How to get the best deals on Continue — pricing breakdown, savings tips, and alternatives
Continue offers a free tier — you might not need to pay at all!
Perfect for trying out Continue without spending anything
💡 Pro tip: Start with the free tier to test if Continue fits your workflow before upgrading to a paid plan.
per month
Don't overpay for features you won't use. Here's our recommendation based on your use case:
Most AI tools, including many in the developer category, offer special pricing for students, teachers, and educational institutions. These discounts typically range from 20-50% off regular pricing.
• Students: Verify your student status with a .edu email or Student ID
• Teachers: Faculty and staff often qualify for education pricing
• Institutions: Schools can request volume discounts for classroom use
Most SaaS and AI tools tend to offer their best deals around these windows. While we can't guarantee Continue runs promotions during all of these, they're worth watching:
The biggest discount window across the SaaS industry — many tools offer their best annual deals here
Holiday promotions and year-end deals are common as companies push to close out Q4
Tools targeting students and educators often run promotions during this window
Signing up for Continue's email list is the best way to catch promotions as they happen
💡 Pro tip: If you're not in a rush, Black Friday and end-of-year tend to be the safest bets for SaaS discounts across the board.
Test features before committing to paid plans
Save 10-30% compared to monthly payments
Many companies reimburse productivity tools
Some providers offer multi-tool packages
Wait for Black Friday or year-end sales
Some tools offer "win-back" discounts to returning users
If Continue's pricing doesn't fit your budget, consider these developer alternatives:
Open-source autonomous coding agent that runs as a VS Code (and JetBrains) extension, using your own API keys to plan, edit files, run terminal commands, and iterate against real feedback — the reference implementation of a transparent agentic coding loop.
Free tier available
✓ Free plan available
Specialized AI agents for software development workflows integrated directly into GitHub and development environments.
Starting at $10/mo
✓ Free plan available
Codeium has rebranded to Devin Desktop under Cognition — an IDE plus coding-agent command center with Free, Pro $20, Max $200, and Team plans.
Free tier available
✓ Free plan available
Yes, the open-source Continue extension is free to install and use with your own API keys. You only pay for the AI model usage through your chosen providers (OpenAI, Claude, etc.) or use free local models via Ollama.
Continue offers more model flexibility and privacy options through open-source architecture, while Cursor and Copilot provide more polished out-of-the-box experiences. Continue requires more setup but offers greater customization and vendor independence.
Yes, Continue supports local models through Ollama integration, allowing you to run AI coding assistance entirely on your hardware without sending any code to external servers, ideal for privacy-sensitive environments.
Continue offers native extensions for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm, etc.) with full feature parity including chat, autocomplete, and agent capabilities.
Start with the free tier and upgrade when you need more features
Get Started with Continue →Pricing and discounts last verified March 2026