Free Cursor Alternatives: What's Actually Free in 2026

The best free Cursor alternatives are VS Code with GitHub Copilot Free, Cline, Zed and Aider — and if you want AI coding that costs nothing at all, pair Cline, Zed or Aider with a local model through Ollama. If you're happy with a capped allowance instead, Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf), Google Antigravity, Kiro and Trae all offer free plans with limits.

The catch is that "free" means three different things in this category, and most lists blur them:

• Free software, paid model. The tool costs nothing, but you bring an API key and pay the model provider for what you use.
• Free tier with limits. A vendor gives you a capped allowance of its hosted AI, then asks you to upgrade.
• Fully free. Free software running an open model on your own machine. No bill, but your hardware does the work.

This post covers only the free options. For the full field, including the paid ones, see Cursor alternatives.

Quick comparison: free Cursor alternatives

"Not stated" means the vendor's pricing page doesn't describe a local-model option, not that one definitely doesn't exist.

The three kinds of free, and what each costs you

Before picking a tool, pick the kind of free you can live with. Each one moves the cost somewhere else.

Bring-your-own-key tools can be cheap or expensive. You pay per use, so a light week costs little and a long agent session on a frontier model can cost more than a subscription. Watch your provider's usage dashboard for the first few weeks before you decide.

Free tiers are trials with no end date. They're fine for learning, but agent requests tend to be the first thing capped, and agent work is exactly what most people want from Cursor.

Local models are the only truly free route. They also need real hardware. Cline's own Ollama setup guide suggests 16–32GB of RAM for small or quantized models and 32–64GB for mid-size coding models.

Free software where you pay only for the model

These tools charge nothing themselves. You connect a model provider, or a local model, and that's where any cost lands.

Cline: the closest free agent to Cursor's

Cline is an open-source coding agent that runs as a VS Code extension and as a CLI. It plans a change, shows you each step and waits for approval before it edits files or runs commands. If Cursor's agent mode is what you'd miss, this is the most direct free replacement.

Cline's pricing page is unusually plain about the model: "Cline is free for individual developers. Pay only for AI inference on a usage basis." You can bring keys from providers like Anthropic, OpenAI and Google, or point it at a local model with Ollama and pay nothing. Cline vs Cursor covers how the two compare in daily use.

Zed: a free editor with AI built in

Zed is a fast, open-source editor written from scratch rather than forked from VS Code. Its pricing page describes the Personal plan as "free forever," with a capped number of accepted edit predictions and unlimited use with your own API keys or external agents such as Claude Agent and Codex CLI. Hosted AI prompts aren't part of the free plan.

Zed also supports local models through Ollama in its agent panel, so you can run it with no account and no bill. It's not as deep on AI editing as Cursor, but it's much lighter on your machine. Zed vs Cursor goes through that trade-off.

Aider: free, git-native, terminal only

Aider is an open-source pair programmer that runs in your terminal. It works alongside any editor, commits each change with a descriptive message, and its docs say it "can connect to almost any LLM, including local models." The Ollama guide covers the fully free setup.

One honest caveat: development has slowed. Aider's tagged versions show only point releases since August 2025. It still works well, but don't expect new features at Cursor's pace.

The fully free setup: any of these plus Ollama

Ollama runs open models on your own machine. Point Cline, Zed or Aider at it and you have a Cursor-like loop where the model runs locally and never sends you a bill.

Local inference is not the same as a fully local editor, though. In Zed, the agent's model and edit predictions are set separately, and Zed's privacy docs say each keystroke can send editing context to the edit prediction provider. If no code should leave your machine, point edit predictions at Ollama or turn them off, and check any MCP servers or other tools you connect.

Expect a quality gap. Local models handle completions, explanations and small edits well. Long, multi-file agent tasks are where they struggle most, and where a frontier model through an API key earns its cost.

Free tiers with limits

These are hosted products. You sign up, get a capped allowance and hit a wall when you use it up. Limits change often, so the descriptions below are the vendors' own words from their pricing pages.

VS Code with GitHub Copilot Free

If you want the least disruptive free alternative to Cursor AI, this is it. Cursor is a fork of VS Code, so your extensions, themes and keybindings carry straight over.

GitHub's Copilot plans page calls Copilot Free "a new free pricing tier with limited functionality for individual developers." It includes 2,000 code completions a month, "limited chat and agent usage," agent mode and MCP support. Paid subscribers and people with an organisation seat aren't eligible.

There's a second, less known route. VS Code's language models documentation says bring-your-own-key models in chat "work without signing into a GitHub account and without a Copilot plan," and you can use local Ollama models through the official Ollama extension. The limit: you can't use a local model for inline suggestions, so completions still come from Copilot.

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)

Devin Desktop is the AI editor that used to be called Windsurf. Cognition renamed it on 2 June 2026, and says the IDE "remains fully backwards-compatible with Windsurf." Like Cursor, it's a full AI editor with an agent built in, so the daily workflow feels familiar. Its pricing page describes the Free plan as a "light quota to code with agents" with "limited model availability," plus unlimited Tab completions and inline edits.

Google Antigravity

Antigravity is Google's agent-first coding product, spread across a desktop app, an IDE and Antigravity CLI (the successor to Gemini CLI). Google's pricing page lists an individual plan at no cost — "experience Antigravity without a subscription plan" — with access to a variety of agent models, unlimited Tab completions and "basic weekly rate limits." The CLI can also run on a Gemini API key instead of a Google sign-in, which bills through the Gemini API.

Kiro

Kiro is an agentic IDE (with a CLI) built and operated by AWS, and it centres on turning a prompt into a spec before writing code. Its pricing page describes a "perpetual Kiro Free tier" with a small allowance of credits, access to open-weight models and Claude Sonnet 4.5, and rate limits. Pick it if you like planning a feature in writing before an agent touches the code.

Trae

Trae offers an AI coding editor, now listed on its site as TraeCode. The Trae pricing page describes its Free plan as "Auto mode only," with "limited usage" and "limited autocomplete" — so you don't choose the model.

Cursor's own Hobby plan

Before you switch, check whether you need to. Cursor's pricing page lists a Hobby plan with "no credit card required," "limited Agent requests" and access to Composer. If you code a few hours a week, that may be enough. Cursor is now owned by SpaceX, which completed the acquisition on 14 August 2026; the Hobby plan is still listed.

Two free picks older lists still recommend

Many "free Cursor alternative" roundups still lead with two tools that you shouldn't start on today:

• Continue. Its homepage now says Continue was acquired by Cursor, and the Continue repository states it "is no longer actively maintained and is read-only for all users." The code is still there under Apache-2.0, but nobody is fixing it.
• Void. The open-source Cursor-style editor was archived on 2 June 2026. Its GitHub page says Void "is deprecated and no longer accepting contributions."

Both can still be installed or forked. Neither will keep up with model and editor changes, which is a poor bet for a tool you'll use every day.

How to choose a cursor free alternative

Start from what you'd actually miss about Cursor, then pick the kind of free you can live with.

1. You want Cursor, just without the bill, and don't want to relearn anything. VS Code with Copilot Free. Same editor base, same extensions.
2. You mainly use Cursor's agent. Cline with your own API key. Add Ollama later if cost becomes a problem.
3. Your code can't leave your machine. Cline, Zed or Aider with Ollama. In Zed, also point edit predictions at Ollama or turn them off, and check any tools you connect. Accept the quality gap on large tasks.
4. You want a polished AI editor and can live with caps. Devin Desktop or Antigravity. Try both for a week; the limits are the deciding factor.
5. You like planning before coding. Kiro.
6. You live in the terminal. Aider for a light, git-native loop, or Antigravity CLI if you're already in Google's ecosystem.
7. Your editor is slow and that's half the problem. Zed.

A useful habit whichever you pick: keep a second free tool installed. When one free tier runs out mid-week, switching to a bring-your-own-key tool for a day is cheaper than upgrading on impulse.

Not a coding problem at all?

Some people searching for a free alternative to Cursor AI don't really want to write code. They saw an AI app or workflow someone shared, and Cursor looked like the way to get it running.

If that's you, an editor isn't the missing piece. Taku mirrors an AI app or workflow someone already got working into a desktop workspace, where you can run it, edit it and save it as your own, without setting up the environment first. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now.

Key points

• "Free" has three meanings: free software with paid model usage, free tiers with caps, and free software running a local model.
• Cline, Zed and Aider are free and open source; pair any of them with Ollama for AI coding at no cost.
• VS Code + Copilot Free is the easiest move from Cursor, and VS Code chat can use your own keys or local models without a Copilot plan.
• Devin Desktop, Antigravity, Kiro and Trae have free plans with limits set out on their pricing pages.
• Continue and Void are no longer maintained. Skip them for daily work.
• Cursor still lists a free Hobby plan with limited agent requests.

FAQ

Is there a completely free Cursor alternative?

Yes. Cline, Zed and Aider are free, open-source tools, and all three can run local models through Ollama. That combination costs nothing beyond your own hardware and electricity.

What is the best free alternative to Cursor AI?

For most people, VS Code with Copilot Free, because nothing about your setup changes. If you mainly use Cursor's agent, Cline is the closer match.

Does Cursor have a free version?

Yes. Cursor's pricing page lists a Hobby plan that needs no credit card and includes limited agent requests.

Is Windsurf still free?

Windsurf is now called Devin Desktop. Cognition's pricing page lists a Free plan with a light agent quota and limited model choice.

Are local models good enough to replace Cursor?

For completions, explanations and small edits, often yes. For long, multi-file agent tasks, a frontier model through an API key still does noticeably better.

Is Continue still a good free option?

Not for new setups. Continue was acquired by Cursor, and its repository is read-only and no longer actively maintained.