JetBrains AI Assistant vs Trae (2026)

JetBrains AI Assistant

by JetBrains

Trae

by ByteDance

Pros

• ✓Built into eleven JetBrains IDEs plus Android Studio and ReSharper, with code completion from JetBrains' own Mellum model that does not use AI Credits, and a public preview extension for Visual Studio Code.
• ✓Several coding agents in one chat: JetBrains' own Junie, plus Claude Agent, Codex and GitHub Copilot, and any ACP-compatible agent from the registry, with MCP support in both directions.
• ✓Cloud models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI through JetBrains AI, bring-your-own-key for OpenAI and Anthropic, and local models through Ollama or LM Studio.

Limitations

• –AI Free is not available in IntelliJ IDEA without an Ultimate subscription, PyCharm without a Pro subscription, or Android Studio, and it does not include next edit suggestions.
• –Cloud AI features pause when the included credits run out until the quota renews after 30 days or credits are topped up, and unused included credits do not roll over.
• –SSO and SCIM, AI audit logs, organization-wide provider keys and on-premises deployment require AI Enterprise at $60 per user per month billed annually, sold through a demo request.

Pros

• ✓Two products on one subscription: the TraeCode IDE for hands-on coding and TraeWork for delegated agent tasks, with TraeWork available on desktop, web and mobile.
• ✓Paid plans run agent tasks in the cloud in parallel, up to 10 on Pro, 15 on Pro+ and 20 on Ultra, so several jobs can run while the developer reviews finished ones. Enterprise adds org-wide spending caps, usage dashboards and role-based access.
• ✓The free plan includes the IDE, Auto mode, 5,000 autocompletions a month and two concurrent cloud tasks, and the yearly toggle cuts paid plans by 17 percent.

Limitations

• –Chat interactions, including code snippets, may be used for model training unless Privacy Mode is switched on, and Privacy Mode only applies while the user is logged in. Only the Enterprise page states that code is never used for training.
• –TRAE is owned by ByteDance and its privacy policy names Cosmo Technology Private Limited as the operator, which buyers with vendor-origin or data-residency requirements should review before adoption.
• –Independent review evidence is thin. The G2 profile is unclaimed and has very few reviews, so buyers have little third-party sentiment to compare against the vendor's own claims.