Best Free AI Coding Tools

Open-source terminal AI coding agent by Google, Apache 2.0 licensed. Since 2026-06-18, Login with Google no longer works for personal accounts, according to Google's Gemini Code Assist deprecation notice. The README advertised 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day with a personal Google account until October 16, 2026, when Google removed it. For unpaid-tier and Google One users, Google says Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI on June 18, 2026. Google says Gemini CLI has not been optimized for Gemini 4 Argon and to use Antigravity for Gemini 4 Argon. With a Gemini API key, use counts against the Gemini API's own free tier and pricing. Google stopped selling new Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise subscriptions on 2026-10-09, so a team cannot buy one now to use Gemini CLI. Subscriptions bought before then still work with Gemini CLI. Annual Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise subscriptions can be renewed until 2027-01-31 and monthly ones until 2027-12-31. Google points personal users to its Antigravity products, including Antigravity CLI. Supports MCP tools, shell commands and file editing. The page we cite for this offer states no amount, tier or rate we can read when we last looked, on 2026-10-24, so we cannot confirm these terms today. Note — 2026-06-18: Gemini CLI stopped accepting Login with Google for personal accounts on 2026-06-18, which ended the personal-account free tier of 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day. It still runs with a Gemini API key, Vertex AI, or a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licence. Source ↗

• With a Gemini API key, Gemini CLI uses the Gemini API Free Tier, which needs no billing account or credit card. Linking a billing account and prepaying at least $5 moves the project to the Paid Tier. (From ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/billing, read 2026-10-23.)
• On the Free Tier, a request over any rate limit gets a rate limit error. Limits apply per project, not per key. Daily request quotas reset at midnight Pacific time. (From ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/rate-limits, read 2026-10-23.)
• Google's Gemini API pricing page says Free Tier content is used to improve Google's products, which covers Gemini CLI prompts sent with a free API key. (From ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing, read 2026-10-23.)

Coding agent by OpenAI. Available with a ChatGPT subscription, including the $0 Free plan, and separately with an API key billed on token use; both routes are current. OpenAI's Codex pricing page lists Free ($0/month, "Explore Codex capabilities on quick coding tasks") and Go ($8/month, "Use Codex for lightweight coding tasks"), both with GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout. Plus ($20/month) adds Codex on the web, in the CLI, in the IDE extension and on iOS, cloud code review and Slack integrations, and GPT-6.1 Sol and GPT-6 Luna. Pro plans are Pro 100 ($100/month), Pro 200 ($200/month), and Pro 500 ($500/month). Ultrafast mode is only on Pro 500. Pro plans have no five-hour limit. On 2026-10-29 OpenAI canceled the Pro 200 allowance reduction it had announced on September 29, 2026. Every Pro 200 subscription, new or existing, now has the same Work and Codex allowance at $200 a month. Pro 100 and Pro 500 now include twice their previous Work and Codex allowance. Plus usage is unchanged. ChatGPT Business has two seat types, both carrying Codex: Standard at $20/user/mo billed annually ($25 monthly) and Premium at $100/user/mo billed annually ($125 monthly), where Premium buys 5x more usage than Standard and removes the five-hour usage limit. The Codex pricing page we cite lists only the Standard seat — the Premium seat is published on OpenAI's business pricing page. Codex-only pay-as-you-go seats closed to new Business workspaces on 2026-06-24; existing seats continue. With an API key, Codex runs in the CLI, SDK or IDE extension at API prices, without the cloud features.

• Since 2026-10-28, ChatGPT Pro and Business subscriptions include monthly OpenAI API credits. These credits do not pay for Codex used with an API key. They do not raise ChatGPT or signed-in Codex usage limits. (From developers.openai.com/api/docs/guides/chatgpt-api-credits, read 2026-10-29.)
• On Free, Plus, and Pro, OpenAI may use your content to train its models. This includes Codex tasks. By default, OpenAI does not use inputs or outputs from ChatGPT Business, ChatGPT Enterprise, ChatGPT Edu, or the API to improve its models. (From help.openai.com/en/articles/5722486-how-your-data-is-used-to-improve-model-performance, read 2026-10-30.)
• To opt out, turn off Improve the model for everyone under Settings > Data controls in ChatGPT, or select Do not train on my content in the Privacy Portal. Either option applies to ChatGPT and Codex. Codex has a separate Include environments setting for training on full environments, which those settings do not change. (From help.openai.com/en/articles/5722486-how-your-data-is-used-to-improve-model-performance, read 2026-10-30.)
• OpenAI's Terms of Use for its services for individuals state you retain ownership rights in Input and own the Output. You may not use Output to develop models that compete with OpenAI. No restriction on commercial use is listed. (From openai.com/policies/terms-of-use, read 2026-10-30.)

Agentic development platform by Google, generally available: a desktop app to manage multiple local agents in parallel, an agentic IDE, a CLI and an SDK, for macOS, Windows and Linux. Its agents can open and drive a local Chrome browser. The individual plan is $0/month, with Gemini, Claude and gpt-oss agent models, "Unlimited Tab completions", "Unlimited Command requests" and "Basic weekly rate limits". Google AI Pro ($19.99/month) adds "More rate limits" and Google AI Ultra (from $99.99/month) "Even more rate limits", each with a "Flexible AI credit pool", and organizations can use it through Google Cloud. Announced November 2025.

• Until November 18, 2026, the Free and Google AI Plus plans include Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-OSS-120b; Google removes these models on that date. After that date, Antigravity's models page lists two reasoning models for the Free and Google AI Plus plans: Gemini 3.8 Flash and Gemini 4 Hydrogen. (From antigravity.google/docs/models, read 2026-11-13.)
• Google AI Pro and Ultra include Gemini 4 Argon, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5. On a Google AI Pro trial, Claude Sonnet 5.5 and Claude Opus 5.5 are not included and Gemini 4 Argon is included only on trials with eligible premium devices. (From antigravity.google/docs/models, read 2026-10-28.)
• Since November 10, 2026, Gemini 4 Carbon is in Antigravity on Google AI Ultra and Enterprise only, in the Antigravity app, CLI and IDE extensions. The Free, Google AI Plus and Google AI Pro plans do not include it. (From antigravity.google/blog/gemini-4-carbon-in-google-antigravity, read 2026-11-11.)
• Gemini 4 Hydrogen has been in Antigravity since November 12, 2026. Antigravity's models page lists it on every plan, including Free and Google AI Plus. Google's announcement says it is rolling out across paid Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers. Orchestrator (Argon) is on paid Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra, Orchestrator (Carbon) on Google AI Ultra only. Each pairs a planner (Gemini 4 Argon or Gemini 4 Carbon) with Gemini 4 Hydrogen. (From antigravity.google/blog/gemini-4-hydrogen-in-google-antigravity, read 2026-11-13.)
• Google's FAQ says some models "are not included in free trials" and directs memberships through third-party partners, Pixel Pass, or Google Fi to Google One help for subscription management. (From antigravity.google/docs/faq, read 2026-10-23.)
• Google's FAQ calls using third-party software (Claude Code, OpenClaw, and OpenCode) with an Antigravity login a violation of its Terms of Service that can lead to suspension or termination of the account. Google recommends a Gemini Enterprise or Google AI Studio API key for third-party coding agents. (From antigravity.google/docs/faq, read 2026-10-21.)

AI app builder (formerly GPT Engineer) — The free plan includes a daily grant of 5 build credits (up to 30 a month), plus monthly grants of 20 Cloud credits. The free plan also grants 4 credits usable by AI features built into user apps, to try the feature before subscribing. The page we cite for Lovable states in words that it is free, which confirms the price — the limits stated here come from our own record rather than from that page.

• Since 2026-09-09, Lovable may use Free and Pro plan data (prompts, attached files, code, project files, generated outputs and usage data) to train its AI models unless you opt out under Account settings > Preferences > AI model training; Business and Enterprise workspace data is excluded by default. (From docs.lovable.dev/introduction/faq, read 2026-10-12.)
• When a workspace has no credits left, an app's built-in backend (database, storage, authentication) pauses shortly after and AI features in deployed apps stop; the published site stays live. The data is kept but cannot be accessed or exported while paused, and adding credits may not restart the backend: click Wake up under More > Cloud > Overview. (From docs.lovable.dev/introduction/credits-and-usage, read 2026-10-12.)

AI code editor built on VS Code. Since 2026-10-12, Cursor's pricing docs (cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing) say: "Cursor is sold as part of The X Subscription, one subscription for Grok, Cursor, and X." Free is $0, with limited Agent and Chat usage. Paid plans are Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month (4x Plus's usage), Super $100/month (15x) and Ultra $200/month (50x), or $80, $300, $1,000 and $2,000 a year. Each paid plan's usage is one weekly pool shared with Grok, covering Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5 and Cursor's Composer 2.5. Claude, GPT, Gemini and other third-party models are outside every plan's pool: on Premium and above they cost the model's API list price, paid from prepaid credit, and Free and Plus cannot use them or your own API keys. Teams seats are $30, $100 or $200 per user a month, and on Teams and Enterprise third-party models cost API list price plus the Cursor Token Rate. Existing Hobby, Pro ($20), Pro+ ($60), Ultra and Teams Standard and Premium subscribers keep their plans, with monthly usage pools and included third-party usage, until they choose to switch. Cursor announced the change on its forum on 2026-10-12 (forum.cursor.com/t/introducing-the-x-subscription/174450). Note — 2026-10-12: From October 12, 2026, new subscribers buy Cursor as part of The X Subscription, one plan for Grok, Cursor and X: Free $0, Plus $8, Premium $30, Super $100 and Ultra $200 a month, with one weekly usage pool shared with Grok that covers Cursor's own models. Third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini are not included in any plan: on Premium and above they cost the model's API list price, paid from prepaid credit, and Free and Plus cannot use them. Hobby, Pro ($20), Pro+ ($60), Ultra and the Teams Standard and Premium seats continue for existing subscribers until they switch. Source ↗

• Cursor's data-use page says that with Privacy Mode off it may use and store your codebase data, prompts, editor actions and code snippets to train its models. To keep your code out of training, check that Privacy Mode is on in Cursor's settings; any user can turn it on. (From cursor.com/data-use, read 2026-10-15.)

Autonomous AI software engineer by Cognition. Cognition replaced its Core and Team plans on 2026-04-14 with Free, Pro, Max, Teams and Enterprise. Free ($0) includes a "Light quota to code with agents", "Limited model availability", "Unlimited inline edits" and "Unlimited Tab completions". Pro ($20/month) adds cloud agents, Max ($200/month) has "Significantly higher quotas", and Teams is "$80/month for team plan + $40/mo per full dev seat". Paid plans include a usage allowance, and extra usage is billed in dollars at API pricing. Enterprise is custom-priced, with VPC deployment and SAML/OIDC SSO, and is billed in Agent Compute Units (ACUs).

AI coding tool by AWS, with an IDE, a CLI and a web interface. Prompts run by default on Auto, "an agent that uses a mix of different frontier models", and users can pick Claude, GPT or open-weight models. KIRO FREE $0 per month 50 credits. KIRO PRO $20 per user / month 1,000 credits. KIRO PRO+ $40 per user / month 2,000 credits. KIRO PRO MAX $100 per user / month 5,000 credits. KIRO POWER $200 per user / month 10,000 credits. Add-on credits are $0.04/credit. Credit pooling is for teams of 2 or more. Each seat costs $20 per month and adds 500 credits a month to the shared pool. Admins can buy add-on credits for the pool at $0.04 per credit. From November 1, 2026, the first upgrade to Pro includes the rest of that month free and 500 trial credits. Trial credits are used after plan credits and expire after 12 months. On the free tier, unused trial credits carry over but can only be spent on free-tier models. Before November 1, 2026, the first upgrade includes a $20 discount. From that date, plan fees and credits are prorated. Note — 2026-06-03: Kiro stopped giving new users 500 bonus credits on sign-up, usable within 30 days, and now credits $20 toward the first paid plan instead. The change falls between the 2026-05-02 and 2026-06-03 captures of kiro.dev/pricing. Source ↗

• Kiro subscriptions can be used with Kiro IDE, Kiro CLI, Kiro Web, Kiro Crew, ACP compatible IDEs, and automation in software development. Use through third-party automation harnesses such as OpenClaw is not permitted. (From kiro.dev/pricing, read 2026-10-16.)
• Monthly plan credits reset at the start of each billing month and unused ones do not roll over. Add-on credits roll over and expire 12 months after purchase. (From kiro.dev/pricing, read 2026-10-16.)

AI builder for websites, web apps and mobile apps by StackBlitz; it builds full-stack apps in the browser on WebContainers. Free plan ($0): 1M tokens per month with a 300K daily limit, public and private projects, unlimited databases, a 10MB file upload limit, and hosting on a bolt.host URL with up to 10 GB of bandwidth and 333,333 web requests a month, with Bolt branding. Pro is $25/month billed monthly ($18/month billed yearly), with no daily token limit and from 10M tokens a month. Teams is $30 per member a month ($27 billed yearly), and Enterprise is custom-priced.