The best free terminal and CLI coding agents (13)

Every option in the catalog for when you need to let an agent run commands and edit files from your shell — 13 terminal and CLI coding agents, 12 of them free or freemium, with the pricing tier printed on every row.

13tools listed
12free or freemium
7with no paid plan at all
1sub-categories covered

Best Free Terminal and CLI coding agents — straight answers

What are the best free terminal and CLI coding agents?

Flocci AI Tools lists 13 of them, ordered free tiers first: Aider, Cline, Crush, Gemini CLI and Goose. 12 of the 13 are free or have a free tier. Each entry states what it uniquely does rather than a score.

Which of these are completely free?

7 on this page are marked fully free with no paid plan at all: Aider, Cline, Crush, Gemini CLI and Goose. The remaining 6 are freemium, trial or paid, and each is labelled with its exact tier so nothing surprises you at sign-up.

How is this list ordered?

Free tools first, then freemium, then trial, then paid, and alphabetically inside each tier. Nobody pays to appear higher: Flocci AI Tools carries no ads, no sponsored slots and no paid listings, so the order reflects price and nothing else.

All 13 tools, free tiers first

Browse Terminal & CLI Agents →
Best Free Terminal and CLI coding agents: pricing tier, category and the capability each tool is listed for.
ToolPricingTypeListed for
AiderFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsOpen-source AI pair programmer in your terminal
ClineFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsOpen-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code
CrushFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsTerminal coding agent from Charm with LSP-aware context
Gemini CLIFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsOpen-source terminal agent from Google
GooseFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsOpen-source agent (now under Agentic AI Foundation/Linux Foundation) usable as CLI, desktop app or API
OpenCodeFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsFully open-source terminal/IDE/desktop coding agent, MIT licensed
Qwen CodeFreeTerminal & CLI AgentsOpen-source terminal CLI adapted from Gemini CLI, tuned for Qwen3-Coder models
AmpFreemiumTerminal & CLI AgentsMulti-model routing across frontier models with no artificial usage caps
GitHub Copilot CLIFreemiumTerminal & CLI AgentsGitHub-native terminal agent that works directly with issues and PRs
Kilo CodeFreemiumTerminal & CLI AgentsSame open-source agent usable in VS Code, JetBrains, CLI and cloud from one account
OpenAI Codex CLIFreemiumTerminal & CLI Agents#1 on Terminal-Bench with GPT-5-series
WarpFreemiumTerminal & CLI AgentsTerminal rebuilt as an agentic development environment for any coding agent
Claude CodeTerminal & CLI AgentsTerminal-native agent, best on large codebases

Aider

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • 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
free
  • Open-source autonomous coding agent for VS Code
  • Plan/Act modes with approvals
  • Bring your own API key or model
  • MCP tool support

Crush

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • 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

Gemini CLI

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • Open-source terminal agent from Google
  • Huge free daily model quota
  • Built-in tools and MCP support
  • Great value for everyday coding

Goose

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • 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

OpenCode

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • 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

Qwen Code

Terminal & CLI Agents
free
  • 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

Amp

Terminal & CLI Agents
freemium
  • Multi-model routing across frontier models with no artificial usage caps
  • Four agent reasoning modes (low/medium/high/ultra) plus parallel subagents
  • Remote 'Orbs' execution machines and an Oracle deep-reasoning tool

GitHub Copilot CLI

Terminal & CLI Agents
freemium
  • GitHub-native terminal agent that works directly with issues and PRs
  • /fleet command runs parallel subagents; /remote syncs sessions to VS Code and mobile
  • Included in all Copilot tiers incl. the free plan

Kilo Code

Terminal & CLI Agents
freemium
  • Same open-source agent usable in VS Code, JetBrains, CLI and cloud from one account
  • Models billed at cost with no markup, bring-your-own-key supported
  • MIT-licensed with fully visible prompts and context windows

OpenAI Codex CLI

Terminal & CLI Agents
freemium
  • #1 on Terminal-Bench with GPT-5-series
  • Runs in terminal, IDE or the cloud
  • Sandboxed autonomous edits
  • Included with ChatGPT plans

Warp

Terminal & CLI Agents
freemium
  • Terminal rebuilt as an agentic development environment for any coding agent
  • Multi-agent orchestration with model routing and codebase indexing
  • Oz cloud agent platform for moving from local to cloud execution

Claude Code

Terminal & CLI Agents
  • Terminal-native agent, best on large codebases
  • Top reasoning quality (Opus-class)
  • MCP tools, subagents and hooks
  • Included with Claude paid plans

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