Colab in VS Code
Google Colab now integrates with VS Code, giving developers cloud GPU/TPU access without the browser—lowering the friction for cloud‑backed ML development and portfolio work. That removes a common blocker for students building GPU‑backed projects in a local IDE workflow. (x.com)
A Google Developers Blog post dated Nov. 13, 2025 lists Spencer Shumway, Kevin Eger and Ashley Toney as the authors of the Colab‑VS Code announcement. (developers.googleblog.com) The official extension is published on the Visual Studio Marketplace and is also available via Open VSX; the Marketplace entry instructs users to install the Colab extension from VS Code’s Extensions view. (marketplace.visualstudio.com) Marketplace and the Colab docs state the extension is built atop the Jupyter extension and may prompt users to install that dependency during setup. (developers.googleblog.com) The extension lets a local.ipynb kernel selector connect to Colab runtimes and explicitly calls out support for Pro‑tier runtimes, including premium GPUs and TPUs, with Google sign‑in used to attach a runtime. (developers.googleblog.com) The project's GitHub repository googlecolab/colab-vscode is public, carries an Apache‑2.0 license, and showed roughly 312 stars and 55 forks in its repository header during active development. (github.com) Colab’s team and reporting note a set of web‑only Colab features remain unavailable in the extension (examples cited include userdata.get() and drive.mount()), and the Colab team says it uses GitHub issue upvotes to help prioritize missing features and bug fixes. (infoq.com ) The VS Code Marketplace listing specifies the extension does not collect client‑side usage data inside the editor, and Colab’s landing page currently advertises a “Free Pro Plan for Gemini & Colab for US College Students” offering with eligibility details on Colab’s site. (marketplace.visualstudio.com) (colab.research.google.com)
