As of October 2026, the free AI coding assistant with a published hard number is GitHub Copilot Free: 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits) per month. Cursor's free plan is "limited" with no number, and Claude Code has no free plan at all. If your goal is to pay nothing, the realistic options are Copilot Free, Cursor Free, or an open-source agent such as Cline pointed at a local model.
I checked each vendor's own pricing or repository page on 2026-10-19. Anything I could not confirm is listed at the end instead of guessed.
The comparison
| Tool | Free option | Published limit | Catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot Free | Yes | 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits) per month | Agent usage is described only as "limited", no number |
| Cursor Free | Yes | "Limited" Agent and Chat usage, no number | Third-party models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) are not available on Free |
| Cline | Yes (software) | None, Apache 2.0 license | You supply the model: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, or local via Ollama or LM Studio |
| Claude Code | No | n/a | The free claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code |
| Gemini CLI | Open source, Apache 2.0 | Not published on the repository page | Its README says it was replaced by Antigravity CLI for the unpaid tier on June 18th, 2026 |
Reading the Copilot numbers
2,000 completions a month is about 67 a day over 30 days (2,000 divided by 30, rounded). That is a few hours of light editing, not a full-time workload. 50 chat requests is under 2 a day. Paid Copilot starts at Pro for $10 per month, with Pro+ at $39 per month, if you outgrow Free.
Use Free for: tab-completion in one project, a handful of chat questions when you are stuck. Do not plan around it for: refactors that need dozens of chat turns.
Cursor Free and the third-party model rule
Cursor's pricing page lists Free at $0 with limited Agent and Chat, and states that third-party models are not available on it. Paid plans start at Plus for $8 per month. On the Free plan you are therefore not choosing Claude or GPT; you are using what Cursor provides.
Cline: the only one where the limit is yours
Cline is an open-source coding agent (Apache 2.0) available as a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin, a CLI, a desktop app, and an SDK. It is not locked to one provider. With a local model through Ollama or LM Studio there is no per-token bill, and the ceiling becomes your hardware and the quality of the model you can run. With a hosted provider you pay that provider's API rate.
A decision rule
- Want completions in an editor, zero setup: Copilot Free.
- Want an agent-style editor and can live without Claude or GPT: Cursor Free.
- Want no vendor quota and have hardware for a local model: Cline plus Ollama or LM Studio.
- Want Claude Code specifically: it needs a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or Console account; Free does not qualify.
Why the word "free" needs a number
Every one of these tools is free to start and capped in a different unit: monthly requests, an unquantified "limited", or your own compute. Before you build a habit around one, find its unit and watch how fast you use it. I write up AI tooling comparisons like this on my English blog, Tangents, at my-blog.org/tangents.
Limits of this post
Vendors change plans often. Cursor's page in particular lists plan names that differ from older write-ups, so check the live page. I did not test output quality of any tool here; this is a limits and pricing comparison only. Other free offerings exist that I did not verify, and I left them out.
FAQ
Is there a fully free AI coding assistant? Copilot Free and Cursor Free cost $0 but are capped. Cline is free software but needs a model, which is free only if you run one locally.
How many completions does Copilot Free include? 2,000 per month, plus 50 chat requests including Copilot Edits.
Can I use Claude Code for free? No. Claude Code requires a Pro, Max, Team, Enterprise or Console account.
Does Cursor Free include Claude models? No. Third-party models are not available on the Free plan.
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