AI Coding Agents in 2026: The 12 Best Compared and Priced

AI coding agent comparison: all 12 at a glance

The last column is the one other lists skip: Yes means a desktop app with no terminal, Partial means a terminal or editor a beginner can learn from a guide, and No means it assumes you read code or manage API keys.

Score: Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v1.5, each agent's best setup. Prices in USD per month, from each vendor's page on October 21, 2026 (linked in each agent's section below).

What is an AI coding agent?

An AI coding agent takes a goal in plain English, reads the files in a project folder, plans, edits files and runs commands, then checks its own work. A chatbot hands you code to copy; an agent does the work in place. If the word agent is new to you, start with what an AI agent is.

Agents run in a terminal (a text window where you type commands; terminal versions are called CLIs), a code editor such as VS Code (often called an IDE), a desktop app or a cloud machine. That place decides how hard one is for a non-developer, which is what the table's last column measures.

Want a website with hosting included and no files on your computer? That's an app builder, not an agent: see our best vibe coding tools and Claude Code vs Lovable.

AI coding agent benchmark: scores, cost and time per task

Artificial Analysis, an independent benchmarking company, runs each agent and model on three equally weighted task sets: DeepSWE v1.1 (113 software tasks), Terminal-Bench 4.0 (66 terminal tasks) and SWE-Atlas-QnA (124 technical questions), averaging three attempts per task.

The top AI coding agents finished within 0.4 points of each other, so any AI coding agents ranking that names one clear winner is overselling it. The model matters as much as the agent: Devin's best run paired Anthropic's Opus 5.5 with OpenAI's GPT-6 Luna, and Claude Code ranges from 28.2 with Haiku 5.5 on low to 68.4 with Sonnet 5.5 on max. Low, medium, xhigh and max are effort settings: more effort means longer, costlier runs.

Cost and time per task tell the rest of the story:

artificialanalysis.ai/agents/coding-agents

Compare the two 62.9 rows: Codex reached the same score as Claude Code on xhigh for about a third of the cost and in a little over half the time. On its medium setting, Codex scored 61.4 for $0.70 in 10.9 minutes.

The Terminal-Bench 4.0 leaderboard also puts Claude Code first, with Opus 5.5 at 64.8% (updated October 6, 2026), though it doesn't list Devin or Antigravity CLI. SWE-bench Verified, which many lists still quote, has no entry newer than February 26, 2026, so it says nothing about this generation. For how the models themselves rank, see our AI model leaderboard.

The best AI coding agents, one by one

The first three are the easiest starts if you don't code (the Yes rows in the table above). The rest expect more comfort with a terminal or code editor, so this isn't the score order.

1. Claude Code

Anthropic's agent edits real files on your computer from the Claude desktop app, a terminal, VS Code or JetBrains, and runs in the cloud from the web.

• Best for: non-developers who want files they own, and the top score.
• Price: every paid Claude plan. Pro is $20 a month ($17 billed yearly) and Max starts at $100; the Free plan doesn't include it.
• Watch out: its top settings cost the most per task ($13 to $14 in API terms), and it shares one usage pool with your Claude chats.

2. OpenAI Codex

OpenAI's agent runs in the Codex app, the Codex CLI, an IDE extension and the web.

• Best for: ChatGPT subscribers, and the cheapest, fastest runs of any setup scoring above 60.
• Price: ChatGPT Free and Go ($8 a month) get the Codex app with GPT-6 Luna, subject to OpenAI's rollout; Plus ($20) adds the CLI, IDE extension and web (OpenAI's Codex pricing).
• Watch out: it shares usage limits with ChatGPT Work, the agent inside ChatGPT.
• Go deeper: plans and limits side by side in Codex vs Claude Code.

3. Google Antigravity (and what happened to Gemini CLI)

Google's agent comes as a desktop app, the Antigravity CLI and IDE extensions. Antigravity CLI replaced Gemini CLI for unpaid and Google One users on June 18, 2026.

• Best for: a $0 start, or people already paying for Google AI Pro.
• Price: free with basic weekly limits; Google AI Pro ($19.99 a month) raises them and adds Gemini 4 Argon, the model behind its 63.8 (not during a free trial).
• Watch out: three models on the free list, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT-OSS-120b, are marked for removal on November 2, 2026, on Antigravity's models page. Gemini 4 Argon works in the app, CLI and extensions, but not in Antigravity's own code editor (the Antigravity IDE).
• Go deeper: Gemini CLI vs Claude Code vs Antigravity CLI.

4. Devin (formerly Windsurf)

Cognition's Devin Desktop is the next generation of Windsurf, sold alongside the Devin CLI and cloud agents. Its 68.2 came from Devin Fusion, a multi-model setup that ran Opus 5.5 with GPT-6 Luna.

devin.ai/pricing

• Best for: running several local and cloud agents from one app, and former Windsurf users.
• Price: Free with a light quota, Pro $20 a month, Max $200, and Teams $80 a month plus $40 per full seat.
• Watch out: four products share one name (Desktop, CLI, Cloud and Fusion), and Devin publishes no usage numbers, only that allowances refresh daily and weekly.

5. Cursor

Cursor is an AI code editor built on VS Code, with an Agents Window for running many agents at once, a CLI and cloud agents. SpaceX has owned it since August 14, 2026.

• Best for: people who code in an editor and want agents next to autocomplete.
• Price: Free; Plus ($8) runs only Grok models; Premium ($30) adds cloud agents, with Claude, GPT and Gemini billed on top at API list price (Cursor's plans).
• Watch out: OpenAI is winding down its contract to supply models to Cursor, with a proposed shutoff date of November 12, 2026.
• Go deeper: the full pricing breakdown is in Claude Code vs Cursor.

6. GitHub Copilot and its coding agent

Copilot puts agents in VS Code and other editors, in the terminal through Copilot CLI, and on GitHub, where its cloud agent turns an issue into a pull request (a proposed change you review before it goes in).

github.com/features/copilot/plans

• Best for: teams already on GitHub, and a low-cost paid plan at $10 a month.
• Price: Copilot Free includes 2,000 completions a month, agent mode and Copilot CLI. Pro is $10, Pro+ $39 and Max $100; Business is $19 and Enterprise $39 per seat, according to GitHub's Copilot plans pages (October 2026).
• Watch out: it's built for people who read code, not for building a site from a description.

Want an AI coding agent for VS Code specifically? Copilot, Cline, Kilo Code and Claude Code's extension all run there.

7. Muse Code (Meta)

Meta's terminal agent, built for its Muse models, launched in beta on August 5, 2026 and left beta on August 31.

• Best for: terminal users who want a top-three score with the fastest runs of those three (28.8 minutes per task).
• Price: pay as you go or one of three monthly plans. Meta shows the prices only in an image, so check Meta's developer site.
• Watch out: it's the youngest product here, and its 68.0 used Muse Wonder Full, which Artificial Analysis hasn't priced.

8. Grok Build (xAI)

xAI's terminal agent opened as an early beta on May 25, 2026, for SuperGrok and X Premium Plus subscribers.

• Best for: people who already pay for xAI's X Subscription.
• Price: comes with the X Subscription, which now also covers Cursor; the plan page on Cursor's site lists Build from the $8 Plus tier.
• Watch out: its best score, 56.3, sits 12 points behind the leaders.

9. OpenCode

An open source agent for the terminal, a desktop app and IDEs, and its free models work with no account at all.

• Best for: using any of more than 75 model providers, including models on your own computer.
• Price: free models with 200 requests a day, OpenCode Go at $10 a month, or your own provider. It also accepts ChatGPT Plus or Pro and GitHub Copilot logins.
• Watch out: a Claude Pro or Max plan can't be used in it, so Claude there is billed per token.
• Go deeper: setup, costs and privacy in Claude Code vs OpenCode.

10. Kiro (AWS)

Amazon's agent for the Kiro IDE, the terminal and the web is built around spec-driven development: requirements, a design and a task list before any code.

• Best for: teams on AWS, and anyone who wants the plan agreed before the agent starts.
• Price: Free with 50 credits a month, Pro $20 for 1,000 credits, up to Power at $200.
• Watch out: the free plan runs Claude Sonnet 4.5 and open-weight models (ones anyone can download and run). Amazon Q Developer's IDE plugins lose support on April 30, 2027, and AWS points their users here.

11. Cline and Kilo Code

Open source extensions for people who want to pick any model and watch every step. Cline runs in VS Code and the terminal; Kilo Code also runs in JetBrains.

• Price: free to install; you pay your model provider per use, or pick a free model. Kilo Code's Teams plan is $15 per user a month.
• Watch out: you manage API keys and per-token bills, which can surprise you on a long task.

What changed for AI coding agents in 2026

Many popular lists predate most of these changes, and some still recommend Windsurf or Gemini CLI's old free tier.

Aider, an early open source agent that several of those lists still include, has had no new release since February 12, 2026.

Free and open source AI coding agents

The best free AI coding agent for most people is Google Antigravity: the app, CLI and extensions all work on a $0 plan with weekly limits. Every free plan has a catch, though, so read the last column.

Free plans worth trying

Open source AI coding agents you can install today

Open source means the code is public and free to install. It doesn't mean free to run: the model provider still bills you unless you pick a free model or run one on your own computer.

Which is the best AI coding agent for you?

Find the row that sounds most like you.

Before you pay for a year of anything, give your top two the same small job. Paste this into both:

Work only inside this folder. Read [FILE WITH YOUR PRICES OR SERVICES] and build a one-page price list called prices.html that looks good on a phone. Before you change anything, tell me your plan in three bullet points and wait for my OK. When you finish, list every file you created or changed and how I can undo it.

Then score each agent on what happened:

What to do next

Pick the two rows of the last table that match you and run the test prompt in both this week, on a copy of real work. Keep the agent that needed fewer corrections, not the one with the higher score.

If Claude Code wins, our Claude Code course takes you from install to finished projects without assuming you code. If your goal is a website, the Builders course shows how to plan, build and publish one with AI.