How many VS Code extensions are there? The September 2026 catalogs
A 6 September 2026 snapshot counted 115,150 Marketplace listings and 17,429 on Open VSX. See the overlap, method, and limits.
Builds VSXRank · 4 min read
The number of VS Code extensions depends on the registry and the matching rule. This report records VSXRank’s 6 September 2026 snapshot of the public VS Code Marketplace and Open VSX catalogs: 115,150 Marketplace listings and 17,429 Open VSX listings. These are dated catalog records, not users, installations, or a measure of editor audience. The useful question for a publisher is whether the same publisher.name is present in each catalog.
The two catalogs, side by side#
| Measure | VS Code Marketplace | Open VSX |
|---|---|---|
| Listed extensions | 115,150 | 17,429 |
| Published in the last 30 days | 3,401 | 1,114 |
| Published in the last 7 days | 734 | 293 |
Present on both registries (same publisher.name) | 13,461 | 13,461 |
| Only in this snapshot’s registry | 101,689 | 3,968 |
| Open VSX-only listings published in the last 30 days | — | 312 |
| Identifiers present in both registries and published in the last 30 days | 567 | 567 |
The Marketplace’s 3,401 listings published during the 30-day window work out to about 113 per day; Open VSX’s 1,114 work out to about 37 per day. These are period averages, not counts of listings shipped on any particular day. Likewise, the 567 matching identifiers were present in both registries and had a publication date in the window; the snapshot does not establish that the two releases were uploaded together or on a first release day.
What the overlap says#
The 13,461 matching identifiers represent 77.23% of the Open VSX snapshot (13,461 ÷ 17,429) and 11.69% of the Marketplace snapshot (13,461 ÷ 115,150). The remaining 3,968 Open VSX identifiers are 22.77% of that registry’s snapshot. Across both snapshots, exact-identifier matching produces a union of 119,118 listings:
| Exact-identifier segment | Listings | Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Marketplace only | 101,689 | 115,150 − 13,461 |
| Matched on both | 13,461 | Same publisher.name in each snapshot |
| Open VSX only | 3,968 | 17,429 − 13,461 |
| Union | 119,118 | 101,689 + 13,461 + 3,968 |
This is a distribution of listings, not a recommendation to publish everywhere. The Marketplace and Open VSX are separate registries with separate publication paths. VS Code documents the Marketplace as its extension source and exposes installation-count sorting there; Open VSX’s own CLI documents open-vsx.org as its default registry for publishing and downloading extensions. VS Code Marketplace documentation and the Open VSX CLI documentation provide the external definitions; the counts above remain VSXRank’s dated snapshot.
How this snapshot was matched#
For this report, VSXRank enumerated each public catalog on 6 September 2026 and compared normalized publisher.name identifiers. That rule is useful because VS Code itself identifies extensions as publisher.extension, and Open VSX uses the corresponding namespace and extension naming convention.
It has limits:
- A shared identifier is a catalog match, not proof of common ownership, identical packages, release parity, or support policy.
- Different identifiers can refer to related projects and therefore do not match under this rule.
- A missing row shows absence from this snapshot and matching procedure. It does not establish that a package cannot be obtained from another source or private registry.
- Publication dates and metadata are registry records. They describe the listing data observed in that registry, not adoption or user demand.
These limits are why the report avoids inferring audience size, registry-wide availability, or motives from the count gap.
A practical opportunity check for publishers#
Use the snapshot as a starting point for an extension you maintain:
- Look up the exact
publisher.nameon both registries and verify that each listing points to the intended project, version, license, and support links. - If only one listing appears, decide whether supporting the other registry fits your distribution and maintenance plan. Open VSX’s publisher guidance describes its namespace and package-upload process.
- Keep Marketplace install movement and Open VSX download movement in separate columns and compare each over matching observation dates. Open VSX download-count semantics explain why those totals should not be combined.
- Compare keyword positions within one registry at a time, then inspect versions and listing changes before treating a movement as actionable.
- Record missing readings and registry-specific differences rather than filling them with assumptions.
The snapshot is most useful as a coverage check: it identifies listings to inspect and questions to validate, rather than predicting distribution, demand, or the result of publishing work.
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