IDE Market Share 2026: Most Popular IDEs and AI Code Editors
Visual Studio Code is the most used code editor. 70.9% of developers in the 2026 Stack Overflow Developer Survey used it regularly, well ahead of Notepad++ (27.8%), Visual Studio (27.6%) and IntelliJ IDEA (24.3%). As a primary IDE, VS Code leads IntelliJ IDEA by 26.8% to 24.3% in our tally of JetBrains 2025 survey data. No sales-based IDE market share exists. AI tools are the fastest-moving part: Cursor now ranks second in IDE download searches, and GitHub Copilot reached 50 million users in July 2026.
Key statistics
- Visual Studio Code was used regularly by 70.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
- VS Code was the primary IDE of 26.8% of developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
- VS Code use fell by 5.0 percentage points between the 2025 and 2026 Stack Overflow surveys, from 75.9% to 70.9%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
- Cursor had 13.31% of IDE download searches worldwide in October 2026, second after Visual Studio, according to PYPL.
- GitHub Copilot had 50 million users in July 2026, according to Microsoft.
Most popular IDEs 2026
The Stack Overflow Developer Survey is the largest free source on editor use. It asks which development environments and code editors people used regularly in the past year. Respondents can pick several.
VS Code is in a league of its own. 9,350 of the 13,193 people who answered use it, 2.6 times as many as Visual Studio. The next four tools sit close together between 24% and 28%. Two of them, Notepad++ and Vim, are general text editors rather than full IDEs.
Cursor is the highest-placed AI-first editor, at 14.9%. Zed, a newer fast editor with built-in AI features, reached 11.4%. Windsurf (3.2%), Kiro (2.8%) and Trae (0.7%) are still small in this survey.
Loyalty tells a different story from reach. Stack Overflow also asks which tools people want to keep using. 69.9% of Neovim users want to stay with it, the highest of any editor used by at least 10% of respondents. Cursor scores 33.0%, the lowest of that group. Many developers try AI editors without settling on them.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, n=13,193.
-
Visual Studio Code was used regularly by 70.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Notepad++ was used regularly by 27.8% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Visual Studio was used regularly by 27.6% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Vim was used regularly by 27.2% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
IntelliJ IDEA was used regularly by 24.3% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Cursor was used regularly by 14.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Zed was used regularly by 11.4% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
VS Code had 2.6 times as many regular users as Visual Studio in the 2026 Stack Overflow survey, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: 9,350 VS Code respondents / 3,643 Visual Studio respondents = 2.57, rounded to 2.6.
-
69.9% of Neovim users wanted to keep using it in 2026, the highest of any editor used by at least 10% of developers, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: Admired scores for the 13 editors used by 10% or more of respondents: Neovim 69.9% is the highest; next are Zed 57.3%, VS Code 55.7% and Vim 55.7%.
-
Only 33.0% of Cursor users wanted to keep using it next year in 2026, against 55.7% for VS Code, according to Stack Overflow.
| IDE or editor | Respondents | Share of respondents | Want to keep using (admired) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | 9,350 | 70.9% | 55.7% |
| Notepad++ | 3,673 | 27.8% | 52.5% |
| Visual Studio | 3,643 | 27.6% | 47.8% |
| Vim | 3,586 | 27.2% | 55.7% |
| IntelliJ IDEA | 3,201 | 24.3% | 53.3% |
| Cursor | 1,971 | 14.9% | 33.0% |
| Neovim | 1,939 | 14.7% | 69.9% |
| Android Studio | 1,880 | 14.2% | 39.4% |
| PyCharm | 1,783 | 13.5% | 49.7% |
| Nano | 1,600 | 12.1% | 46.8% |
| Zed | 1,504 | 11.4% | 57.3% |
| Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab | 1,498 | 11.4% | 44.7% |
| Xcode | 1,322 | 10.0% | 38.7% |
| Sublime Text | 1,290 | 9.8% | 49.6% |
| VSCodium | 1,017 | 7.7% | 51.4% |
IDE market share by developer survey
There is no sales-based market share for IDEs. Most editors are free. So "market share" depends on what you count: who uses a tool at all, who uses it most, or who searches to download it. Each lens gives a different ranking.
Primary use is much closer than any use. JetBrains publishes its raw survey data but no IDE chart, so we tallied it with JetBrains’ own weights. VS Code is the primary IDE of 26.8% of developers and IntelliJ IDEA of 24.3%. VS Code’s lead shrinks because many people keep it open as a second editor. In the same data, 58.3% use VS Code regularly.
Search interest ranks tools differently again. In the PYPL index, which counts Google searches for each IDE’s download page, Visual Studio leads with 19.65%. Cursor is second and VS Code only fifth. Download searches favour tools people install fresh, such as Visual Studio and Android Studio. They undercount tools that are already installed or update themselves.
Developers do move. 25.1% of JetBrains respondents had changed their main IDE in the previous 12 months. JetBrains is itself an IDE maker, so its sample leans towards its own users even after weighting. That is why IntelliJ IDEA ranks higher there than in Stack Overflow’s survey.
Source: StatisticsGlobal analysis of JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey 2025 raw data, weighted, n=23,749. Tallies: /data/snapshots/jetbrains/devecosystem-2025-ide-tallies.csv.
-
VS Code was the primary IDE of 26.8% of developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question ide_main ("Which IDE or editor do you primarily use?"): weighted VS Code respondents / weighted total, n=23,749.
-
IntelliJ IDEA was the primary IDE of 24.3% of developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question ide_main, n=23,749. Next: PyCharm 6.8%, Visual Studio 5.5%, Android Studio 4.8%.
-
Cursor was the primary IDE of 4.1% of developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question ide_main, n=23,749.
-
VS Code was used regularly by 58.3% of developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question ides ("Which IDEs or editors do you regularly use?"), multiple answers, n=23,855. IntelliJ IDEA 38.7%, PyCharm 21.0%, Cursor 12.0%.
-
25.1% of developers had changed their main IDE in the 12 months before mid-2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question main_ide_past compared with ide_main for the same respondent: weighted share where the two differ, n=8,718.
-
Visual Studio had 19.65% of IDE download searches worldwide in October 2026, the highest of any IDE, according to PYPL.
-
VS Code had 10.18% of IDE download searches worldwide in October 2026, according to PYPL.
| IDE | Stack Overflow 2026: use regularly | JetBrains 2025: primary IDE (our tally) | PYPL October 2026: download search share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | 70.9% | 26.8% | 10.18% |
| IntelliJ IDEA | 24.3% | 24.3% | 4.09% |
| Visual Studio | 27.6% | 5.5% | 19.65% |
| PyCharm | 13.5% | 6.8% | 4.05% |
| Android Studio | 14.2% | 4.8% | 12.92% |
| Cursor | 14.9% | 4.1% | 13.31% |
| Eclipse | 6.9% | 1.3% | 11.50% |
| Xcode | 10.0% | 1.1% | 3.18% |
VS Code vs IntelliJ IDEA vs Visual Studio usage
Stack Overflow has asked the same IDE question every year. The five-year series shows a stable top three, with a dip in 2026 that needs care.
VS Code use held between 73.6% and 75.9% from 2022 to 2025, then fell to 70.9% in 2026. Visual Studio slid from 32.2% to 27.6% over the five years, and IntelliJ IDEA from 28.0% to 24.3%.
Treat the 2026 drop with caution. The number of people answering the IDE question fell from 86,544 in 2023 to 13,193 in 2026, down 84.8%. The 2025 question also listed AI tools such as Claude Code, which were moved to a separate question in 2026. A smaller, different sample can move shares by a few points on its own.
Search data points the same way, though. Visual Studio’s share of IDE download searches fell 8.2 points in the year to October 2026, and VS Code’s fell 4.9 points, as Cursor and Antigravity took a fifth of all searches.
- Visual Studio
- Cursor
- VS Code
- Antigravity
Source: PYPL TOP IDE index, worldwide (CC BY 3.0). November 2025 omitted. Dated copy: /data/snapshots/pypl/top-ide-index-worldwide-2026-10-23.csv.
-
Visual Studio Code was used regularly by 75.9% of developers in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey in 2025, according to Stack Overflow.
-
VS Code use fell by 5.0 percentage points between the 2025 and 2026 Stack Overflow surveys, from 75.9% to 70.9%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: 70.9% (2026, n=13,193) minus 75.9% (2025, n=26,143) = -5.0 points. The 2025 question also listed AI tools, so the bases differ.
-
VS Code use in the Stack Overflow survey moved between 70.9% and 75.9% from 2022 to 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: Range of VS Code share across five surveys: 74.48% (2022), 73.71% (2023), 73.6% (2024), 75.9% (2025), 70.9% (2026). Max minus min = 5.0 points.
-
Respondents to the Stack Overflow IDE question fell 84.8% from 86,544 in 2023 to 13,193 in 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: (13,193 - 86,544) / 86,544 = -84.8%. Bases: 2022 71,010; 2023 86,544; 2024 58,121; 2025 26,143; 2026 13,193.
-
Visual Studio’s share of IDE download searches fell 8.2 points between October 2025 and October 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from PYPL data.
How we calculated it: 19.65% (October 2026) minus 27.85% (October 2025) = -8.20 points.
-
VS Code’s share of IDE download searches fell 4.9 points between October 2025 and October 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from PYPL data.
How we calculated it: 10.18% (October 2026) minus 15.10% (October 2025) = -4.92 points.
| Survey year | Respondents to IDE question | VS Code | Visual Studio | IntelliJ IDEA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 71,010 | 74.5% | 32.2% | 28.0% |
| 2023 | 86,544 | 73.7% | 28.4% | 26.8% |
| 2024 | 58,121 | 73.6% | 29.3% | 26.8% |
| 2025 | 26,143 | 75.9% | 29.0% | 27.1% |
| 2026 | 13,193 | 70.9% | 27.6% | 24.3% |
AI code editor adoption (Cursor, Copilot) statistics
AI coding tools come in two forms. Some are separate editors, such as Cursor and Antigravity. Others are agents or extensions that run inside an existing IDE or the terminal, such as GitHub Copilot and Claude Code.
Among developers who use an AI coding agent or assistant, Claude Code (65.5%) and GitHub Copilot (58.7%) lead in the 2026 Stack Overflow survey. Cursor is fourth at 25.5%, behind OpenAI Codex. These tools mostly run inside VS Code or JetBrains IDEs, which helps explain why the classic editors keep their reach.
Company figures show the scale. Microsoft says GitHub Copilot had 50 million users in July 2026, up 150% from 20 million a year earlier. On the Visual Studio Marketplace, the Copilot extension has 74.8 million installs. The Claude Code extension reached 28.5 million in 16 months and is adding installs faster per day than Copilot did on average. Install counts include reinstalls, so they overstate active users.
Cursor is the AI editor that has won the most attention. It rose from 1.7% to 4.3% as a primary IDE in the JetBrains data, and 37.9% of its primary users came from VS Code. In search data it overtook VS Code in May 2026. But Cursor’s regular use fell 3.0 points between the 2025 and 2026 Stack Overflow surveys, and only a third of its users want to keep it. PYPL’s Cursor series jumps sharply in February 2026, which may reflect a change in how the term is tracked. PYPL does not say.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, AI coding agents, n=12,255.
-
Claude Code was used by 65.5% of developers who used an AI coding agent or assistant in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
GitHub Copilot was used by 58.7% of developers who used an AI coding agent or assistant in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Cursor was used by 25.5% of developers who used an AI coding agent or assistant in 2026, according to Stack Overflow.
-
Cursor use fell by 3.0 percentage points between the 2025 and 2026 Stack Overflow surveys, from 17.9% to 14.9%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: 14.9% (2026) minus 17.9% (2025) = -3.0 points. Stack Overflow Developer Survey Dev IDEs, all respondents.
-
GitHub Copilot had 50 million users in July 2026, according to Microsoft.
-
GitHub Copilot had 20 million users in July 2025, according to Microsoft.
-
GitHub Copilot users grew 150% in a year, from 20 million in July 2025 to 50 million in July 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Microsoft data.
How we calculated it: (50 million - 20 million) / 20 million = 150%. Microsoft FY2025 Q4 and FY2026 Q4 earnings calls.
-
One in three pull requests on GitHub involved an agent in July 2026, according to Microsoft.
-
The GitHub Copilot extension had 74.8 million installs on the Visual Studio Marketplace in October 2026, according to Visual Studio Marketplace.
-
The Claude Code for VS Code extension had 28.5 million installs in October 2026, 16 months after release, according to Visual Studio Marketplace.
-
OpenAI’s Codex extension had 15.8 million installs in October 2026, according to Visual Studio Marketplace.
-
Claude Code for VS Code averaged about 57,900 installs a day by October 2026, against 38,500 for GitHub Copilot, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Visual Studio Marketplace data.
How we calculated it: Claude Code: 28,481,336 installs / 492 days since 18 June 2025 = 57,889. GitHub Copilot: 74,794,653 / 1,942 days since 29 June 2021 = 38,514. Counted to 23 October 2026.
-
Cursor had 13.31% of IDE download searches worldwide in October 2026, second after Visual Studio, according to PYPL.
-
Google Antigravity had 7.22% of IDE download searches worldwide in October 2026, about a year after it entered the index, according to PYPL.
-
Cursor and Antigravity together took 20.5% of IDE download searches in October 2026, up from 0.4% a year earlier, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from PYPL data.
How we calculated it: October 2026: Cursor 13.31% + Antigravity 7.22% = 20.53%. October 2025: Cursor 0.43% + Antigravity 0.01% = 0.44%.
-
Cursor overtook VS Code in IDE download searches in May 2026 and stayed ahead to October 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from PYPL data.
How we calculated it: First month with Cursor share above VS Code share: May 2026 (12.27% vs 11.73%). Cursor stayed ahead in every month to October 2026 (13.31% vs 10.18%).
-
Cursor rose from 1.7% to 4.3% as developers’ primary IDE in the 12 months to mid-2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question main_ide_past vs ide_main for the same 8,718 respondents: Cursor 1.7% a year earlier, 4.3% now, +2.6 points. VS Code fell from 28.4% to 26.6% in the same group.
-
37.9% of developers whose primary IDE was Cursor in 2025 had used VS Code as their main IDE a year earlier, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question main_ide_past among respondents whose ide_main is Cursor (n=289): VS Code 37.9%, Cursor 25.1%, IntelliJ IDEA 8.7%.
| Tool | Stack Overflow 2026: used (agent users) | VS Marketplace installs, 23 Oct 2026 | Company-reported scale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | 65.5% | 28.5 million | Not reported |
| GitHub Copilot | 58.7% | 74.8 million | 50 million users (July 2026) |
| OpenAI Codex | 29.5% | 15.8 million | Not reported |
| Cursor | 25.5% | Not on Marketplace (separate editor) | Over $1 billion annualised revenue (Nov 2025) |
| Gemini Code Assist | 14.6% | 5.5 million | Not reported |
| Cline | 4.5% | 5.7 million | Not reported |
IDE usage by programming language
The best IDE depends on the language. JetBrains asks developers which IDE they use most for each language they work in. We tallied the answers with its weights.
Specialised IDEs win their home languages. IntelliJ IDEA is the main Java IDE for 71.5% of Java developers. PhpStorm leads PHP with 58.9% and GoLand leads Go with 46.8%. In C#, Visual Studio and JetBrains Rider are almost level. VS Code leads in JavaScript and TypeScript, C++ and C.
Python is the closest fight. PyCharm’s two editions together are the main Python IDE for 40.6% of Python developers, against 34.2% for VS Code. These figures come from a JetBrains survey, so JetBrains tools are likely overstated. The direction matches Stack Overflow, where general editors dominate overall use.
Experience matters too. In the 2026 Stack Overflow survey, VS Code use was 8.3 points higher among developers with 1 to 5 years of work experience than among those with 16+ years. Neovim was 2.8 times as common among the younger group. Cursor peaked in the middle group, at 17.9% of developers with 6 to 15 years of experience. Many AI coding tools run on the same large language models as chatbots, covered on our AI chatbot market share page.
Source: Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, Dev IDEs by work experience (n=2,881; 4,508; 5,093).
-
IntelliJ IDEA was the most used IDE for Java by 71.5% of Java developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question java_ide, n=4,636. VS Code 8.6%, Android Studio 7.7%, Eclipse 6.3%.
-
PyCharm was the main Python IDE for 40.6% of Python developers in 2025, against 34.2% for VS Code, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question python_ide, n=8,032. PyCharm Professional 24.3% + PyCharm Community 16.3% = 40.6%. VS Code 34.2%, Cursor 6.2%.
-
VS Code was the main IDE for JavaScript or TypeScript for 48.1% of those developers in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question js_ide, n=4,146. WebStorm 22.3%, another JetBrains IDE 15.1%, Cursor 6.6%.
-
Visual Studio led JetBrains Rider by 45.3% to 44.3% as the main C# IDE in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question csharp_ide, n=3,555. Visual Studio 45.3% minus Rider 44.3% = 1.0 point. VS Code 8.8%.
-
GoLand was the main Go IDE for 46.8% of Go developers in 2025, against 29.3% for VS Code, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question go_ide, n=1,412. Cursor 5.8%.
-
VS Code was the main C++ IDE for 32.9% of C++ developers in 2025, ahead of CLion at 23.2%, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question cpp_ide, n=1,803. Visual Studio 21.2%.
-
PhpStorm was the main PHP IDE for 58.9% of PHP developers in 2025, against 27.2% for VS Code, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from JetBrains data.
How we calculated it: StatisticsGlobal weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, question php_ide, n=1,645. Cursor 5.4%.
-
VS Code use was 8.3 points higher among developers with 1 to 5 years of experience than among those with 16+ years in 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: 76.6% (1 to 5 years work experience) minus 68.3% (16+ years) = 8.3 points.
-
Neovim was 2.8 times as common among developers with 1 to 5 years of experience as among those with 16+ years in 2026, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: 23.4% (1 to 5 years) / 8.3% (16+ years) = 2.82.
-
Cursor use peaked at 17.9% among developers with 6 to 15 years of experience in 2026, against 13.3% for those with 16+ years, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Stack Overflow data.
How we calculated it: Stack Overflow 2026 Dev IDEs by work experience: Cursor 14.6% (1 to 5 years), 17.9% (6 to 15 years), 13.3% (16+ years). Highest of the three groups.
| Language | Respondents | Leader | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Java | 4,636 | IntelliJ IDEA 71.5% | VS Code 8.6% | Android Studio 7.7% |
| Python | 8,032 | PyCharm 40.6% (both editions) | VS Code 34.2% | Cursor 6.2% |
| JavaScript/TypeScript | 4,146 | VS Code 48.1% | WebStorm 22.3% | Other JetBrains IDE 15.1% |
| C# | 3,555 | Visual Studio 45.3% | Rider 44.3% | VS Code 8.8% |
| Kotlin | 1,925 | IntelliJ IDEA 55.5% (both editions) | Android Studio 42.2% | Other 2.3% |
| PHP | 1,645 | PhpStorm 58.9% | VS Code 27.2% | Cursor 5.4% |
| Go | 1,412 | GoLand 46.8% | VS Code 29.3% | Cursor 5.8% |
| C++ | 1,803 | VS Code 32.9% | CLion 23.2% | Visual Studio 21.2% |
| C | 896 | VS Code 41.9% | CLion 19.4% | Visual Studio 13.6% |
IDE market size
We found no primary, freely available estimate of the total IDE market in dollars. Market research firms sell such figures, but we cannot check their methods. What vendors disclose is revenue and user counts for AI coding tools.
Cursor, made by Anysphere, said it passed $500 million in annual recurring revenue in June 2025 and $1 billion in annualised revenue in November 2025. That is a doubling in about five months. These are run rates stated by the company, not audited annual revenue.
Microsoft does not report GitHub Copilot revenue in dollars. In its July 2026 call it said GitHub Copilot had 50 million users and that one in three pull requests on GitHub now involves an agent. Spending is moving from the editor itself, usually free, to the AI services that run inside it. For the cloud platforms behind these tools, see our cloud market share page.
-
Cursor passed $500 million in annual recurring revenue in June 2025, according to Cursor.
-
Cursor passed $1 billion in annualised revenue in November 2025, according to Cursor.
-
Cursor’s annualised revenue doubled from $500 million to $1 billion in about five months of 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Cursor data.
How we calculated it: $1 billion (13 November 2025) / $500 million (6 June 2025) = 2.0, over 160 days.
| Company | Metric | Value | Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor (Anysphere) | Annual recurring revenue | Over $500 million | June 2025 |
| Cursor (Anysphere) | Annualised revenue | Over $1 billion | November 2025 |
| Microsoft | GitHub Copilot users | 20 million | July 2025 |
| Microsoft | GitHub Copilot users | 50 million | July 2026 |
| Microsoft | GitHub users (all) | 225 million | July 2026 |
How these sources measure IDE use
Every source here measures something different, and each has a bias. Read the numbers side by side, not as one market share.
Stack Overflow surveys people who reach it through its own site and channels. The 2026 survey ran from 23 June to 5 August 2026 and drew 30,903 valid responses, of whom 13,193 answered the IDE question. Respondents tick every tool they used regularly, so shares add up to far more than 100%. The sample shrank sharply after 2023 and the question wording changed in 2025 and 2026, so small year-on-year moves may be noise.
JetBrains surveyed 24,534 developers from April to June 2025 and publishes the raw data under CC BY 4.0. JetBrains makes IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and other IDEs, and recruits partly through its own channels. It provides weights to reduce that bias, and we used them. Even so, JetBrains tools probably still rank higher than in the wider population. The 2026 edition was not out when we checked. Our tallies are published at /data/snapshots/jetbrains/.
PYPL counts Google searches for "<IDE> download" through Google Trends, normalises them to 100% across 36 IDEs and smooths them over six months. It shows interest, not use, and leaves out tools whose names are ambiguous. Visual Studio Marketplace counts are cumulative installs, not active users, and do not cover Cursor or other VS Code forks. Microsoft and Cursor figures are company statements without a published definition of "users" or "revenue run rate".
Frequently asked questions
What is the most popular IDE in 2026?
Visual Studio Code. 70.9% of developers in the 2026 Stack Overflow Developer Survey used it regularly. Notepad++ (27.8%), Visual Studio (27.6%), Vim (27.2%) and IntelliJ IDEA (24.3%) follow.
Is VS Code losing market share?
Slightly, on two measures. VS Code use fell from 75.9% to 70.9% between the 2025 and 2026 Stack Overflow surveys, though the sample also shrank. Its share of IDE download searches in the PYPL index fell from 15.10% to 10.18% in the year to October 2026.
What percentage of developers use Cursor?
14.9% of developers in the 2026 Stack Overflow survey used Cursor regularly, down from 17.9% in 2025. In JetBrains’ 2025 data, 4.1% used Cursor as their primary IDE. Among developers who use AI coding agents, 25.5% had used Cursor.
Which IDE do Java and Python developers use?
IntelliJ IDEA is the main Java IDE for 71.5% of Java developers in JetBrains’ 2025 data. For Python, PyCharm leads with 40.6% across both editions, against 34.2% for VS Code.
How many people use GitHub Copilot?
Microsoft said GitHub Copilot had 50 million users in July 2026, up from 20 million in July 2025. The Copilot extension had 74.8 million installs on the Visual Studio Marketplace in October 2026.
How big is the IDE market?
No free, primary estimate of the IDE market in dollars exists. Most editors are free. The clearest revenue signal is AI coding tools: Cursor said it passed $1 billion in annualised revenue in November 2025.
Sources
- Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026: Dev IDEs, 2026, accessed 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: ODbL 1.0
- JetBrains, Developer Ecosystem Survey 2025 raw data, October 2025, downloaded 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: CC BY 4.0
- PYPL, TOP IDE index (worldwide), monthly series to October 2026, accessed 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: CC BY 3.0
- Microsoft, Microsoft Fiscal Year 2026 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call, 29 July 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026: Admired and desired dev IDEs, 2026, accessed 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: ODbL 1.0
- Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025: Technology (Dev IDEs), 2025, accessed 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: ODbL 1.0
- Stack Overflow, Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026: AI coding agents, 2026, accessed 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy · Licence: ODbL 1.0
- Microsoft, Microsoft Fiscal Year 2025 Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call, 30 July 2025. Link · Saved data copy
- Visual Studio Marketplace, Visual Studio Marketplace extension statistics (extensionquery API), live, pulled 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Visual Studio Marketplace, Visual Studio Marketplace extension statistics (extensionquery API), live, pulled 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Visual Studio Marketplace, Visual Studio Marketplace extension statistics (extensionquery API), live, pulled 23 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Cursor, Series C and Scale, 6 June 2025. Link · Saved data copy
- Cursor, Past, Present, and Future (Series D announcement), 13 November 2025. Link · Saved data copy
Changes to this page
- : Page published with Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2022 to 2026 data, our weighted tally of the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem 2025 raw data, the PYPL TOP IDE index to October 2026, Visual Studio Marketplace install counts and Microsoft and Cursor statements.