The 9 best terminal coding agents (2026)

As of October 2026, Muse Code has the lowest paid entry price here, from $5/month. 7 have a free plan.

Updated 24 October 20269 agents6 verified in the last 30 days6 updated in that window

Entry plans $5 to $20 a month · prices checked 2 September–24 October 2026

Reviewed by The Agents Index editorial team.

The ones whose price, API, docs, sources and limits we could confirm come first. How we rank →

This spot is open
Featured agents show here and first on related and alternatives pages.
- API access: Not stated
- Free tier: Not stated
- MCP server: Not stated
- Own API key: Not stated
- Open source: Not stated
- Self-hosted: Not stated
Get featured
Codex CLI
OpenAI's terminal coding agent for inspecting, editing and running repository code from the shell.
Free, then $20/month
From
Free, then $20/month
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Partly
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: Yes
- Self-hosted: Partly
Checked 2 September 2026
Visit Codex CLICompare Codex CLI
Google Antigravity CLI
Terminal agent (agy) that runs Google Antigravity coding agents and parallel subagents.
Free, then $30/seat/month
From
Free, then $30/seat/month
- API access: Partly
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Partly
- Own API key: No
- Open source: No
- Self-hosted: No
Checked 22 October 2026
Visit Google Antigravity CLICompare Google Antigravity CLI
Muse Code
Meta's terminal and CI coding agent, built on the Muse Spark model.
From $5/month
From
$5/month
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Partly
- Own API key: Partly
- Open source: Partly
- Self-hosted: No
Checked 20 September 2026
Visit Muse CodeCompare Muse Code
OpenCode
Open source AI coding agent for the terminal, desktop, IDE and browser, with any LLM provider.
Free, then $10/month
From
Free, then $10/month
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Partly
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: Yes
- Self-hosted: Yes
Checked 21 October 2026
Visit OpenCodeCompare OpenCode
Claude Code
Agentic coding tool from Anthropic that edits your codebase, runs commands, and opens pull requests.
From $20/month
From
$20/month
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Partly
- MCP server: Yes
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: No
- Self-hosted: Partly
Checked 2 September 2026
Visit Claude CodeCompare Claude Code
zot
Single-binary terminal coding agent harness in Go, with 30+ model providers and any-language extensions.
Free
From
Free
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Partly
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: Yes
- Self-hosted: Yes
Checked 28 September 2026
Visit zotCompare zot
Aider
Open-source terminal AI pair programmer that edits files in your local git repo and commits the changes.
Free
From
Free
- API access: Partly
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: No
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: Yes
- Self-hosted: Yes
Checked 30 September 2026
Visit AiderCompare Aider
Gemini CLI
Open-source Apache-2.0 terminal agent that runs Google's Gemini models against your local codebase.
Free
From
Free
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Not stated
- Own API key: Yes
- Open source: Yes
- Self-hosted: Yes
Checked 24 October 2026
Visit Gemini CLICompare Gemini CLI
GitHub Copilot CLI
GitHub's agentic coding CLI that plans, edits, runs code and works with issues and pull requests.
Free, then $10/month
From
Free, then $10/month
- API access: Yes
- Free tier: Yes
- MCP server: Yes
- Own API key: Not stated
- Open source: Not stated
- Self-hosted: No
Checked 24 October 2026
Visit GitHub Copilot CLICompare GitHub Copilot CLI
List your agent
9 agents in Terminal coding agents
- Free to list
- Every fact sourced to your own pages
- Edit it from your dashboard
Submit your agent

Coding agents that run in your terminal: they read your repo, edit files and run commands.

Questions buyers ask

Which agent here costs the least?

Aider, Codex CLI and Gemini CLI and 4 more have a free plan. The lowest paid plan is Muse Code, from $5/month. Price checked on 20 September 2026.

Which agents here have a free plan?

7 of the 9: Aider, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot CLI and Google Antigravity CLI and 2 more.

When were these prices checked?

Between 2 September 2026 and 24 October 2026, each read on the maker's own pricing page.

Sources and method

How we rank

Every price here was read on the maker's own pricing page.

Aider: aider.chat/docs/faq.html, checked 30 September 2026
Claude Code: claude.com/pricing, checked 2 September 2026
Codex CLI: learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing, checked 2 September 2026
Gemini CLI: geminicli.com/docs/resources/quota-and-pricing, checked 24 October 2026
GitHub Copilot CLI: github.com/features/copilot/plans, checked 24 October 2026
Google Antigravity CLI: antigravity.google/pricing, checked 22 October 2026
Muse Code: dev.meta.ai/lp/muse-code, checked 20 September 2026
OpenCode: opencode.ai/v2/docs, checked 21 October 2026
zot: github.com/patriceckhart/zot/blob/main/LICENSE, checked 28 September 2026

All Terminal coding agents

Codex CLI

Google Antigravity CLI

Muse Code

OpenCode

Claude Code

zot

Aider

Gemini CLI

GitHub Copilot CLI

Questions buyers ask

Which agent here costs the least?

Which agents here have a free plan?

When were these prices checked?

Sources and method