you can't really go wrong with the big tech ecosystems right now. Like, companies like Google and Meta are *really* fighting for developers, so they're offering a ton of free access to their tools just to get people into their ecosystem. If you look into the dev platforms from those big brands, they usually have some kind of free tier or trial credits for their AI stuff that lasts a while. Also, have you checked out the community-driven stuff on Hugging Face? It's kind of a rabbit hole but it seems like the best place for budget-conscious people since so much of it is open-source. I'm still trying to figure out how to set some of it up myself, but basically, going with the open-source route seems way better than paying a monthly sub if you have the time to tinker with it... does that make sense?

Seconded!

tbh I was in the same spot last month when money was tight. I've been using Codeium for my React stuff and it's *actually* a lifesaver. Basically, it's free for individuals and the autocomplete is solid for Python too. Also, check out Continue VS Code extension if you wanna try running local models for free. It works great for a $0 budget. gl!

Nice, didn't know that

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