Google announced on Wednesday the launch of Gemini CLI—a completely free AI coding agent that runs in your terminal and could upend the entire AI assistant market.
Key Points:
- Completely free with 1,000 daily requests
- Open source under Apache 2.0 license for full transparency
- Handles content generation, deployments, and complex workflows
Gemini CLI works entirely from the command line through natural language. Ask it to clone repos, analyze code, deploy apps, or create content—all conversationally.
The tool runs Gemini 2.5 Pro with a 1 million token context window, meaning it can understand entire codebases at once. It supports extensions via Model Context Protocol (MCP) and includes web search, file editing, and command execution.
In a demo, Google showed us how Gemini CLI cloned its own repo, generated a Node.js site, then deployed it on Cloud Run—pausing when appropriate for human approval. The same flow can chain Veo for video, Imagen for images or even Google Search for real-time grounding. In other words, it’s pair programming, DevOps and a Stack Overflow session rolled into one tab.
"We don't want access gated by the pennies in your pocket," said Ryan J. Salva, Google's Senior Director of Product Management. "Students, freelancers, and well-funded companies should have the same tools."
This puts serious heat on existing players. A 500-developer team faces $114k annually for GitHub Copilot Business or $192k for Cursor's business tier. Google offers comparable functionality for free.
Google is also integrating this technology into Gemini Code Assist, giving developers the same capabilities in VS Code and terminals. And for enterprises that need heavier horsepower (or stricter governance), Gemini CLI flips seamlessly to a paid Vertex AI or AI Studio key.
Why give away so much? Google is betting that free access will drive adoption and developer loyalty, then monetize through adjacent services like Google Cloud. It’s the same playbook that made Kubernetes ubiquitous—only this time, the engine runs on transformers, not containers.
For developers tired of managing API budgets and token limits, this is a major shift toward accessible AI development tools.
Gemini CLI is available now with just a Google account—no credit card required.