Last updated: 2026-08-19
Trae's CLI companion, Trae Agent, scored 75.2% on SWE-bench Verified in June 2025. The tool itself is ByteDance's AI-native code editor built for developers outside mainland China, and its differentiator is SOLO Mode: an autonomous agent that turns a single plain-English prompt into a working full-stack project, including the file structure, terminal commands, and a live preview, in one session.
About Trae
Trae, short for The Real AI Engineer, is ByteDance's AI-first code editor: a fork of Visual Studio Code released in January 2025 for developers outside mainland China. Trae also ships an MCP-server marketplace and lets several developers edit the same project window at once, so a team can pull in outside tools without leaving the IDE. The most material catch for teams evaluating Trae is ByteDance's telemetry: independent security researchers reported in 2025 that the editor keeps sending file-path and hardware-identifier data even when telemetry is toggled off in settings. Teams on proprietary or regulated codebases should confirm the current data-retention terms before adopting it; solo developers, students, and small teams prototyping greenfield projects face none of those constraints and get the most value out of the free and Lite plans.
Pricing
Lite: $3/month. Pro: $10/month with more token allowance and faster queue. Pro+: $30/month. Ultra: $100/month. Free plan requires no credit card; see the free-tier FAQ for its exact autocompletion and request limits. On-demand pay-as-you-go available for overages. Token-based pricing launched February 24, 2026; 7-day free Pro trial for new users.
Key Features
- TRAE SOLO Autonomous Agent: Autonomous coding agent that accepts a natural-language project description, runs requirements analysis, writes the full file structure (frontend, backend, config), executes terminal commands, and shows live previews before committing any change.
- Multi-Model Selection: Lets developers switch backends mid-session between Anthropic's Claude 3.7 Sonnet, OpenAI's GPT-4.1, Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro, or DeepSeek, picking whichever model fits the task without juggling separate API keys.
- CUE Predictive Editing: Anticipates the next code edit with a single keystroke by analyzing project context, reducing repetitive typing on boilerplate patterns and sequential file changes.
- MCP Marketplace: One-click installation of Model Context Protocol servers from a built-in marketplace, connecting external databases, APIs, and services like Playwright and Supabase directly into the agent context.
- Real-Time Collaboration: Allows multiple developers to work on the same project simultaneously within the IDE, with shared context and synchronized edits, making it viable for small distributed teams.
- Figma-to-Code Workflow: Accepts design screenshots and mockups as multimodal input, analyzes the visual layout, and generates matching React component code compliant with iOS and Android design standards.
- VS Code Compatibility: Built on a VS Code fork, supporting the full VS Code extension ecosystem (.vsix marketplace) so developers import existing settings, keybindings, and language-server plugins without reconfiguration.
Pros
- A five-tier pricing ladder, including a permanent free plan, undercuts Cursor and Windsurf at every tier, so budget-conscious developers can start free and only pay as usage grows.
- SOLO Mode gets a working full-stack skeleton running before a developer writes a single line of code, shortening the gap between an idea and a testable prototype.
- Trae Agent, the open-source CLI companion, reached #1 on the SWE-bench Verified leaderboard, a strong real-world coding signal at the time of the benchmark.
- Because Trae is a genuine VS Code fork rather than a rebuild, switching cost is close to zero for developers already living in VS Code's shortcuts and extensions.
Cons
- ByteDance collects detailed telemetry (file paths, hardware IDs, behavioral metrics) with a 5-year data retention policy and no opt-out mechanism, making Trae unsuitable for proprietary or regulated codebases.
- Context tracking degrades noticeably on projects exceeding 50,000 lines, with SOLO Mode missing cross-file dependencies that Cursor's full-repo indexer handles more reliably.
- No SOC 2 certification or enterprise admin controls (SSO, audit logs, compliance reports) are available, blocking adoption at companies with security review requirements.
- Customer support is slow: documented billing issues in 2026 where Pro plan upgrades failed with no response from support within 7 days.
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Claims local-first codebase storage; telemetry collected without opt-out. No ZDR or on-device execution path documented.
- Data retention
- 1825 days
Frequently Asked Questions
What are Trae's pricing plans in 2026?
Trae runs a five-tier token-based pricing model that launched February 24, 2026. Free costs nothing, Lite is $3/month, Pro is $10/month, Pro+ is $30/month, and Ultra is $100/month, with pay-as-you-go available for overages beyond a plan's monthly token allowance. New users also get a 7-day free trial of the Pro tier.
Does Trae have a free plan?
The Free plan is permanent and asks for no payment details. It includes 5,000 autocompletions, 10 fast and 50 slow requests to premium models, and 1,000 advanced requests each month, though free-tier requests wait behind paid users when demand is high.
Which tools compete with Trae in 2026?
Cursor and Windsurf sit closest to Trae on hokai. Cursor makes more sense on large codebases that need full-repository indexing, while Windsurf suits teams that want a deeper plugin marketplace for distributed collaboration. Claude Code fits developers who want a terminal-first agent without ByteDance's telemetry attached.
Is Trae better than Cursor?
Trae's Lite tier costs less than Cursor Pro while offering access to comparable frontier models. Cursor's full-repository indexing handles multi-file refactors more reliably as a codebase grows, and it carries SOC 2 certification with enterprise admin controls that Trae does not have. Cost and quick scaffolding favor Trae; enterprise data controls favor Cursor.
How long does it take to get going with Trae?
Getting Trae running takes a couple of minutes: download the desktop app for macOS or Windows, or use the web version, from trae.ai, then sign in, and the Free plan activates automatically with no card needed. From there, point SOLO Mode at a plain-English project description and it scaffolds the app, or import existing VS Code settings and extensions to keep a current workflow.
Top Alternatives
- Cursor: Deep multi-file indexing on codebases over 50K lines and clearer data privacy guarantees matter for Cursor; everyone else gets by fine on Trae's lower cost and quick scaffolding.
- Windsurf: Collaborative coding features and a deeper plugin ecosystem matter to Windsurf's audience, especially where ByteDance ownership is a concern; Trae stays the cheaper, faster-to-scaffold option otherwise.
- Claude Code: Terminal-first agentic workflows with strong privacy guarantees and no ByteDance telemetry risk are Claude Code's case; price and SOLO auto-scaffolding are Trae's.
HokAI guides covering Trae
- Best AI Coding Assistants in 2026: Pick the Job, Not the Brand: Cursor, Claude Code, Devin Desktop, Tabnine and Trae compared by job, not brand: which coding tools to skip, verified against vendor pricing in August 2026.
- Windsurf Is Now Devin Desktop: What Actually Changed: Cognition renamed Windsurf to Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, via a silent update. Pricing held steady, but the default screen and Cascade's future did not.