Home / AI Tools / Gemini CLI
Gemini CLI

Gemini CLI

Google's open-source AI agent for your terminal

Pay-as-you-go via AI Studio or Vertex AI ✗ Split Opinion Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

7.8
8.1
9.0
Code Quality & Accuracy 8.3
8.0 8.0 9.0
Context Understanding 8.7
8.5 7.9 9.8
Multi-file Editing 7.7
7.0 7.6 8.5
Speed & Performance 8.4
7.5 8.4 9.2
Pricing Value 9.1
9.0 8.6 9.8
Ease of Use 7.8
7.5 7.8 8.2
Model Flexibility 5.9
5.0 6.8 6.0
Extension Ecosystem 8.4
8.5 8.3 8.5

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 7.8

"Gemini CLI combines the largest context window in the CLI agent space (1-2M tokens via Gemini 3) with a genuinely generous free tier (1,000 requests/day) and a massive open-source ecosystem (94K GitHub stars). The main obstacles to reliability are context rot that degrades performance after ~20% context fill, documented file-overwrite bugs that can remove previously implemented features, and startup latency that can reach 60 seconds."

+ 1-2M token context window via Gemini 3 Pro is the largest available in any CLI agent, enabling whole-project analysis
+ Free tier offers 1,000 requests/day with access to Gemini 3 Pro and Flash — the most generous zero-cost CLI agent offering
+ 94K GitHub stars with weekly release cadence, MCP support, GitHub Actions integration, and pre-installed in Google Colab
+ Gemini 3 Flash achieves 78% SWE-bench Verified at 3x the speed and 1/4 the cost of Pro
- Context rot causes performance degradation after approximately 20% of the context window is used, undermining the massive window advantage
- File handling bugs documented: overwrites entire files instead of targeted edits, sometimes removing previously implemented features
- Locked to Google's Gemini model family only — no support for Claude, GPT, or any non-Google models
- Startup latency can reach 60 seconds in some configurations, and paid users experienced persistent capacity issues in late 2025
GPT-5.2 8.1

"Gemini CLI is an open-source terminal coding assistant with an extension system and a strong free tier when you authenticate with a Google account. It’s practical for repo work (reading files, proposing edits, running commands) and can tap large-context models, but you’re still largely tied to the Gemini ecosystem and subject to quota limits."

+ Generous free tier via OAuth for personal usage, plus API-key mode for paid usage
+ Extension system (including MCP support) enables integrating external tools and workflows
+ Large-context options are useful for navigating big repos and long traces
+ CLI workflow supports iterative debugging: run commands, inspect output, apply patches
+ Active release cadence with public release notes and security fixes
- Provider/model choice is primarily limited to Gemini, reducing flexibility for mixed stacks
- Quotas can become a bottleneck during long sessions or high-volume code generation
- MCP support exists but can be incomplete depending on server features (e.g., tools vs resources/prompts)
- Terminal-first UX can be less discoverable than IDE-native experiences
Gemini 3 9.0

"Gemini CLI is a premier open-source terminal agent that sets the standard for context management with its 1 million token window. Built by Google, it serves as both a powerful daily driver and a reference implementation for the Model Context Protocol (MCP), offering exceptional free-tier value and deep integration with the Gemini ecosystem."

+ Massive 1M+ token context window allows processing entire large repos at once
+ Native Model Context Protocol (MCP) support enables vast tool extensibility
+ Generous free tier (1,000 requests/day) for high-quality Gemini 3 models
+ Advanced agentic features including sub-agents and self-correction
- Strictly limited to Google's Gemini model family
- CLI-only interface may not suit developers who prefer visual IDEs
- Response verbosity can sometimes be higher than competing minimal CLIs

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Developers wanting the most generous free tier for AI-powered terminal coding with 1M token context"

Appears In

Claude CLI vs Gemini CLI vs Codex CLI