Vibe Coding: Can you actually bring your AI API key (BYOK) i...

Joe

Joe Germain

Vibe Coding: Can you actually bring your AI API key (BYOK) into Visual Studio Code without a paid subscription and use it to vibe code? The choices of really free VsCode extensions that support vibe coding with the newest coding LLMs are few for the moment. One you might consider is Cline. No subscription required and it supports both GPT 5 LLMs and Claude Sonnet 4.5, among others, with BYOK. Of course, you usually need to have a credit card on file with the AI provider whose API key you'll be using and you may be charged for tokens in and out. Another option is Gemini Code Assist, where your free tier Gemini API key will work just fine, though it tends to be slow. A final note on this topic: it's not a good idea to allow the agent commands to run automatically, and commit before allowing changes is a great idea.
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Posted Nov 6, 2025

Vibe Coding: Can you actually bring your AI API key (BYOK) into Visual Studio Code without a paid subscription and use it to vibe code? The choices of really...