Extension
Cline
An open-source AI coding agent that lives in your editor (such as VS Code) and your terminal. It asks before every file edit or command, and you choose the AI model.
Free tier MCP support Open source
Pricing
Cline's pricing page says the open-source extension is free for individual developers and you pay only for AI model usage, either with your own API keys or with Cline credits. Cline sometimes runs free model promotions with limited quotas, and these change. Enterprise is custom-priced. Check cline.bot/pricing for current details.
Pros
- The tool itself is free and open source (Apache 2.0)
- You choose the AI provider: Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, local models and others
- Plan and Act modes let you agree a plan before anything is changed
- Every file edit and command needs your approval unless you turn on auto-approve, and checkpoints help you undo changes
- Reads .clinerules and AGENTS.md for project instructions
Cons
- You pay the AI provider for usage, so costs vary with how much you use it
- Setting up an API key or credits is an extra step compared with an all-in-one subscription
- Auto-approve is convenient but removes the safety check, so use it carefully