The cheapest AI coding tools, ranked by price
Short answer (checked 2026-10-22): Cursor Plus and OpenAI Codex Go tie for the cheapest paid plan at $8 a month. GitHub Copilot Pro, Zed Pro and JetBrains AI Pro follow at $10. Cheap doesn't always mean the most use, since each tool counts and resets limits differently. Every price comes from the vendor's own page.
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- 21 tools tracked
- Checked daily against official sources
- Last checked 2026-10-22
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Cheapest paid plan per tool
Month-to-month price unless noted. Tools with no fixed-price paid plan are listed at the end.
| Rank | Tool | Plan | Price | What you get | Resets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cursor | Plus | $8 | Shared weekly usage pool (Cursor+Grok) for Cursor models (Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5); third-party models not available | Weekly pool (next reset date shown in your dashboard); legacy plans: monthly with your billing cycle |
| 1 | OpenAI Codex | Go | $8 | Lightweight tasks, GPT-6 Luna | not published for Go |
| 3 | GitHub Copilot | Pro | $10 | $15/mo AI credits ($10 base + $5 flex) | 1st of each month, 00:00 UTC |
| 3 | Zed | Pro | $10 | Unlimited edit predictions; $5/mo of hosted-model tokens, then API list price +10% (spend cap available). 14-day trial with $5 usage, no card | Monthly, on your billing date |
| 3 | JetBrains AI | AI Pro | $10 (individual), $20 (organization) | 10 AI credits per 30 days (individual); 20 (organization) | Every 30 days from when you first used your license |
| 6 | Bolt | Pro | $18* (annual, $216/yr) (monthly price not listed) | Starts at 10M tokens/mo, rollover, no daily limit | Paid: monthly on your renewal date; Free: 1st of each month, plus a daily cap that resets every day |
| 7 | Google Antigravity | Google AI Pro | $19.99 | Higher agent quota, refreshed every 5 hours until a weekly limit; AI credits usable for overage | Pro & Ultra: every 5 hours up to a weekly cap; Free: weekly |
| 8 | Claude Code | Pro | $20 ($17/mo annual) | 5-hour session + weekly limits, shared with Claude chat | Rolling 5-hour session + weekly cap at a fixed weekly time assigned to your account |
| 8 | Replit | Core | $20 ($18 annual) | Up to 30h chat on Free Mode, $20 toward powerful models, up to 5 collaborators | Subscription credits: each month; Starter: daily Agent credits up to a monthly cap |
| 8 | Devin Desktop | Pro | $20 | Daily + weekly quota, frontier models | Calendar-based: Pro & Teams full seats daily + weekly; Max weekly only |
| 11 | Lovable | Pro | $25 (100 credits) to $2,250 (10,000 credits); annual from $21/mo | Monthly credits + 5/day + 20 Cloud/mo + 4 AI/mo + 1 connector/mo; top-ups $15 per 50 | Daily build credits & chat allowance: every day 00:00 UTC; monthly credits: at each billing renewal |
| 12 | v0 | Plus | $30 per user/mo (pricing toggle also shows $90; not explained on page, unverified) | $30 monthly credits + $2 daily login credits per user | Monthly credits per billing cycle (unused roll over, expire after 65 days); $2 daily credits on login |
| n/a | Gemini CLI | Free (Gemini API key, unpaid) | $0 | 250 requests/user/day, Flash model only | Daily (requests per user per day) |
| n/a | Cline | Open Source | $0 | No subscription or seat fee; pay for AI inference at cost via Cline provider, or bring your own API keys | No reset: no subscription, pay per use |
unverified = not confirmed on the official page yet. not published = the vendor doesn't say.
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Which fits you
- Lowest bill, fine with Grok models: Cursor Plus.
- Already on ChatGPT: Codex Go covers light tasks; Plus is the main coding tier.
- Live in GitHub or VS Code: Copilot Pro.
- Use JetBrains IDEs: JetBrains AI Pro.
- Build apps without much code: Bolt or Lovable (both cheaper on annual billing).
- Pay only for what you use: Cline is free; you pay the model provider.
More: Cursor vs Copilot · Cursor vs Claude Code · Student discounts · Cost calculator · Deals · Changelog
FAQ
What is the cheapest AI coding tool?
Cursor Plus and OpenAI Codex Go tie for the cheapest paid plan at $8 a month. GitHub Copilot Pro, Zed Pro and JetBrains AI Pro follow at $10. Checked 2026-10-22.
Is there a free AI coding tool?
Yes. Most tools we track have a free plan or $0 tier, and Cline is open source with no seat fee (you pay the model provider). Free tiers have tight limits; Claude Code isn't included in Claude's Free plan.
Is the cheapest plan enough for daily coding?
It depends on how the limit resets. Check the Resets column: some reset weekly, some every 5 hours plus a weekly cap, some monthly.
How often are these prices checked?
Every day, against each vendor's official pricing page. Changes go in the changelog.