IntelliJ IDEA is the reference IDE for Kotlin — JetBrains builds both. You can use Community Edition for pure Kotlin/JVM learning; Android Studio is IDEA-based and includes Kotlin out of the box. You need a JDK installed (17+ is a safe LTS choice today); the New Project wizard lets you pick Kotlin/JVM and Gradle with Kotlin DSL or Groovy.

Install a JDK first
Common JDK distributions
Install IntelliJ IDEA
winget (example)
bash
winget install JetBrains.IntelliJIDEA.Community
Or download
text
https://www.jetbrains.com/idea/download/
Create your first Kotlin/JVM project
Wizard flow
New Project
File → New
Kotlin
JVM | IntelliJ
JDK
Select 17+
Build system
Gradle — Kotlin DSL recommended
Create
Wait for sync
▶

After Gradle imports, open src/main/kotlin. The green gutter icon next to fun main() runs your entry point; the Run tool window shows stdout. Enable “Auto-import” and trust the project so the Kotlin plugin indexes dependencies.

Default JVM layout (Gradle)
структура проекта
📁project/▼
📄gradle/ + build.gradle.kts▼
📁src/main/kotlin/▼
📄Main.kt▼
Which edition?
EditionKotlin learningNotes
IntelliJ CommunityFully sufficientFree; Kotlin plugin bundled.
IntelliJ UltimateExtra frameworksSpring, database tools — optional for basics.
Android StudioAndroid-focusedSame Kotlin plugin lineage; use for mobile track.
If Gradle sync fails, check JDK path in File → Settings → Build → Build Tools → Gradle, and that your corporate proxy allows plugins.gradle.org.