What AI coding tools actually cost to work with all day.
Not lab benchmarks — the real math: when a $20 plan dies, what hides behind the pricing page, and what a full working day of agent-driven coding really burns. Every number carries a source and a “data as of” date.
10 tools scored
2 Best Value picks
freshness: 2026-09-16
Price ↔ ToolScore
Up-left wins: strong score, low monthly cost.
Up-left = cheap & strong. Green ≥ 80 · blue ≥ 65 · amber ≥ 50 · red < 50. Click a dot for the full breakdown.
The leaderboard
| Tool | ToolScore↓ | Price | BYOK | Limits | Value | Speed | Privacy | Quality | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aider Paul Gauthier | 84 | $0OSS | ✓ | 9 | 10 | 8 | 10 | 8 | |
| OpenCode SST | 80 | $0OSS | ✓ | 8 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 8 | |
| Gemini CLI Google | 77.5 | Free tier/mo | ✓ | 9 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 8 | |
| Continue Continue Dev, Inc. | 77 | $0OSS | ✓ | 8 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 7 | |
| Cline Cline Bot Inc. | 76.5 | $0OSS | ✓ | 6 | 9 | 7 | 9 | 8 | |
| Claude Code Anthropic | 73 | $20/mo | ✓ | 5 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 10 | |
| GitHub Copilot GitHub (Microsoft) | 71.5 | $10/mo | — | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 8 | |
| OpenAI Codex OpenAI | 71 | $20/mo | ✓ | 6 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 9 | |
| Windsurf Cognition | 63 | $15/mo | — | 6 | 8 | 8 | 6 | 7 | |
| Cursor Anysphere | 62.5 | $20/mo | — | 5 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 9 |
Pillar scores 0–10 · see methodology. “Lowest token burn” = tools whose limits hold up a full working day; “Best value” = most output per dollar.
ℹ️ How the ToolScore works
10 criteria × 10 points: price/value, token & rate limits, speed, privacy, BYOK, output quality,
stability, setup ease, billing transparency, support. Full methodology →
⚠️ Verification in progress
Numbers marked unverified are editorial snapshots awaiting our
automated fact-check pipeline. Nothing publishes as “verified” until a source confirms it.
How verification works →