Gemini CLI

Google's free AI coding agent with 1M+ context

Free (Antigravity CLI ~20 req/day) · Google AI Pro $19.99/mo · Ultra from $99.99/mo cliterminalopen-source

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8 /10 Expert Score

Features

Pricing

Ecosystem

Performance

Supported Models

Gemini 2.5 Pro
Gemini Flash

Best: Gemini 2.5 Pro

About

Gemini CLI was Google's free terminal AI coding agent with the most generous free tier in the market (1,000 requests/day). On June 18, 2026, Google retired it for consumer accounts — free, Google AI Pro, and Ultra users were moved to Antigravity CLI (agy command), a closed-source Go rewrite that carries over Agent Skills, Hooks, Subagents, and the 1M-token context window. Only enterprise Gemini Code Assist licenses kept the old CLI. Antigravity CLI keeps the agent-first workflow: Plan Mode by default, Google Search Grounding for live documentation, and multi-agent background runs that don't block your terminal. The free Individual tier now allows roughly 20 agent requests/day refreshed every ~5 hours — a steep drop from Gemini CLI's old 1,000/day. Google AI Pro ($19.99/month) or Ultra (from $99.99/month, roughly 5x-20x Pro quota) raise the limits, and AI credits cover overage usage. The trade-off: the free tier is now tight for daily professional use, the quota is shared across the CLI, desktop app, and SDK, and the tool is closed-source with no BYOK option. For light experimentation and side projects it remains a solid zero-cost option; heavy daily users should budget for Google AI Pro or compare Claude Code ($20/month) for predictable limits.

Key Features

Plan Mode (plans before acting)
Google Search Grounding
1M+ token context
Open source
Voice input/output
Unix philosophy (composable tools)

Deals, Discounts & How to Save

Free — Antigravity CLI ~20 agent requests/day, no credit card requiredGemini CLI is retired (June 18, 2026); Antigravity CLI carries over Skills, Hooks, and 1M context — free tier is ~20 req/day

Many CLI tools are open source and free—you only pay for the LLM API. Free tiers like Antigravity CLI (~20 agent requests/day) cover light experimentation; for daily use, Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo) or a BYOK setup via API key stretches further.

Pros

Completely free with huge limits
1M+ token context window
Google Search Grounding for docs

Cons

Rate limited (1000 req/day)
Less refined than Claude Code
Google ecosystem bias

Pro Tips for Gemini CLI

Use Google Search Grounding for up-to-date documentation — just ask Gemini CLI about the latest API versions and it will search the web automatically.

The 1M+ token context window means you can paste entire codebases into a single prompt. Great for cross-file refactoring analysis.

Gemini CLI is completely free with 1000 requests/day. Use it for daily coding tasks and save paid tools for specialized workflows.

Pipe terminal errors directly into Gemini CLI for instant debugging — describe the error and get a fix without leaving your terminal.

Open source — inspect the code on GitHub to understand how the agent works and even contribute improvements.