by Google
Gemini CLI review, pricing and verdict
Google's open-source terminal agent, retired for individuals on June 18, 2026.
- Best for
- Engineering teams already under an existing Gemini Code Assist Enterprise or Standard contract
- Not for
- Individual developers or hobbyists looking for a free coding agent in 2026
Should you use Gemini CLI?
If you're evaluating a terminal coding agent today, Gemini CLI (107k+ GitHub stars) is not an option unless your organization already holds a Gemini Code Assist Enterprise license. Individual access ended, and Google's own successor, Antigravity CLI, is the practical next step for everyone else.
A 1 million token context window paired with, while it lasted, the largest no-cost daily request allowance among major terminal coding agents.
Its moat evaporated the moment Google redirected consumer users to Antigravity CLI; the only remaining reason to choose it is an existing enterprise Code Assist contract a team doesn't want to migrate off yet.
Also for
- Developers researching CLI agent history before choosing Antigravity CLI or a competitor
- Open-source contributors extending or auditing the Apache 2.0 codebase
Show 2 more
- Engineering teams already under a Gemini Code Assist Enterprise or Standard contract
- Open-source contributors auditing or extending the Apache 2.0 codebase
Also not for
- Anyone without an existing Google Cloud or Code Assist relationship
Main trade-off
Individual, Pro and Ultra consumer access ended entirely on June 18, 2026, making it unavailable to anyone evaluating a coding agent for the first time in 2026.
Gemini CLI pricing
- Billing model
- Usage
No consumer free tier remains. Continued access requires either a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise license (custom pricing) or a pay-per-token Gemini API key; individuals had a generous daily free allowance before the 2026 shutdown.
Before you commit
- A CVSS 10.0 remote-code-execution flaw in headless CI mode existed until Google patched version 0.39.1
- Ongoing use now requires either an enterprise Code Assist contract or metered per-token Gemini API costs
What Gemini CLI does on its own
- Scope of autonomy
- Semi-autonomous
- Human approval boundary
- Human in the loop
- Maturity
- Enterprise
Safety controls
- Runs sandboxedSupported
- Human in the loopSupported
- Audit loggingNot supported
- Output filteringNot supported
What it can operate
- Web browsing
- Code execution
- File system
- Shell commands
- API calls
Where Gemini CLI runs
- Deployment
- Local · API
- Where it runs
- CLI · API · IDE plugin
- Memory
- Short term
- Context window
- 1M tokens
Models it runs on
- Gemini 2.5 Pro
- Gemini 2.5 Flash
- Gemini 3 Pro
- Gemini 3 Flash
Systems it connects to
| System | Type |
|---|---|
| GitHub Actions | Native |
| Model Context Protocol | Native |
| VS Code | Plugin |
| Zed | Plugin |
| JetBrains IDEs | Plugin |
Languages it supports
- Python
- JavaScript
- TypeScript
- Go
- Java
Benchmark scores
- SWE-bench
- 78 / 100
What Gemini CLI does
Gemini CLI was Google's open-source terminal AI agent, launched June 25, 2025 with a 1 million token context window. It ran a reason-and-act loop to fix bugs and ship features from the command line until Google ended free and Pro/Ultra consumer access on June 18, 2026 in favor of Antigravity CLI.
1M token context window
Reads and edits an entire codebase in one session instead of working file-by-file, the feature most reviewers cited as its standout trait.
ReAct loop over local tools and MCP
Reasons about a task, calls a local tool or an MCP server, observes the result, and repeats until the task is done or it needs your approval.
Google Search grounding
Pulls current web results into its reasoning instead of relying only on training data, useful for library APIs that changed after the model's cutoff.
Session checkpointing
Automatically snapshots a session's state so a long-running task can be resumed instead of restarted from scratch after an interruption.
Show all 6 features
Headless scripting mode
Runs non-interactively from a script or CI pipeline, the same mode a critical security advisory found unsafe until Google patched it in v0.39.1.
Three-tier approval control
default confirms every edit and command, auto_edit approves file edits only, and yolo mode approves everything with --yolo and no prompts.
Strengths and limits
Strengths
- Its GitHub repository carries 107.2k stars and 14.6k forks under Apache 2.0, making it one of the most-starred open-source coding agents anyone can still inspect or fork.
- A 1 million token context window let it hold entire small-to-mid-size codebases in a single session, well beyond what most rival agents offered at its 2025 launch.
- Gemini 3 Flash scored 78% on SWE-bench Verified for agentic coding per Google's own December 2025 announcement, ahead of Gemini 3 Pro at the time.
Limits
- Individual, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra access ended completely on June 18, 2026; anyone without an enterprise Code Assist license or a paid API key cannot use it at all.
- A CVSS 10.0 remote-code-execution flaw in its headless CI mode (GHSA-wpqr-6v78-jr5g, disclosed 2026-04-24) let a GitHub issue exfiltrate a workflow's secrets before Google patched it.
- It required constant internet connectivity, since all reasoning ran on Google's servers rather than locally, which also raised data-handling concerns for some organizations.
- Free-tier users before the shutdown reported the agent silently downgrading from Pro to Flash under quota pressure, changing response quality mid-session.
Gemini CLI alternatives
| Agent | Where it runs | Price | Maturity | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gemini CLI This page | Your machine · API | Usage-based | Enterprise | 27 Sep |
 Antigravity CLIPick Antigravity CLI for ongoing free individual access and a wider model picker; Gemini CLI itself no longer serves free or Pro/Ultra requests. | Cloud · Your machine · API | Free plan | Available | 27 Sep |
 Claude CodePick Claude Code today for the most thorough multi-file PR workflow; Gemini CLI is no longer an option without an enterprise license. | -- | -- | -- | -- |
 OpenAI CodexPick OpenAI Codex if you already pay for ChatGPT and need a free-to-you agent now that Gemini CLI's consumer tier is gone. | Cloud · Your machine · API | Free plan | Enterprise | 6 Nov |
Also compared
JulesPick Jules, also from Google, if you want an async agent that still offers individual access after Gemini CLI's shutdown.
Gemini CLI facts
- Works offline
- No
- Minimum skill level
- Intermediate
- Budget fit
- Enterprise
- Open source
- Yes
- Ships
- Weekly
- Last major update
- Maker founded
- 2025
- Headquarters
- Mountain View, CA
What changed
Questions about Gemini CLI
How much do you pay for Gemini CLI in 2026?
There is no more flat consumer price because there is no more consumer tier: staying on Gemini CLI now means either a paid Code Assist Standard or Enterprise contract through Google Cloud sales, or metered billing via a Gemini API key. Before June 18, 2026, it was free for individuals with no paid tier of its own.
Is Gemini CLI free to use?
It used to be: personal Google accounts got 1,000 free requests a day on Gemini 2.5 Pro, capped at 60 requests a minute, until Google shut off that access on June 18, 2026. Today it costs whatever your organization's Code Assist license or API usage runs, with nothing free left for individuals.
What should you use instead of Gemini CLI?
Google's own successor is Antigravity CLI, which keeps a free individual tier and adds background subagents plus Claude and GPT-OSS models alongside Gemini. Claude Code and OpenAI Codex CLI are the other two terminal agents most reviewers put in the same comparison, each requiring its own separate subscription.
Is Gemini CLI better than Antigravity CLI?
No: Antigravity CLI is the actively developed continuation, with multi-agent subagents and a five-model picker that Gemini CLI never had, and it is still free for individuals. Gemini CLI's only advantage now is that an organization already holding a Code Assist license can keep using a tool its team is already trained on.
Is Gemini CLI still available in 2026?
Yes, but not for the general public: Google cut off free, Pro and Ultra consumer access on June 18, 2026, leaving only Gemini Code Assist Standard/Enterprise license holders and pay-per-token API users with working access. The open-source project itself is still maintained, with a stable v0.61.0 release and a security-focused preview build shipped September 1, 2026.
About Gemini CLI
Gemini CLI is Google's open-source AI agent for the terminal, launched June 25, 2025 under an Apache 2.0 license. It runs a reason-and-act loop against your local files and shell, using Gemini's 1 million token context window to read and edit whole codebases, fix bugs, and ship features while a human approves each change by default. On June 18, 2026, Google stopped serving Gemini CLI requests from free accounts and Google AI Pro/Ultra subscribers, redirecting individual users to its successor, Antigravity CLI; only organizations already holding Google's enterprise Code Assist contract, or developers paying per token through the Gemini API, still have working access.
Read the full background
At launch it defaulted to Gemini 2.5 Pro, and Google later added Gemini 3 Pro and, in December 2025, Gemini 3 Flash, which the company's own developer blog reported scoring 78% on SWE-bench Verified for agentic coding, ahead of both the 2.5 series and Gemini 3 Pro at the time. Three approval modes controlled how much it could do without asking: the default mode confirmed every file edit and shell command, auto_edit approved edits automatically while still asking about shell commands, and yolo mode (--yolo) approved everything with no prompts. It also supported Model Context Protocol servers, Google Search grounding for up-to-date answers, session checkpointing, and a headless scripting mode for CI pipelines.
Before the shutdown, individuals used it for the same reasons any terminal coding agent gets adopted: fixing bugs across a large repository, generating apps from a sketch or PDF using Gemini's multimodal input, and automating routine pull-request and rebase work. A 2026-04-24 security advisory (GHSA-wpqr-6v78-jr5g) rated CVSS 10.0 after researchers showed a GitHub issue could trigger indirect prompt injection in headless CI mode, exfiltrating a workflow's GITHUB_TOKEN; Google patched it in @google/gemini-cli 0.39.1 and the companion google-github-actions/run-gemini-cli GitHub Action.
The project remains open source and still actively maintained on GitHub as of today. Development continued past the consumer cutoff: Google shipped a preview build on September 1, 2026 hardening MCP OAuth discovery against SSRF, and the latest stable release is v0.61.0. For anyone without an existing enterprise contract, Google's own guidance is to move to Antigravity CLI; reviewers otherwise point migrating users toward Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, or Google's own async agent Jules.
Sources and guides
Official sources
- Gemini CLI official site Vendor
- GitHub repository GitHub
Autonomy, guardrails, integrations and pricing on this page are read from Google's own documentation. The verdict is Hokai's reading of them, not the vendor's claim.
Hokai guides that mention Gemini CLI
Lists that include Gemini CLI
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