Short version: you can do serious work in 2026 without paying. Use Antigravity's free tier for agent work, Copilot Free for completions, and a local model for anything private or when limits run out. One thing many guides still get wrong: for free users, Google replaced Gemini CLI with Antigravity CLI on 18 June 2026.
Free hosted tiers
**Google Antigravity, Individual plan.** No subscription: unlimited tab completions and command requests, with basic weekly limits on the agent models. The most generous free agent tier this year. Details in our Claude Code vs Antigravity comparison.
GitHub Copilot Free. 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests a month inside VS Code and other editors. GitHub moved Copilot to usage-based AI Credits in June 2026, so check current allowances. Verified students can get Copilot through the GitHub Student Developer Pack.
Gemini Code Assist. Gemini CLI's documentation lists 1,000 requests per user per day through a Google account and 250 with an unpaid API key. For unpaid-tier and Google One users, Gemini CLI itself was replaced by Antigravity CLI in June.
Free and unlimited: open source plus a local model
An open-source agent pointed at a local model has no meter at all:
- **Cline** or **Continue** inside VS Code.
- **OpenCode** in the terminal.
- **Ollama** serving a model sized for your memory.
The trade-off is quality on large multi-file tasks, and needing a machine with enough memory.
A free stack that covers most work
- Completions: Copilot Free in VS Code.
- Agent work: Antigravity's free tier.
- Private or over-limit work: Cline with a local model.
- Portable skills: keep SKILL.md files in the repo so they work in all three.
When paying starts to make sense
When weekly limits interrupt real work more than once a week, a $20 plan pays for itself in time. Compare the options in Claude Code vs Codex before choosing.