Programming Languages and Frameworks Popularity in VS Code

VS Code extension installs by language

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I aggregated Visual Studio Code extension installation statistics by programming language and framework. Python leads by a wide margin, then C/C++ is second.

The numbers below are install counts and average star ratings from the Visual Studio Marketplace, collected on 25/10/2026. An install count is a rough proxy for how many VS Code developers work with a language or framework: it goes up each time someone adds the extension to their editor.

You can see all extensions with their install counts and star ratings on the VS Code Marketplace, sorted by installs.

logo of vs code and some ones and zeroes

The summary table lists widely installed language, framework, and tooling extensions, with the terminal command for each. JavaScript and TypeScript are absent: their language support ships inside VS Code, so they have no install count.

Popularity statistics

Summary table

Language Extension Maintainer Installs Stars Install command
Python Python Microsoft 242,545,105 4.2 code --install-extension ms-python.python
C/C++ C/C++ Microsoft 106,115,265 3.4 code --install-extension ms-vscode.cpptools
Java Language Support for Java by Red Hat Red Hat 58,161,155 3.3 code --install-extension redhat.java
Java Debugger for Java Microsoft 53,390,849 3.9 code --install-extension vscjava.vscode-java-debug
C# C# Microsoft 43,966,331 2.7 code --install-extension ms-dotnettools.csharp
Go Go Go team at Google 20,002,914 4.3 code --install-extension golang.Go
React ES7+ React/Redux/React-Native snippets dsznajder 17,835,194 4.4 code --install-extension dsznajder.es7-react-js-snippets
Dart Dart dartcode.org 16,111,029 4.8 code --install-extension Dart-Code.dart-code
Flutter Flutter dartcode.org 15,004,411 4.9 code --install-extension Dart-Code.flutter
npm npm Intellisense Christian Kohler 12,416,586 4.7 code --install-extension christian-kohler.npm-intellisense
Vue Vue (Official) vuejs.org 9,824,870 3.1 code --install-extension Vue.volar
Rust rust-analyzer rust-lang.org 6,777,620 4.8 code --install-extension rust-lang.rust-analyzer
TypeScript (legacy) TSLint — deprecated Microsoft 4,593,538 3.0 superseded by the ESLint extension

Java appears on two rows. Language Support for Java is the language extension, and Debugger for Java is the debugger that was the only Java row in the April 2025 version of this table.

If a setup or an older tutorial still references TSLint, that extension is deprecated in favour of ESLint and has had no updates since 2022. Install ESLint from the productivity table below and migrate existing rules with typescript-eslint.

The Python extension stood at 167,006,727 installs in the April 2025 snapshot on this page. In the Stack Overflow 2026 Developer Survey, Python is the most used language for AI work, at 39.0% of respondents. For what is trending in the Python ecosystem, see Top 17 Trending Python Projects on GitHub.

rust-analyzer is the lowest count outside the deprecated TSLint row. For what is trending in the Rust ecosystem, see Top 20 Trending Rust Projects on GitHub.

Other React extensions on the marketplace include Simple React Snippets, React Native Tools, and the ES7 React/Redux/React-Native snippets pack from rodrigovallades.

The C# extension has the lowest average rating in the table, at 2.7.

Cloud providers

Identifier Extension Maintainer Installs Stars
amazonwebservices.aws-toolkit-vscode AWS Toolkit Amazon 5,208,487 2.5
ms-vscode.vscode-node-azure-pack Azure Tools Microsoft 2,451,384 2.9
googlecloudtools.cloudcode Google Cloud Code Google 2,175,216 2.6

AI coding assistants in VS Code

The marketplace also ranks the AI assistants that live inside the editor.

Identifier Extension Maintainer Installs Stars
GitHub.copilot GitHub Copilot GitHub 74,805,009 4.1
VisualStudioExptTeam.vscodeintellicode IntelliCode Microsoft 62,605,437 3.9
anthropic.claude-code Claude Code for VS Code Anthropic 28,625,797 3.7
openai.chatgpt Codex — OpenAI’s coding agent OpenAI 15,921,533 2.9
Continue.continue Continue — open-source AI code agent Continue 4,419,581 3.2
AmazonWebServices.amazon-q-vscode Amazon Q Amazon 1,876,274 4.0

IntelliCode’s last release was version 1.3.2 on 23 October 2024. Among developers who used an AI coding agent in the Stack Overflow 2026 Developer Survey, 65.5% used Claude Code, 58.7% used GitHub Copilot, and 29.5% used Codex. VS Code’s Agents window entered stable preview during 2026, as described in Modernizing the VS Code UI. For a feature-by-feature comparison of the assistants, see AI Coding Assistants Comparison.

Essential VS Code extensions for improving productivity

Several extensions beyond language support are widely installed for formatting, linting and workflow.

Extension Identifier Installs Stars What it does
Live Server ritwickdey.LiveServer 83,815,013 4.4 Local server with live reload for static and dynamic pages
Prettier — Code formatter esbenp.prettier-vscode 72,512,907 3.5 Formats code for consistency across languages
GitLens eamodio.gitlens 53,536,727 3.4 Blame annotations, commit history, better Git workflow
ESLint dbaeumer.vscode-eslint 53,497,878 4.3 Static analysis for JavaScript and TypeScript
Auto Rename Tag formulahendry.auto-rename-tag 26,157,685 3.7 Renames paired HTML, JSX and XML tags
Code Spell Checker streetsidesoftware.code-spell-checker 18,501,865 4.5 Spelling check for code and comments
Todo Tree gruntfuggly.todo-tree 7,885,242 4.7 Collects TODO, FIXME and custom tags into a tree view
REST Client humao.rest-client 7,693,096 4.9 Sends HTTP requests and shows responses in the editor
Project Manager alefragnani.project-manager 7,639,558 4.8 Quick project switching with per-project settings

Bracket Pair Colorization ships built in and needs no extension. Microsoft’s Live Preview (ms-vscode.live-server, 13,923,218 installs, rated 4.4) previews HTML inside the editor, and the Live Preview repository names Live Server as an inspiration. The Dev Containers extension (42,394,343 installs) is the largest of the environment tooling, and Mastering Dev Containers in VS Code covers the setup. For terminal-level commands of the editor itself, the VSCode Cheatsheet lists the most frequently used ones.

How install counts compare with other popularity metrics

Extension install counts measure one slice of the market: developers who use VS Code. Two other 2026 data points give the wider picture.

The TIOBE Index for October 2026 puts Python first at 19.23%, C second at 11.33%, C++ third at 8.87%, and Java fourth at 8.41%. Rust holds 10th place for a fourth month at 1.44%, up from 16th in October 2025, and Go is 11th at 1.39%, down from 8th a year earlier. TechRepublic’s October 2026 write-up notes that TIOBE added Mandarin Chinese search terms to this month’s index, so some of the rating movement reflects that wider coverage.

The Stack Overflow 2026 Developer Survey ranks overall language use with JavaScript first at 62.0%, SQL at 58.4%, HTML/CSS at 58.2%, and Python at 58.0%. Rust is 12th at 18.0%. The Popularity of Programming Languages and Software Developer Tools page follows the survey side further, into IDEs, cloud providers, and CI/CD tools.

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