The best-known coding agents of 2026: price, plans and background runs
| Tool | What it is | Pricing (official) | Subscriptions or keys it can use | Runs in background |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Anthropic's coding agent for the terminal, IDE, desktop and web | Pro $20 a month ($17 billed annually); Max $100; Ultra $200 | Claude Pro, Max or Ultra sign-in, or an Anthropic API key | Yes: cloud sessions keep running after you close your laptop (paid plans, claude.ai sign-in) |
| Codex | OpenAI's coding agent: CLI, IDE extension, desktop and web app, Codex cloud | Limited in ChatGPT Free and Go ($8); Plus $20; Pro $100, $200 or $500 a month | ChatGPT plan sign-in, or an OpenAI API key (no cloud features) | Yes: Codex cloud, on Plus and higher plans |
| Cursor | AI code editor with Cloud Agents and a CLI | Free; Plus $8 (Grok models only); Premium $30; Super $100; Ultra $200 a month | A Cursor or X Subscription plan; your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure or Bedrock key for chat models | Yes: Cloud Agents, on Premium and higher |
| GitHub Copilot | GitHub's coding assistant: IDE, Copilot CLI, Copilot app and cloud agent | Free; Pro $10; $39 plan; Max $100 a month; Business $19 per seat | A Copilot plan, billed in AI credits; Copilot CLI also takes your own provider keys | Yes: cloud agent; sessions on GitHub Actions run at most 59 minutes |
| Devin | Cognition's AI software engineer: Devin Desktop and Devin Cloud | Free; Pro $20; Max $200 a month; Teams $80 a month plus $40 per seat | A Devin plan | Yes: Devin Cloud, on Pro and higher |
| Google Antigravity | Google's agent-first development platform: app, IDE and CLI | $0 for individuals with basic weekly rate limits; higher limits with Google AI Pro and Ultra | A Google account, Google AI Pro or Ultra, or Gemini Enterprise | Not documented on its pricing page |
| opencode | Open-source (MIT) coding agent for the terminal, desktop and IDE | Free; optional OpenCode Go $10 or Go Plus $40 a month | ChatGPT Plus/Pro, GitHub Copilot or GitLab Duo sign-in, or API keys for 75+ providers (Claude by API key only) | No hosted runner documented; runs on your computer |
| Cline | Open-source coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, the CLI and desktop | Free for individual developers; you pay for inference | Your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and other API keys, or the Cline provider | Yes: Cline Cloud keeps working after you close your laptop |
| Grok Build | xAI's coding agent for the terminal and headless runs | Limited on X Subscription Free; included from Plus at $8 a month | X sign-in, or an xAI API key | No: runs on your computer |
| Reason | Always-on teammate and coding agent: its own cloud computer per Session, memory, Loops and Slack | Pro $50 and Max $200 a month; no free plan | ChatGPT, Claude, SuperGrok or X Premium+ and GitHub Copilot sign-ins, or your own API keys | Yes: Sessions run on Reason's cloud computers with your laptop closed |
Prices and plans from each vendor's official pricing page or docs, checked Nov 5, 2026; US list prices. Sources are listed at the end of the page.
Pick a coding agent for your team
Start from the benchmarks, not the end
Public scores tell you which harness and model do well on a fixed set of tasks. They don't tell you how an agent works on your repository, with your tests and your conventions.
Run the same three tasks in your top two
Choose a bug fix, a small feature and a review you already know the answers to, and compare the diffs, the time and the cost under each plan.
Open Reason on the web or the Mac app
Sign in at reasonmachines.com, or download the Reason app for macOS from reasonmachines.com/download. Both open the same Sessions. Sending work to Reason needs a Pro or Max plan.
Switch the model and compare
Start a second Session on the same branch with a model from another provider, and ask it to review the first diff. Each Session shows the model and account it ran on.
Ranked by Artificial Analysis Coding Agent Index v2.0
| Rank | Agent and model | Index v2.0 | Cost per task |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Code, Claude Opus 5.5 (Max) | 62 | $11.42 |
| 2 | Codex, GPT-6 Astra | 55 | $7.04 |
| 3 | Grok Build, Grok 4.7 | 47 | Not read |
As listed on Artificial Analysis's comparison pages, checked Nov 2, 2026. Version 2.0 (October 2026) combines FrontierCode v1.1, Terminal-Bench 4.0 and SWE-Atlas-QnA-AA; its leaderboard renders in the browser, so we list only the entries we could read, and Claude Code also scores 59 on Sonnet 5.5 and 58 on Fable 5.1.
Terminal-Bench 4.0, top agent entries
| Rank | Agent | Model | Resolution rate | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Claude Code | Opus 5.5 (max) | 64.8% | Sep 22, 2026 |
| 2 | Claude Code | Sonnet 5.5 (max) | 61.8% | Sep 28, 2026 |
| 3 | Codex | GPT-6 Astra (max) | 58.2% | Sep 3, 2026 |
| 4 | Codex | GPT-6.1 Sol (max) | 58.2% | Sep 29, 2026 |
Terminal-Bench 4.0 has 66 tasks. The official leaderboard at tbench.ai renders client-side, so these rows are as published on Snorkel's mirror of it, checked Nov 2, 2026.
The rest, by what they're best for
| Agent | Best for | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Staying in an AI editor; Cloud Agents and Bugbot for background work | Free; Plus $8; Premium $30 a month and up |
| Devin | A teammate you tag in Slack or Teams with its own workspace | Free; Pro $20; Max $200 a month |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent | Teams that live in GitHub issues and pull requests | Paid plans from $10 a month |
| Jules | Trying an asynchronous cloud agent for free | 15 tasks a day free |
| opencode, Aider, Cline, OpenHands | Open source, any model, local models included | Free; you pay your model provider |
| Reason | An always-on teammate that codes: cloud computer, memory, Loops, Slack, any connected model | Pro $50, Max $200 a month |
Reason's own result is on the earlier Coding Agent Index v1.5: on GPT-6 Astra, Reason 1.1 scored 65.1 against Codex's 62.5 on the same tasks and graders. It's Reason's benchmark of its own harness, reproducible with its published runner, and not comparable with v2.0, so it isn't in the ranked table.
What people on Reddit say
In a small r/GithubCopilot thread from June 2026 (18 replies) asking which assistant developers actually use, the top reply likes both Claude Code and Codex, several say they moved to Codex for its limits, a few call Cursor the default answer, and several use Copilot because it's the tool their employer approves. Others mention opencode with DeepSeek and Antigravity for lower cost.
In an r/LocalLLaMA thread from April 2026 (over 150 replies) asking for a Claude Code-style agent for local models, many replies recommend opencode as the most plug-and-play option, several prefer pi for its small system prompt on consumer hardware, and others suggest Cline, Kilo Code or Roo Code in VS Code. A few point out that Claude Code itself can talk to a local model once its base URL is set.
Reason: all your AI subscriptions in one coding agent
Use the subscriptions you already pay for (ChatGPT, Claude, SuperGrok/X Premium+, Copilot) or your own API keys in one coding agent. Hit your limit and Reason keeps going on your other connected accounts or Reason credits.
Reason is an always-on teammate that is also a coding agent: its own cloud computer per Session, memory across Sessions, Loops and Slack, with the model picked per task. Work that runs on your own subscription or API key is billed by that provider and keeps its limits; Reason's plans are Pro at $50 and Max at $200 a month, with no free plan, and it isn't open source.
Sources (checked Nov 2, 2026; table and FAQs checked Nov 5, 2026)
- Artificial Analysis: Coding Agent Index
- Artificial Analysis: coding agent methodology (v2.0)
- Artificial Analysis: Claude Code vs Codex
- Artificial Analysis: Claude Code vs Grok Build
- Terminal-Bench 4.0 leaderboard
- Snorkel: Terminal-Bench 4.0 leaderboard mirror
- Cursor: pricing
- Devin: pricing
- GitHub Docs: Copilot plans
- Jules docs: usage limits
- anomalyco/opencode on GitHub (MIT)
- Aider-AI/aider on GitHub (Apache-2.0)
- cline/cline on GitHub (Apache-2.0)
- OpenHands/OpenHands on GitHub (MIT)
- Reason: Reason 1.1 Coding Agent Index results (Oct 10, 2026)
- Reason benchmark repository and methodology
- Anthropic: Claude plans and pricing
- Anthropic: what is the Ultra plan?
- Claude Code docs: Claude Code on the web
- OpenAI: Codex pricing
- Cursor docs: API keys
- Cursor docs: Cloud Agents
- GitHub Docs: about Copilot cloud agent
- Google Antigravity: pricing
- OpenCode Go
- opencode docs: providers
- Cline: pricing
- Cline Cloud
- xAI: Grok Build overview
- xAI: pricing
- Reason docs: plans
- r/GithubCopilot: Which AI coding assistant are developers actually using in 2026? (Jun 2026)
- r/LocalLLaMA: What is the best coding agent (CLI) like Claude Code for local development? (Apr 2026)
Questions
What is the best coding agent in 2026?
On public benchmarks, Claude Code: on Opus 5.5 it scores 62 on Artificial Analysis's Coding Agent Index v2.0 and 64.8% on Terminal-Bench 4.0, ahead of Codex on GPT-6 Astra (55 and 58.2%).
How should I choose a coding agent?
Start with the plan you already pay for and the model you trust, then run the same few tasks you know the answers to in your top two. Benchmarks narrow the list; your own repository decides.
Which coding agents are free?
opencode, Aider, Cline and OpenHands are free and open source. Codex is included in ChatGPT Free and Go, Jules allows 15 tasks a day, and Cursor and Devin have free tiers.
Why isn't Reason ranked first?
Because its published result is on Coding Agent Index v1.5, not v2.0. On v1.5 with GPT-6 Astra, Reason 1.1 scored 65.1 against Codex's 62.5; ranking it against v2.0 scores wouldn't be fair.
What happens when an agent hits its usage limit?
Claude Code, Codex and Cursor stop or offer paid usage at their plan's limits. Hit your limit? Reason keeps going on your other connected accounts or Reason credits.
Is Reason affiliated with these vendors?
No. Reason is built by Reason Machines and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, OpenAI, Anysphere, Cognition, GitHub, Google or xAI. Facts about their products come from their own pages, linked under Sources.
Is GitHub Copilot free?
There's a Free plan; Pro is $10 a month, the next plan $39 and Max $100, with chat and agent work billed in AI credits.
Is Codex included with ChatGPT Plus?
Yes. Plus ($20 a month) includes Codex on the web, in the CLI, the IDE extension and iOS; Free and Go get limited Codex in the desktop app.
Which open-source coding agent works with any model?
opencode connects to 75+ providers and local models, is MIT-licensed, and can sign in with a ChatGPT Plus or Pro plan or GitHub Copilot.