New VS Code extensions this week: 5–11 October 2026

TL;DR: 990 new extensions launched on the VS Code Marketplace from 5 to 11 October 2026, the most in the seven weeks we have counted. About a third mention AI, and Claude was named in 129 of them. Last week's launches have now had a full week: the typical one has 3 installs, and about 13% reached 10. If you launched recently, compare your first 7 days with those figures and with your category's row below.

How many new VS Code extensions launched this week#

990 new extensions went live on the Marketplace between Monday 5 October and Sunday 11 October 2026, from 910 publishers. We count each extension on the day of its first public release.

Two groups are left out of that count, as in last week's report. The first is 116 listings from two publishers that each released more than 20 extensions in the week (68 and 48). The second is 4 listings whose whole description was a placeholder. With both groups included, the Marketplace recorded 1,110 new listings.

That is the highest weekly total of the six weeks below:

We count every week again each time we write this report, so a few earlier figures are one or two higher than in last week's table. Late listings and edited descriptions account for the difference.

On Open VSX, 480 new listings appeared in the same week, 75 of them from one high-volume publisher. Open VSX is a separate registry, so we count it separately.

What kinds of extensions launched#

About a third of the week's new Marketplace extensions (335 of 990) mention AI in their name, description or tags. Last week it was 323 of 944.

Publishers choose their own categories, and an extension can have several, so this column adds up to more than 990:

323 launches used only "Other", up from 253 the week before. 228 of the 990 were also on Open VSX under the same ID.

How last week's launches did after 7 days#

The 944 launches of 28 September – 4 October have now had a full week. We read each one's Marketplace install count 7 days after its release, and 920 had a reading on that day.

The typical launch (the median) had 3 installs, the same as in each of the three weeks we measured before. 123 of them, about 13%, reached 10. So a handful of installs after your first week is normal.

Debuggers and Themes led again:

Launches with a specific category reached 10 installs more often than those left only in "Other": 14% against 10%. The table shows which launches did better, not why.

Standout launches of the week#

26 of the 990 new launches reached 20 installs by 12 October, the same number as last week. Nine categories had one that met the rules in the section below.

Earlier launches still climbing#

These launched between 21 September and 4 October and gained installs on at least 6 of the 7 days to 12 October. They are ranked by installs gained in that week.

Plaintext Formatter leads this list for a second week, and its count has more than doubled since 5 October.

How last week's picks did#

All four of last week's category picks are still listed, and each gained installs.

How we picked these#

These picks are not sponsored, and we haven't reviewed their code. The rules are the same as last week. An extension was eligible if it:

• was still listed on the Marketplace on 12 October,
• links a public source repository that opened when we checked on 13 October,
• has a real description, not a placeholder,
• comes from a publisher with fewer than 1 million installs across all its extensions and no more than 20 launches that week, and
• is not one of ours.

New launches also needed at least 20 installs, and none of them could have gained more than 500 installs in a single day, or most of its installs in one day with almost none after. Each one is listed under the first category its publisher chose. For the climbing list, gaining installs on 6 of 7 days does the same job.

What to check after your first week#

If you launched in the last two weeks, these checks use the figures above:

• Installs after 7 days: compare yours with the median of 3 and with your category's row. Reaching 10 puts you ahead of about 87% of launches.
• Category: a third of this week's launches are only in "Other". If yours is one, set the categories field in your extension manifest to one that fits.
• Display name: include the words people search for. Our keyword guide shows how to choose them.
• Source link: set the repository field in the same manifest and keep the repository public, so people can read the code before they install.
• Daily gains: look for installs arriving on most days, not in one jump. Every extension in the climbing list gained on all 7 days.

How we counted#

• Weeks run Monday to Sunday, in UTC.
• Marketplace launches are counted on the first public release date the Marketplace reports. New listings can take up to three days to appear in the catalog. We counted on 13 October, so this week's total can still rise slightly. Open VSX launches are counted on the day VSXRank first saw them.
• Left out: listings whose whole description was "app", "First one" or empty, and any publisher with more than 20 launches in that week. Both rules apply to every week in this post.
• AI launches are those whose name, description or tags include words such as AI, LLM, agent, Claude, Copilot, MCP, Codex, Gemini, GPT, OpenAI, Anthropic, Cursor, Ollama or prompt. This is a word match, so it will miss some AI tools and include a few that only mention AI.
• Installs come from the Marketplace's public counter, which we read every day at 00:00 UTC. "After 7 days" is the reading 7 days after the release date. When the Marketplace showed no install figure for a listing, we counted 0. When we had no reading for that day (24 launches), we left the extension out.

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