Best Gemini CLI Alternatives 2026: Real Cost Per Task

Google switches off Gemini CLI’s free hosted access on June 18, 2026. If you ran it free, on Google AI Pro, or on Ultra, the gemini command stops returning results that day, and no grace period has been reported. The official replacement, Antigravity CLI, ships with a free tier a fraction the size of the old one.

So the real question is not which tool feels most like Gemini CLI. It’s which one costs the least to do your actual work. And that answer flips on a single number: how many coding tasks you run a month. Run a handful, and a bring-your-own-key open-source agent on a cheap model costs cents per task. Run dozens a day, and a flat $20 subscription quietly becomes the bargain. Here is the full ranking, with the per-task math behind it.

The best Gemini CLI alternative, by use case

The best paid replacement is Claude Code at $20/month: it runs in the terminal and tops most 2026 multi-file coding comparisons. The cheapest is a bring-your-own-key open-source agent (Aider, OpenCode, or Goose) pointed at a budget model, which costs cents per task. The closest like-for-like, Google’s own Antigravity CLI, is free but throttled to roughly 20 requests a day.

Pick by how you work:

1. Claude Code for serious daily multi-file work you are happy to pay a flat fee for.
2. Aider for the leanest bring-your-own-key terminal agent, cheapest per task on a budget model.
3. OpenCode for an open-source Claude Code clone that runs any provider or a local model.
4. Goose for infrastructure and DevOps work, with MCP wired in from the start.
5. Codex CLI if you already pay for ChatGPT and live in OpenAI’s models.
6. GitHub Copilot CLI if you already pay for Copilot and want the cheapest subscription entry.
7. Antigravity CLI only if your usage is light enough to live inside its free cap.

What actually happened to Gemini CLI (and who keeps access)

The facts that matter come straight from Google. Its Developers Blog announcement states that “on June 18, 2026, Gemini CLI and Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions will stop serving requests for Google AI Pro and Ultra, as well as those using it free of charge.” That is the whole change in one sentence: the free hosted quota goes away for individuals.

Two carve-outs survive, both confirmed in Google’s own GitHub discussion thread. Organizations on a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise license keep access unchanged. And the tool “will also remain accessible via paid Gemini and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform API keys.” The same thread notes the old CLI “remains available to the community as an Apache 2.0 licensed repository,” so the code itself does not vanish. You can clone it and run it against your own paid key. What ends is Google paying for your free requests.

That free quota was the draw. Google’s Gemini Code Assist quota documentation put the individual free tier at 1,000 model requests per day, with auto-routing across the Gemini family. Antigravity CLI does not match that. Reporting from The New Stack describes the new tool as a closed-source binary invoked with the agy command, running on a weekly compute cap, with the free tier limited to around 20 requests per day. The Register framed the move in May 2026 as Google nudging developers off an open-source tool toward a closed commercial one.

One practical detail worth flagging before you migrate a pipeline: 9to5Google reported that any CI/CD job or shell script calling gemini breaks on the cutoff date with no automatic fallback. If you have the command buried in a GitHub Action or a cron job, it fails silently the moment the quota stops serving.

The cost-per-task comparison table

Here is the spine of the decision. Every alternative falls into one of three pricing shapes, and they do not compare on sticker price alone, so the table converts each to a modeled cost for one mid-sized agentic coding task.

Tool	Pricing shape	What you pay	Runs on	Modeled cost per task	The catch
Gemini CLI (retiring)	Free hosted	$0, up to 1,000 req/day	Gemini 3.1 Pro (auto)	$0 in quota	Stops serving free/Pro/Ultra on 2026-06-18
Antigravity CLI (agy)	Free-capped, paid above	$0 free (~20 req/day, reported)	Gemini family	$0 inside the small free cap	Free tier ~1/50th the old quota; closed-source
Claude Code	Subscription	$20/mo Pro, overage at API rates	Claude Sonnet 4.6 / Opus 4.8	Flat in quota, ~$0.90 metered	Heavy use drains the quota, then meters
Codex CLI	Subscription	$20/mo ChatGPT Plus, then metered	GPT-5.5	~$1.60 metered	Token billing beyond the plan’s credits
GitHub Copilot CLI	Subscription	$10/mo, 1,500 credits	Your model choice	Flat in credits, $0.01/credit over	Usage-based billing since 2026-06-01
Aider	Bring-your-own-key, open source	Model tokens only ($0 tool)	Any model you choose	$0.10 to $1.50 by model	You manage keys, cost scales 1:1 with use
OpenCode	Bring-your-own-key, open source	Model tokens only ($0 tool)	Any provider or local	$0.10 to $1.50 by model	Same per-token economics as Aider
Goose	Bring-your-own-key, open source	Model tokens only ($0 tool)	Any model or local	$0.10 to $1.50 by model	Best for infra work, same economics

Subscription prices are from each vendor’s live pricing page as carried in our AI coding plan tracker: Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus at $20, GitHub Copilot Pro at $10. The per-task figures for the bring-your-own-key row come from the token math below.

Where the bring-your-own-key numbers come from

Open-source agents like Aider, OpenCode, and Goose charge nothing for the software. The cost is entirely the model you point them at, billed per token by the provider. So the same tool can cost a dime or a few dollars for the identical task, depending only on the model. That is the part every other “best alternatives” page skips, and it is the part that decides your bill.

The table below prices one modeled task at the per-token rates in our model registry, verified June 20, 2026. Lower is cheaper.

Model (via a BYOK agent)	Input $/Mtok	Output $/Mtok	Modeled cost per task
DeepSeek V4	0.435	0.87	~$0.10
Gemini 3 Flash	0.50	3.00	~$0.16
Claude Haiku 4.5	1.00	5.00	~$0.30
GLM-5.2	1.40	4.40	~$0.37
Gemini 3.5 Flash	1.50	9.00	~$0.48
Claude Sonnet 4.6	3.00	15.00	~$0.90
Claude Opus 4.8	5.00	25.00	~$1.50
GPT-5.5	5.00	30.00	~$1.60

Two things jump out of that table. A budget model through an open-source agent runs the task for about a dime, cheaper than any subscription on a per-task basis. And the gap between the cheapest and the most expensive model is roughly 15x for the exact same work, which is the same cost inversion we trace in why cheaper AI models can cost more: a “cheap” model that needs more retries can lose its price edge fast.

The alternatives, ranked

1. Claude Code: the default for paying users

Claude Code is where most people leaving Gemini CLI end up, and for good reason. It’s Anthropic’s official terminal agent, it refactors across many files in one pass, and in 2026 it still tops most multi-file coding comparisons. One $20/month Claude Pro subscription covers it.

Against Gemini CLI, the trade is blunt: you lose “free” and you gain capability plus a flat, predictable bill. The catch is that the flat bill is only flat until you exhaust the plan’s included usage. Heavy days push you onto API-rate overage, and our modeled task runs about $0.90 on Sonnet 4.6 once you’re metered. For a steady daily workload that’s still a bargain. For occasional use, you’re paying $20 for tasks a bring-your-own-key setup would bill at cents.

2. Aider: the cheapest path per task

Aider is the leanest open-source terminal agent, and it’s the cost winner for light to moderate use. The software is free. You bring an API key, and your bill is exactly the tokens you spend, nothing more.

That’s the whole pitch and it’s a strong one. Point Aider at DeepSeek V4 or Google’s own Gemini 3 Flash and the modeled task costs about $0.10 to $0.16. No subscription, no quota, no monthly minimum. The drawback is the flip side of the same coin: there’s no included buffer, so cost scales linearly with use and you own the key management. And Aider’s single-file-diff discipline, which keeps it cheap, can feel narrow next to Claude Code’s broader autonomy on big refactors.

3. OpenCode: the open-source Claude Code

OpenCode is the closest open-source clone of the Claude Code experience: a polished terminal UI, provider-agnostic, and able to run local models through Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint. It’s one of the most-starred coding agents on GitHub and ships under a permissive license.

Versus Gemini CLI, you trade Google’s hosted free tier for total model freedom. The same bring-your-own-key economics from the Aider row apply: your cost is the model’s per-token rate, so $0.10 to $1.50 a task depending on what you run. If you want the Claude Code feel without the subscription and without being locked to one vendor, this is the pick. The cost of that freedom is setup: you wire up your own provider and keys rather than typing one command and getting free requests.

4. Goose: best for infrastructure work

Goose is Block’s open-source agent, built around the Model Context Protocol from the start, and it runs as both a desktop app and a CLI. It’s a fit when your work is less “refactor this React component” and more “generate this Terraform, glue these systems, automate this ops task.”

The economics match the other open-source agents: free tool, you pay the model. What sets Goose apart is the MCP-native extensibility and a genuine willingness to run local models well, which can drive the marginal cost of a task toward zero if you’re running on your own hardware (you pay in electricity instead). For pure code generation it’s less polished than Claude Code or OpenCode, so pick it for the infra and automation jobs it’s built for.

5 and 6. Codex CLI and GitHub Copilot CLI: if you already pay

If an OpenAI or GitHub subscription is already on your card, the cheapest move may be the one you’ve already made. Codex CLI comes with ChatGPT Plus at $20/month and runs on GPT-5.5; beyond the plan’s credits it meters tokens, and our modeled task runs about $1.60 on GPT-5.5 at list rates. GitHub Copilot’s CLI is the cheapest subscription door at $10/month with 1,500 included AI credits, though since June 1, 2026 it bills usage-based, with overage at a penny per credit.

Neither is a reason to switch on its own. But if you’re already inside one of these ecosystems, adding the CLI costs you nothing extra until you blow past the included quota.

When a subscription beats bring-your-own-key (the break-even)

This is the calculation nobody else runs, and it’s the one that should decide your choice. A subscription is a flat fee; bring-your-own-key is pay-per-use. So there’s a crossover point, a number of tasks per month above which the flat fee is cheaper and below which metered tokens win.

The math is simple. Divide the subscription price by the per-task cost of the model you’d otherwise meter:

• Against Claude Pro at $20, running Sonnet 4.6 at ~$0.90/task, break-even is about 22 tasks a month. Do fewer than that and bring-your-own-key Sonnet is cheaper; do more and the flat $20 wins.
• Against the same $20, running a budget model like DeepSeek V4 at ~$0.10/task, break-even jumps to about 200 tasks a month. Bring-your-own-key stays cheaper until you’re running roughly 10 tasks every working day.
• Against Copilot at $10, the line sits near 11 Sonnet-class tasks a month.

So the rule of thumb: if you code with AI most days, a subscription is the bargain and the predictability is a bonus. If you dip in a few times a week, or you’re happy on a budget model, a bring-your-own-key agent costs a fraction of any flat fee. The expensive mistake is paying $20 a month for five tasks, or metering Opus-class tokens for a workload a subscription would have capped.

Antigravity’s free tier sits in an awkward spot on this curve. At a reported 20 requests a day, and with a real task often eating several requests, you get maybe a handful of genuine tasks before the cap or the weekly compute limit stops you. It’s fine for the occasional one-off. It is not a serious daily driver, which is the gap that sent so many Gemini CLI users looking in the first place.

How to switch off Gemini CLI

Three migration paths, depending on what you valued about the old tool:

If you valued free and Google’s models, install Antigravity CLI and accept the smaller cap, or keep the open-source Gemini CLI repo and run it against a paid Gemini API key (you keep the exact tool, you just pay per token now). If you valued capability, move to Claude Code and treat the $20 as the cost of the upgrade. If you valued control and low cost, install Aider, OpenCode, or Goose, drop in an API key for a cheap model, and you’re running for cents a task.

Whichever you choose, grep your scripts and CI config for the gemini command before June 18 and swap it, so nothing breaks the morning the quota stops. For the full field of terminal agents and how they score on cost and capability, see the 2026 AI coding agent landscape.

Frequently asked questions

Is there a free alternative to Gemini CLI?

Yes. Antigravity CLI, Google's official successor, has a free tier, but it is reported to cap at about 20 agent requests a day. For more headroom without a subscription, open-source agents like Aider, OpenCode, and Goose are free to install and only cost the API tokens of whatever model you point them at, which can be a few cents per task on a budget model.

What is replacing Gemini CLI?

Antigravity CLI, invoked with the agy command. Google announced the switch at its 2026 developer event and stops serving the old Gemini CLI for free, Pro, and Ultra users on June 18, 2026.

Can I still use Gemini CLI after June 18, 2026?

Yes, in two narrow ways. The Gemini CLI code stays available as an open-source Apache-2.0 repository you can run against your own paid Gemini API key, and organizations on Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise keep their access. What ends is the free hosted quota for individual free, Pro, and Ultra users.

Which Gemini CLI alternative is cheapest per task?

A bring-your-own-key open-source agent running a budget model. In our modeled task, DeepSeek V4 costs about $0.10 and Google's own Gemini 3 Flash about $0.16, versus roughly $0.90 on Claude Sonnet 4.6. The tool itself is free; you only pay for tokens.

Is Claude Code better than Gemini CLI?

For multi-file coding work, most reviewers rank Claude Code first in 2026, which is why it is the common destination for people leaving Gemini CLI. It costs $20 a month rather than being free, and heavy use can exhaust the plan quota and start billing at API rates.

Are Aider, OpenCode, and Goose really free?

The software is free and open source. The model behind it is not. You bring your own API key and pay the provider per token, or run a local model and pay in hardware and electricity. For light use this is often cheaper than any subscription.

The bottom line

Gemini CLI’s free ride ends June 18, 2026, and Antigravity CLI’s roughly 20-requests-a-day free tier (reported) won’t replace it for anyone who codes seriously. If you’ll pay for capability, Claude Code at $20 is the default. If you want the lowest possible bill, run Aider or OpenCode on a budget model and pay cents a task. The break-even between them sits around 20 to 200 tasks a month depending on the model, so the honest answer to “what’s the best Gemini CLI alternative” is: count your tasks first, then pick the side of that line you’re on.

Sources

Google for Developers (2026). An important update: Transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI. Google Developers Blog. https://developers.googleblog.com/an-important-update-transitioning-gemini-cli-to-antigravity-cli/

Google (2026). An important update: Transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI (Discussion #27274). GitHub, google-gemini/gemini-cli. https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/discussions/27274

Google for Developers. Quotas and limits: Gemini Code Assist. https://developers.google.com/gemini-code-assist/resources/quotas

The New Stack (2026). Gemini CLI vs. Antigravity: What works, not the spec sheet. https://thenewstack.io/gemini-cli-antigravity-replacement/

The Register (2026). Bye-bye, Gemini CLI; Google nudges devs toward Antigravity. https://www.theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/20/bye-bye-gemini-cli-google-nudges-devs-toward-antigravity/5243605

9to5Google (2026). Gemini CLI and Code Assist shut down for consumers this week amid Antigravity focus. https://9to5google.com/2026/06/17/gemini-cli-code-assist-shutting-down/

Anthropic. Pricing. https://claude.com/pricing

OpenAI. API pricing. https://openai.com/api/pricing/

OpenAI. ChatGPT pricing. https://openai.com/chatgpt/pricing/

Google. Gemini API pricing. https://ai.google.dev/gemini-api/docs/pricing

DeepSeek. Pricing. https://api-docs.deepseek.com/quick_start/pricing

GitHub. Copilot plans. https://github.com/features/copilot/plans