Gemini is Google's AI assistant, available on the web, in Android Studio, and increasingly embedded across Workspace. As a coding tool it sits closer to Claude or Copilot Chat than to Cursor or Windsurf. You bring questions and code to it, rather than working inside an IDE it controls.
The headline feature is context: Gemini 2.0 Pro handles over a million tokens, which means you can paste an entire codebase and ask meaningful questions about it. That's genuinely useful for large-scale refactoring or understanding an unfamiliar repo, and it puts Gemini ahead of most competitors on raw input capacity.
The free tier (Gemini 2.0 Flash) is capable enough for everyday coding questions. Gemini Advanced, via Google One, unlocks the better models. The integration story is Google's real pitch: if you're working in Android Studio, Gemini Code Assist is already there. Firebase and Workspace are similarly wired in. For Google-stack teams this is less a tool you add and more one you're already using.
Where it falls short compared to Cursor or Windsurf: no persistent project context, no autonomous agent loop, no inline editing in a dedicated code environment. You get a capable AI assistant, not an IDE rebuilt around AI. The web interface is also slower to iterate in than a proper editor integration.
Worth using if you're a Google-stack team, want the largest available context window, or are already paying for Google One. For most design engineers working in React or TypeScript, Cursor or Windsurf will feel more at home, but Gemini is worth keeping open alongside them.
Gemini is Google's AI assistant, available on the web, in Android Studio, and increasingly embedded across Workspace. As a coding tool it sits closer to Claude or Copilot Chat than to Cursor or Windsurf. You bring questions and code to it, rather than working inside an IDE it controls.
The headline feature is context: Gemini 2.0 Pro handles over a million tokens, which means you can paste an entire codebase and ask meaningful questions about it. That's genuinely useful for large-scale refactoring or understanding an unfamiliar repo, and it puts Gemini ahead of most competitors on raw input capacity.
The free tier (Gemini 2.0 Flash) is capable enough for everyday coding questions. Gemini Advanced, via Google One, unlocks the better models. The integration story is Google's real pitch: if you're working in Android Studio, Gemini Code Assist is already there. Firebase and Workspace are similarly wired in. For Google-stack teams this is less a tool you add and more one you're already using.
Where it falls short compared to Cursor or Windsurf: no persistent project context, no autonomous agent loop, no inline editing in a dedicated code environment. You get a capable AI assistant, not an IDE rebuilt around AI. The web interface is also slower to iterate in than a proper editor integration.
Worth using if you're a Google-stack team, want the largest available context window, or are already paying for Google One. For most design engineers working in React or TypeScript, Cursor or Windsurf will feel more at home, but Gemini is worth keeping open alongside them.