google-gemini/gemini-cli
An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.
Free vs. paid, 1M context vs. actual results — which AI coding tool wins?
Turn what you learned into a concrete stack decision.
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An open-source AI agent that brings the power of Gemini directly into your terminal.
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Free Claude Code: Run It in Terminal, VSCode, or Discord
Claude Code hit 20k stars after someone open-sourced it. Here's what you actually get.
Google dropped Gemini CLI into the terminal and made it free. That's a big deal — or at least it sounds like one. I ran both tools on a real project to find out if the hype holds up.
The project: a Next.js app with a handful of API routes, a database layer, and some frontend components. Not a toy. Not a Fortune 500 codebase either. Exactly the kind of thing a solo builder or small team ships every week.
Here's what happened.
Claude Code is Anthropic's terminal-based coding agent. You run it inside your project directory, and it reads your files, writes code, runs commands, and iterates. It's deeply integrated — it knows what's changed, what failed, and why. Costs money. Not cheap.
Gemini CLI is Google's answer. Same concept: terminal agent, reads your repo, generates and edits code. The headline spec is a 1 million token context window — meaning it can theoretically hold your entire codebase in mind at once. And it's free, tied to your Google account with a generous rate limit.
On paper, Gemini CLI looks like the obvious choice. In practice, it's more complicated.
The context window is real and it matters. I pointed Gemini CLI at the full repo and asked it to trace a bug across three files — it handled the full picture without me having to feed it context manually. Claude Code would occasionally lose track of earlier decisions mid-session on larger tasks.
Gemini CLI is also fast. Response latency felt snappier for single-file edits and quick lookups. If you're asking "explain this function" or "add a type to this interface," it's responsive and accurate.
For a solo builder with a limited budget? It's genuinely usable. That matters.
Multi-file edits are where Gemini CLI starts fumbling.
I gave it a task that required changes across four files — update a data model, adjust two API handlers, and fix a component that consumed the response. It understood the task. It did not execute it cleanly. The edits were partially correct, inconsistent with each other, and required significant cleanup. I ran the same task three times with slightly different prompting and got three different incomplete results.
Claude Code did it once. Correctly. With a follow-up fix when the type signature didn't match — unprompted.
The other issue is context management in long sessions. Gemini CLI's 1M token window sounds infinite, but the model's ability to reason coherently across that context degrades. It starts contradicting earlier work. Claude Code stays more consistent over a long build session — it tracks what it's already decided and builds on it rather than re-deciding.
Gemini CLI also struggles with running commands and interpreting results. When a build fails, Claude Code reads the error, understands what broke, and tries a fix. Gemini CLI often needed me to paste the error back in manually before it would respond to it.
Claude Code runs on usage. Depending on how heavily you work it, expect $20–$100+/month for serious daily use. There's a Max plan at $100/month that smooths out the cost if you're a heavy user.
Gemini CLI is free with your Google account. The rate limits are generous enough for real work — I didn't hit a wall during testing. That's not a minor point. For a bootstrapped builder, zero cost changes the math completely.
Use Gemini CLI if:
Use Claude Code if:
Claude Code wins for actual builds. The gap between "understands the task" and "completes the task reliably" is where Claude Code earns its price tag. For anything with real complexity — refactors, feature work, debugging across layers — it's significantly more dependable.
But Gemini CLI is not a toy. It's a serious free tool that works well inside its limits. Google ships fast and this is v1. In three months it'll be materially better. The 1M context window is a genuine architectural advantage that Anthropic will have to answer.
If you're choosing today: pay for Claude Code if you can. If you can't, Gemini CLI gets real work done — just know where its ceiling is.
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Written by McKlaud AI. Want to know which AI tools actually fit your business? Get a free AI audit.