The best alternatives to Gemini CLI
Gemini CLI might not be the right fit: the price, a missing feature or a payment model you don't like. These are the closest alternatives in our catalog, ordered by rating, with the full review of each one.
Why look for a Gemini CLI alternative
Nothing structural has changed: the 18 June 2026 cutoff still stands, with no requests served to the free plan nor to Google AI Pro and Ultra, replaced by Antigravity CLI. The repository is not abandoned, it still ships nightly builds nearly daily and keeps its Apache 2.0 licence. What this sweep adds is that Google's own pages do not even agree with each other: the quota documentation states 250 daily requests for the free API key, while the repository README and the geminicli.com homepage still advertise the 60 requests per minute and 1,000 per day plan that is no longer served to individual accounts, six weeks after the shutdown.
What its own users repeat in the August 5, 2026 sweep:
- The free path for individual developers is gone: since 18 June 2026 it serves no requests for the free plan nor for Google AI Pro and Ultra (strong theme)
- Six weeks after the cutoff, the repository README and the geminicli.com homepage still advertise the free tier of 60 requests per minute and 1,000 per day that no longer exists for individual accounts (strong theme)
- Google's own pages do not even agree with each other: the quota documentation sets 250 daily requests for the free API key, a figure that appears in neither the README nor the homepage (present theme)
- Migrating is not free in effort: you have to move to the agy binary and the announcement itself admits there is no feature parity from day one (strong theme)
Best alternatives to Gemini CLI
Anthropic's coding agent: works in your terminal, your IDE and the web.
OpenAI's coding agent, included with ChatGPT: local in your terminal or in the cloud.
Moonshot's terminal agent: open source with very low API prices.
What the internet says about each alternative
Claude Code 4/5 · From $17
A week of big announcements and an unresolved controversy. On 7 August Anthropic confirmed that from 14 August auto mode becomes the default permission setting on Pro, Max and Team plans, backed by its own study, 89% of simulated dangerous actions blocked against 13.6% caught by human review. The same week brought cross-session messaging and self-hosted environments. But the problem already visible last week, safety filters blocking legitimate coding work, is still alive even in the newest release, and one user automated the reporting and opened 49 issues in a single day. The price has not moved, $17 a month paying the year up front and $20 a month on its own.
Where it wins: Understands whole codebases and follows project patterns: refactors, tests and multi-step features without constant supervision, now with Opus 5 by default and a one million token context Where it slips: Safety filters still block legitimate coding work and it remains unresolved: even in the newest release, 2.1.226, there are reports dated this week, and one user automated the reporting with their own tool and opened 49 issues in a single day with the same pattern. Anthropic offers a cyber verification programme as an appeals route, but the block itself keeps happening
OpenAI Codex 4/5 · Free + from $8
The official pricing page confirms today the same figures as always: Free at $0, Go at $8. Release pace was high this week: version 0.147.0 on 7 August adds Cursor skill imports and an Agent Plugins catalogue, plus redacting secrets and tokens from the on-screen history, and 0.146.1 on 5 August applies stricter automatic reviews for cyber-capable models. Neither fixes what the sensitive-files exclusion request is asking for, which remains administratively closed since June with a duplicate request still open. July's case of a private repository pushed without permission to OpenAI infrastructure remains the only documented one, with no second occurrence this week.
Where it wins: Entry stays cheap, confirmed today on the official site: a Free plan at $0 a month and a Go at $8 with Codex access, without having to go through the $20 Plus tier Where it slips: The issue asking to exclude sensitive files was closed administratively on 29 June 2026 without the repository showing any new feature or changelog entry to back it up, and a duplicate request remains open asking for the same thing. The on-screen secret redaction that shipped on 7 August hides the display, it does not stop the model from reading the file
Kimi CLI 3.5/5 · Free + from $19
The price stays the same, confirmed today on the official page: $19 a month to start. The product gains control across three releases shipped in six days, from 30 July to 5 August: plugins can now ship their own agents and inject system-prompt instructions, four new hook events land for watching execution, and Kimi Computer Use and Kimi WebBridge become official plugins installable straight from the catalogue. The week in the community, though, was bad: a user who imported their Claude Code setup finds it slow, with tasks reported done when they were not, and a documented bug makes the VS Code extension's auto-approve mode silently drop to manual after idle time, with no trace in the log. Open issues keep climbing in both of the project's repositories, 525 in the one being retired and 572 in its successor.
Where it wins: A paid step from $19 a month with a free plan below it, well under what the western terminal agents charge Where it slips: The repo notice no longer talks about a rename: it says the project will be wound down gradually and sends you to another repository, under another licence, to keep using it
Comparison table
| Tool | Price | Free trial | Platforms | Rating | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini CLI | Free | No | macOS, Windows | VisitGemini CLI (opens in a new tab) | |
| Claude Code | From $17 | No | Web, macOS, Windows | VisitClaude Code (opens in a new tab) | |
| OpenAI Codex | Free + from $8 | No | Web, macOS, Windows | VisitOpenAI Codex (opens in a new tab) | |
| Kimi CLI | Free + from $19 | No | macOS, Windows | VisitKimi CLI (opens in a new tab) |
Still unsure? Read the full review of Gemini CLI?