1 | Google Gemini CLI – open-source, high-speed terminal agent
- What it is. An MIT-licensed command-line interface that pipes the Gemini 2.5 Pro model straight into your shell. It wraps a ReAct loop, so the model can read files, run local commands, or call remote “tools” defined through Google’s new Model Context Protocol (MCP).
- Setup & limits. One-line
npmorbrewinstall. Any Google account gets a free Code Assist licence good for 60 requests /min and 1 000 per day before rate-limiting. - Strengths.
- First-party access to Google’s latest model family.
- Open source on GitHub, so bash functions, custom tools, and editor plug-ins are already sprouting up. g
- No bill-shock risk for individuals thanks to generous free quota.
- Trade-offs. Only runs in the terminal today—no native editor UI, and you must accept Google’s telemetry-light licence to unlock the quota.
2 | Claude Code – context-hungry power-user CLI
- What it is. Anthropic’s agentic coding tool built around Claude Opus 4, focused on large-context refactors, test generation and debugging. Lives in the terminal but keeps a sidecar index of your repo so you can issue natural-language commands like “split this monolith into services”.
- Pricing & limits. Bundled with the regular Claude subscriptions: Pro $20 / mo, Max $100–$200 / mo. All usage shares the same message caps as the chat product; heavy terminal sessions can burn through those caps quickly, which has sparked complaints from early adopters.
- Strengths.
- Biggest single-prompt context window in class, excellent at multi-file reasoning.
- Fine-grained
/allowed-toolsconfig lets you sandbox what the agent can and cannot execute.
- Trade-offs.
- Proprietary and closed source.
- True cost depends on how many long context runs you need; there’s no free tier for coding.
3 | Cursor – full AI IDE built on VS Code
- What it is. A fork of VS Code with first-party chat, inline “smart rewrite”, and an Agent mode (
Ctrl + I) that can implement end-to-end changes across your project. - Pricing.
- Hobby (free) – limited completions & agent calls.
- Pro $20 / mo – unlimited agent usage.
- Ultra $200 / mo – 20× Pro quota, aimed at full-time pair-programming.
- Model mix. Under the hood Cursor arbitrates across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and xAI models, picking the cheapest one that satisfies your context/latency needs.
- Strengths.
- Seamless editor experience—multi-line edits, refactors, Jupyter-notebook agent actions (added Jun 2025).
- Local code index keeps everything searchable offline, reducing token usage.
- Trade-offs. Requires switching editors (or running in parallel with VS Code); heavier install than a CLI and not open source.
4 | Head-to-head snapshot
| Gemini CLI | Claude Code | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interface | Terminal CLI | Terminal CLI | Full IDE (VS Code fork) |
| Core model | Gemini 2.5 Pro | Claude Opus 4 | Mix (GPT-4o, Opus 4, Gemini, Grok, etc.) |
| Licence / source | MIT, open | Closed | Closed |
| Free access? | Yes: 1 000 req/day | No | Hobby tier (limited) |
| Flat-rate unlimited tier | — (free quota only) | Max $100–$200/mo caps still apply | Pro $20/mo; Ultra $200/mo |
| Max context (single prompt) | 2 048 tokens* | 200 k tokens | 128 k tokens (varies by model) |
| Agentic actions | File edit, run shell, call tools | File edit, run shell, allowed-tools gating | In-editor multi-file edits, Jupyter, background agents |
| Typical sweet spot | Quick, zero-cost terminal helper | Large-scale refactors & deep analysis | Daily driver IDE with rich UI |
*Gemini 2.5 Pro token window as of June 2025; Google has hinted larger windows are coming.
5 | Which one should you pick?
| If you… | Start with… | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Want to try AI coding for free without changing editor | Gemini CLI | Open-source, generous free quota, nothing to lose. |
| Regularly tackle massive monorepos and need the deepest context | Claude Code | Opus 4’s 200 k-token window and file-aware commands excel at sweeping structural changes. |
| Prefer an all-in-one editor and are happy to pay for productivity | Cursor Pro | VS Code muscle memory plus agent mode, autocomplete and notebook support. |
6 | Outlook
The lines are blurring: Google promises IDE plug-ins for Gemini CLI; Cursor just added multi-vendor model routing; Anthropic is experimenting with GUI panes for Claude Code. Expect convergence toward hybrid “agent + IDE” stackswhere a common underlying model is reachable from both the terminal and the editor you already use.
For now, the easiest strategy is to keep one CLI agent in your toolbox (Gemini CLI or Claude Code) and an AI-augmented editor (Cursor or Copilot) so you can swap contexts fluidly without burning through quota in either environment.
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