Cline

The software. The pricing page says the open source extension is free for individual developers and that you pay only for AI inference, with no subscriptions or seat fees on that path. Every task still calls a model, and someone bills for that call. Cline leaves the choice to you: paste your own key from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter or another supported provider and that provider bills you; sign in and spend prepaid Cline credits; or subscribe to ClinePass for a set of open models.

Truly free use comes from two places. Free model promotions give any Cline account a limited quota on models tagged FREE, and the selection changes over time. Local models through Ollama or LM Studio cost nothing per token, but the work then depends on your own hardware.

One agent core sits behind several apps, according to the docs overview. The VS Code extension also installs in Cursor, VSCodium, Windsurf and Antigravity through Open VSX, and a JetBrains plugin covers IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm, WebStorm and the rest of that family. The CLI (Node.js 20 or later) runs as an interactive terminal session or fully headless for CI pipelines and scripts. Cline Desktop is a separate app for parallel sessions and scheduled tasks, and the SDK lets you build your own agent on the same engine.

Cloud Agents run in the browser on a GitHub repository you connect. Each session gets its own sandbox and its own cline/ branch, never commits to the default branch, and pauses after 15 minutes idle. You can run up to 10 sessions at once and start 50 a day. If you prefer a single editor app with the agent built in, the Cursor profile covers that model.

By default Cline asks before it edits a file or runs a command. Auto Approve lets you lift that per category, and the docs suggest starting with only “Read project files” on. Commands are not checked against a fixed allowlist: the model marks each one as safe or as needing approval, so a build or test command may run unprompted while an install or delete should stop for you. YOLO mode switches every check off.

Checkpoints are the safety net. After each tool use Cline commits the project state to a shadow Git repository separate from yours, so you can compare a step’s diff or restore files, the conversation or both. On very large repositories this can take noticeable storage and slow Cline down. The deprecations page also warns that .clineignore never blocked access, because shell commands could still read the files, and is being removed.

The client runs on your machine. The FAQ says that with your own key, requests go from your environment to the model provider you chose; with Cline credits, code and prompts pass through Cline’s infrastructure, which Cline says it never uses to train models. The free model docs add that free usage may be used to improve model performance.

The Privacy Notice says that when you use keys provided by Cline, your request goes to the model provider under that provider’s privacy terms, and some providers may train on content unless you opt out where they allow it. The notice also describes advertising cookies and partners on Cline’s websites, and says the services are not meant for anyone under 18.

The Terms of Service name Cline Bot Inc. as the provider and apply Delaware law with an arbitration clause. Fees are paid in advance and exclude taxes. Unless the law requires otherwise, cancelling gives no refund for unused credits or unused subscription time. Any free trial bills the saved payment method the day after it ends unless you cancel by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the last day. Cline may change credit prices, with changes taking effect in the billing cycle after notice.

1. Install the extension in VS Code, sign in to a Cline account and pick a model tagged FREE.
2. Leave Auto Approve at read-only, open a small repository on a new branch and ask Cline to rename one function across its callers in Plan mode first.
3. Switch to Act, approve each edit and command, and note every command Cline marked as safe.
4. Open Compare on the last checkpoint, run the tests, then use Restore Files and confirm your own Git history is unchanged.
5. Repeat the task with your own API key and record the token counts and cost Cline reports.

Accept if the rename is complete, the tests pass and the restore leaves no stray changes. Reject if Cline edits files outside the request, runs a command without asking, or the cost per task makes your monthly volume too expensive. If you want a predictable seat price instead, the GitHub Copilot profile lists its plan limits. No result is recorded here.