Gemini CLI vs Cursor
Side by side, as alternatives to Cursor. Rows that differ are highlighted; the strongest value in a row is marked. Unknown means no source yet.
Also replaces Cursor: + OpenCode+ OpenAI Codex CLI+ Zed+ OpenHands+ Cline+ goose
Gemini CLIgoogle-gemini/gemini-cli
Cursorpaid product
Cost and coverage
Price
$0 software; you run it
Free plan with limited AI use; Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month, Super $100/month, Ultra $200/month; third-party models billed separately by usage source ↗
Code in an AI-first editor
No: No
Confirmed: Yes
Multi-line tab completion and next-edit prediction
No: No
Confirmed: Yes
Let an agent plan and edit across many files
Partial: Partly
Confirmed: Yes
Run terminal commands and tests from the agent
Partial: Partly
Confirmed: Yes
Ask questions about your whole codebase
Partial: Partly
Confirmed: Yes
Connect tools and data through MCP
Partial: Partly
Confirmed: Yes
Run agents in the cloud in the background
No: No
Confirmed: Yes
Jobs covered
4 of 7 jobs
All 7
Popularity and activity (from GitHub)
Stars
107,492
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Gain this week
Unknown
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Signal
Building history
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Commits / 4 wk
82
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Latest release
v0.65.0 · 2026-10-20
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Commits / 12 wk
194
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People committing / 12 mo
82+
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Issues opened / closed, 30 days
123 / 206
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Facts, with sources on each project page
Runs on my machine?
Confirmed: Yes, the CLI runs in your terminal; the Gemini models themselves run on Google's servers
Hosted by the vendor
Code licence
Confirmed: Apache-2.0
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Model weights licence
Confirmed: No separate model weights
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Commercial use
Confirmed: Allowed under Apache-2.0
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Paid services needed?
No: A paid service is required since June 18, 2026; the free Google-account tier moved to Antigravity CLI. No local model support
Subscription
Hardware
Confirmed: 4GB+ RAM for short sessions, 16GB+ for large codebases; needs Node.js 20+ and an internet connection
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Operating systems
Confirmed: Windows 11 24H2+, macOS 15+ and Ubuntu 20.04+
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Setup effort
Confirmed: Easy; run with npx or install with npm, Homebrew or MacPorts, then sign in or set an API key
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Stars over time
Switch to Growth % to compare projects of different sizes fairly.
The chart appears after a few nightly checks.
Notes for a video or post
A plain summary with today's date and a link to the sources. Check each project page before you publish.
Want share images and a ready video description? Open a project's creator kit.
Numbers: GitHub, fetched nightly. Facts: read from each project's own documentation, with the source on its page. How we check. google-gemini/gemini-cli ↗