Is Claude Code free? Every free way to run a terminal coding agent

No, Claude Code isn't free. Anthropic's setup page says "the free claude.ai plan does not include Claude Code access", and the cheapest way in is Claude Pro at $20 a month. The one exception is Anthropic's program for open source maintainers. If you want a terminal coding agent for $0, there are real options: Codex on ChatGPT Free, GitHub Copilot CLI on Copilot Free, Google's Antigravity CLI, open source agents on free or local models, and Darce's free daily allowance.

Last updated: October 2026. This page is published by the makers of Darce. Prices and limits come from each vendor's own pricing page or docs, fetched on October 15, 2026. Free tiers change often, so check the linked source before you rely on one.

What Claude Code costs now

Claude Code is included in every paid Claude plan, and in none of the free ones.

Pro and Max have a five-hour session limit and a weekly limit, shared between the Claude apps and Claude Code. Claude's pricing page lists no free trial.

You can also skip the subscription and pay per token through a Console account. The cheapest current model, Claude Haiku 5.5, costs $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens for prompts up to 100K tokens. That isn't free, but light use can cost very little. Anthropic's cost docs put enterprise usage at about $13 per developer per active day, so heavy use adds up fast.

Free Claude Code for open source maintainers

Claude for Open Source gives "6 months of free Claude Max 20x" to eligible maintainers and contributors. You qualify with any one of these, among others:

• a project with 500 or more dependent repos, 100 or more dependent packages, or 200,000 or more combined monthly downloads
• 100 or more pull requests merged into repos you don't own in the last 12 months
• a repo with 20 or more unique external contributors in the last 12 months

When the six months end, the account goes back to the free plan, or to your previous paid plan if you had one.

Free tiers of other coding agents

These are first-party agents with a $0 plan. Each one limits you to its own vendor's models.

Codex. OpenAI's pricing page says Codex is included in "your ChatGPT Free, Go, Plus, Pro, Business, Edu, or Enterprise plan". Free is for exploring Codex "on quick coding tasks", and OpenAI's models page says Free and Go get GPT-6 Luna (subject to rollout), not the default GPT-6.1 Sol. Go, at $8 a month, is pitched at "lightweight coding tasks". The CLI is open source, so it also runs on your own API key or a local model. See Codex vs Claude Code for how the two compare.

GitHub Copilot. GitHub's plans page says "All plans include Copilot CLI", Free included. Copilot Free is "limited to 2000 completions per month" and comes with an allowance of GitHub AI Credits; GitHub doesn't give the number on that page. On Free, you get models through auto model selection only. Paid plans are $10 (Pro), $39 (Pro+) and $100 (Max) a month.

Antigravity CLI, which replaced Gemini CLI for individuals. Google announced on May 19, 2026 that Gemini CLI is moving to Antigravity CLI. On June 18, 2026, Gemini CLI stopped serving Google AI Pro and Ultra users and people using it free of charge through Gemini Code Assist for individuals. It still works with paid Gemini API keys. Google says Antigravity CLI "is available to everyone" and signs in with a personal Google account, and Antigravity's pricing page lists a $0 individual plan with "basic weekly rate limits". It doesn't spell out the limits for the CLI.

Free tiers that ended. Qwen Code's free Qwen OAuth tier was discontinued on April 15, 2026. You now need an Alibaba ModelStudio plan, an API key or another provider. Gemini CLI's free sign-in, above, ended in June.

Open source agents with your own keys

Most open source agents are free to install. You pay whoever runs the model, which can be a free model, a cheap one, or a subscription you already have.

OpenRouter's free models work with any agent that takes an OpenRouter key. Models whose ID ends in :free are limited to 20 requests a minute and 50 a day if you've bought fewer than 10 credits, or 1,000 a day once you have. An agent uses several requests per task, so 50 a day goes quickly.

Cheap paid models can be close to free for small tasks. Claude Haiku 5.5 and GPT-6 Luna are both $0.10 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output tokens on their makers' APIs.

For a wider comparison of these tools, see best CLI coding agents and OpenCode vs Claude Code.

Local models: free if you have the hardware

Running a model on your own machine costs nothing per token. Agent work needs a model that handles tool calls well and a large context window; Ollama's docs recommend at least 64k tokens for both Claude Code and Codex.

• Claude Code with Ollama. Ollama documents ollama launch claude, or setting ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=http://localhost:11434 with ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=ollama. Anthropic doesn't support Claude Code with non-Claude models, so expect rough edges. More in Claude Code with other models.
• Codex with Ollama or LM Studio. codex --oss uses a local provider; pick one with --local-provider ollama or lmstudio. Ollama also documents ollama launch codex.
• OpenCode has documented setups for Ollama, LM Studio and llama.cpp.

The tradeoff is hardware: you need a machine that can run a model with reliable tool calling and a 64k context at a speed you can work with.

Darce's free tier

Darce is our open source (MIT) terminal agent, so weigh this section accordingly.

• Try it with no account. npx darce-cli gives you a short free trial with no sign-up, no API key and no card.
• Free plan. darce signup creates a free account with a daily allowance that resets every 24 hours. It covers fast, low-cost models such as Claude Haiku, Qwen, DeepSeek and Gemini Flash. Usage is measured by what the work actually costs, so these models go a long way.
• Every feature on every plan. The free plan has /undo for everything the agent did, including what shell commands changed, plus /derby, /swarm and /taste.
• No surprise bills. When the allowance runs out, Darce stops; nothing is charged.
• Or bring your own OpenRouter key, and requests are billed to your OpenRouter account instead.

What you don't get for free: Claude Sonnet and Opus, GPT and Gemini Pro start on the Builder plan at $15 a month, and Power at $65 has every model. Darce doesn't run local models. See pricing and choosing models.

Which free option should you use?

• You want Claude Code specifically: it isn't free unless you qualify as an open source maintainer. Pro at $20 is the cheapest plan.
• You want a first-party agent for $0: Codex on ChatGPT Free, or Copilot CLI on Copilot Free.
• You use Google's models: Antigravity CLI's free individual plan.
• You have a capable GPU or a Mac with plenty of memory: OpenCode, Codex or Claude Code with a local model.
• You want many models without keys, and undo for shell commands: Darce's free plan.

Sources

• Claude pricing
• Claude Code setup
• Claude Code costs
• Claude Max plan
• Claude usage limits
• Claude for Open Source
• Codex pricing
• Codex models
• Codex advanced configuration
• OpenAI API pricing
• GitHub Copilot plans
• Google: transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI
• Antigravity pricing
• Antigravity CLI getting started
• Qwen Code authentication
• OpenCode providers
• OpenCode Zen
• Cline pricing
• Kilo pricing
• Amp pricing
• Aider repository
• Goose repository
• Crush repository
• OpenRouter rate limits
• Ollama: Claude Code
• Ollama: Codex

Frequently asked questions

Related guides