Augment CodevsJetBrains AI Assistant
Generated from the two spec rows. Green marks the better value where a spec has a clear direction. Everything else is just different.
Augment Code
Augment Code · IDE extension
#32MCP
Panel
6.33 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.3
- Usefulness
- 7.0
- Cost
- 5.2
- Longevity
- 6.5
“Charges the model's list price plus a 40 percent service fee, which is at least a markup you can read without a lawyer.”
JetBrains AI Assistant
JetBrains · IDE extension
#18MCP
Panel
7.15 spec wins
- Reliability
- 6.8
- Usefulness
- 6.7
- Cost
- 6.8
- Longevity
- 8.2
“Writes your commit messages, which is the only part of the job most of us actually wanted automated.”
Spec by spec
| Spec | Augment Code | JetBrains AI Assistant |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | ||
| Category | IDE extension | IDE extension |
| Runs | local, cloud | local |
| Platforms | macos, linux, windows | macos, linux, windows |
| Context window | not documented | not documented |
| Protocols | ||
| MCP client | Yes | Yes |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
| Capabilities | ||
| Runs terminal commands | Yes | Yes |
| Multi-file edits | Yes | Yes |
| Git operations | Yes | Yes |
| Browser control | NoAuggie ships web-search and web-fetch tools only, so it can read pages but cannot drive a browser; browser automation requires adding a third-party MCP server. | NoNo browser or Playwright tool; the built-in tools cover code analysis, debugging, files, databases and Jupyter only. |
| Sandboxed execution | YesCosmos cloud environments are built from a Docker base image you pick from any public registry and each session starts from a fresh isolated snapshot; the local Auggie CLI has no sandbox, and self-hosted daemons isolate only via per-session Git worktrees. | No |
| Multi-agent orchestration | Yes | No |
| Headless / CI mode | Yes`auggie --print` runs non-interactively for scripts and CI, and Augment publishes GitHub Actions wrappers for PR descriptions and reviews. | NoAI Assistant runs only inside a JetBrains IDE and has no CLI or non-interactive mode; JetBrains' scriptable agent is the separate Junie CLI. |
| Models | ||
| Backbone | Claude, GPT, Gemini, GLM, Kimi | Claude, Gemini, GPT, Grok |
| Bring your own model | NoModel choice is limited to Augment's curated list via /model or --model; no custom base URL, LLM gateway, or Bedrock/Vertex/Azure deployment is documented. | YesBYOK accepts any OpenAI-compatible provider by base URL, plus Google Vertex AI via Express mode or Application Default Credentials. |
| Local models | NoNo local or OpenAI-compatible endpoint is documented; inference always runs through Augment. | YesOllama and LM Studio are first-class BYOK providers configured by the base URL of the local instance. |
| Cost | ||
| Pricing model | mixed | mixed |
| Starts at | $20/mo | $10/mo |
| Free tier | No | Yes |
| Bring your own key | NoLLM usage is billed by Augment as provider cost plus a 40% service fee; supplying your own provider key or cloud account is not documented. | YesYour own provider key or Vertex AI credentials, and BYOK plus local models work without a paid JetBrains AI subscription. |
| Openness | ||
| Open source | No | No |
| License | proprietary | proprietary |
| GitHub stars | 283 | n/a |
Which one would each critic pick
| Critic | Augment Code | JetBrains AI Assistant | Pick |
|---|---|---|---|
| El Juez | — | — | not enough reviews |
| El Amigo | 7.0 | 7.5 | JetBrains AI Assistant — Pick it if you already pay for a JetBrains IDE and want chat, refactoring and a coding agent without leaving it; pick Junie, also from JetBrains, when you want the agent to take the whole task. |
| El Crítico | 6.0 | 6.5 | JetBrains AI Assistant — Brave mode runs shell commands and run configurations without confirmation, and the docs otherwise describe no per-call approval model for MCP tools. |
| El Profesor | 6.5 | 6.8 | JetBrains AI Assistant — Context is bounded to files within the project directory, and since 2025.2 the IDE exposes its own MCP server, so the design assumes external agents will read the IDE, not only the reverse. |
| La Inversora | 7.0 | 7.8 | JetBrains AI Assistant — JetBrains sells this as a layer on IDEs developers already pay for, AI Pro at $10 and Ultimate at $30 with a credit that equals one dollar; pricing so legible it barely needs a sales team. |
| La Jefa | 6.8 | 7.5 | JetBrains AI Assistant — AI Enterprise is $60 per user, $3,600 a month for sixty, admins can preconfigure MCP servers and block engineers from adding their own, and the IDE is already on the invoice. |
| El Hacker | 4.3 | 6.8 | JetBrains AI Assistant — Proprietary, but Ollama, LM Studio and any OpenAI-compatible server work with no subscription at all, and MCP servers are a JSON block under Settings, Tools, AI Assistant, Model Context Protocol. |
Picks are derived from each critic's own scores. Humans vote on matchups on the duels page.