What is the best free alternative to Trae Agent?
Gemini CLI is the closest free alternative to Trae Agent: same Terminal & CLI Agents sub-category, and it is free. Open-source terminal agent from Google
Best free Trae Agent alternatives
Looking for a free alternative to Trae Agent? Here are 9 terminal & cli agents worth trying — 9 with a free tier. Trae Agent itself is free.
| Tool | Trae Agent (you searched) | Gemini CLI | Aider | Cline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | free | free | free | free |
| Best for | Open-source CLI agent for general software-engineering tasks | Open-source terminal agent from Google | Open-source AI pair programmer in your terminal | Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code |
| Visit | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ | Open ↗ |
Trae Agent alternatives — straight answers
Are there free Trae Agent alternatives?
Yes — 9 of the 9 alternatives listed here are free or freemium: Gemini CLI, Aider, Cline, OpenCode, Crush. None of them are paid-only.
Is Trae Agent free?
Trae Agent is free. There is no paid plan attached to it in the catalog.
How were these Trae Agent alternatives chosen?
They are the other tools in Terminal & CLI Agents, then the rest of Code & Development, ordered free tiers first and capped at 9. There is no sponsorship and no paid placement in that ordering — only the pricing tier decides.
All Trae Agent alternatives
Browse Terminal & CLI Agents →Gemini CLI
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Open-source terminal agent from Google.
- Open-source terminal agent from Google
- Huge free daily model quota
- Built-in tools and MCP support
- Great value for everyday coding
Aider
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Open-source AI pair programmer in your terminal.
- Open-source AI pair programmer in your terminal
- Git-aware commits and edits
- Works with any model (bring your key)
- Free to use
Cline
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code.
- Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code
- Plan/Act modes with approvals
- Bring your own API key or model
- MCP tool support
OpenCode
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Fully open-source terminal/IDE/desktop coding agent, MIT licensed.
- Fully open-source terminal/IDE/desktop coding agent, MIT licensed
- Bring-your-own model across 75+ providers, free models included
- Parallel agent sessions with shareable session links
Crush
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Terminal coding agent from Charm with LSP-aware context.
- Terminal coding agent from Charm with LSP-aware context
- Cross-platform incl. Android/BSD, MCP server support over HTTP/stdio/SSE
- Agent Skills standard support for extensibility
Goose
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Open-source agent (now under Agentic AI Foundation/Linux Foundation) usable as CLI, desktop app or API.
- Open-source agent (now under Agentic AI Foundation/Linux Foundation) usable as CLI, desktop app or API
- 70+ MCP extensions, 15+ LLM providers supported
- Apache-2.0 licensed, built in Rust
Qwen Code
Terminal & CLI Agents
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Open-source terminal CLI adapted from Gemini CLI, tuned for Qwen3-Coder models.
- Open-source terminal CLI adapted from Gemini CLI, tuned for Qwen3-Coder models
- OpenAI-SDK compatible for flexible model backends
- Free npm install, agentic coding workflows
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — MIT-licensed terminal coding agent from Moonshot AI that edits files, runs shell commands and uses MCP.
- MIT-licensed terminal coding agent from Moonshot AI that edits files, runs shell commands and uses MCP
- Log in with Kimi OAuth or plug in a Moonshot Open Platform API key or other compatible provider
- Successor to the archived Python kimi-cli
✦ WhyA Trae Agent alternative — Apache-2.0 minimal terminal coding agent built around Devstral models.
- Apache-2.0 minimal terminal coding agent built around Devstral models
- Devstral 2 was offered free on Mistral's API during launch; Experiment plan in Mistral Studio has free API usage
- Reads, edits and runs commands across a project with conversational instructions