IntelliJ IDEA

IntelliJ IDEA is an integrated development environment (IDE) made by JetBrains. It is built mainly for languages that run on the Java Virtual Machine, such as Java, Kotlin, Scala and Groovy, and plugins add support for others including JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, PHP, Go and SQL. The IDE indexes a whole project, so completion, navigation and refactoring work across every file rather than one file at a time.

Since version 2025.3, IntelliJ IDEA ships as a single product. The former Community and Ultimate editions were merged: the core features are free, including for commercial work, and an Ultimate subscription unlocks the advanced tooling. JetBrains also keeps an open-source edition that can be built from the intellij-community repository on GitHub.

Key features

• Code completion. Basic and type-matching completion, plus full-line suggestions from machine-learning models that run locally.
• Refactoring. Automated renames, extractions and moves that update every reference in the project, gathered in a single "Refactor This" menu.
• Debugger and profiling. A JVM debugger with conditional breakpoints and expression evaluation, and integration with Java Flight Recorder and Async Profiler.
• Version control. Git, Mercurial, Perforce and Subversion support, with history, diffs, branch management and GitHub pull requests inside the IDE.
• Build tools. Maven and Gradle projects are imported and kept in sync, and build files can be edited with completion.
• Plugins. JetBrains Marketplace offers official and third-party plugins, and the documentation covers Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub and GitLab.

Who it is for

IntelliJ IDEA suits Java and Kotlin developers, from students learning their first language to teams maintaining large server-side codebases. The free core covers most day-to-day JVM work, while teams that need the advanced framework, database and web tooling in one window tend to take the Ultimate subscription. JetBrains offers free educational licences to verified students and teachers.

Pricing at a glance

• Free: the core IDE, for personal and commercial use, with no subscription.
• Ultimate for individuals: US$199 for the first year, US$159 for the second and US$119 from the third year, or US$19.90 billed monthly.
• Ultimate for organisations: US$719 per user per year, or US$71.90 per user per month.
• All Products Pack: every JetBrains IDE for US$299 a year for individuals or US$979 per user a year for organisations.

A 30-day Ultimate trial is offered when the IDE is installed. Taxes are added depending on country. Prices as checked on 10 October 2026; confirm on the vendor's pricing page.

Things to consider

• JetBrains documents the paid tier only as "advanced tooling", so check the feature comparison for the specific frameworks or database tools you rely on before you subscribe.
• When an Ultimate subscription ends, the IDE keeps working with the free features; paid features simply become unavailable.
• The IDE is demanding: JetBrains lists 8 GB of RAM, a four-core CPU and 10 GB of disk space as the requirements.
• Educational licences cannot be used for commercial work.

Getting started

1. Install the JetBrains Toolbox App, or download a standalone installer for Windows, macOS or Linux, following the installation guide.
2. Open an existing Maven or Gradle project, or clone a repository from Git.
3. Configure a JDK; the IDE can download one for you.
4. Run and debug the application from the gutter icons next to the main method or tests.
5. Start the Ultimate trial if you need the advanced tooling, then decide whether to subscribe.