clixadA free Cursor alternative for the terminal
Cursor calls itself a coding agent, and it comes as a desktop app, a CLI and cloud agents. Clixad is only the terminal part: an agent that edits your project and runs commands, beside whatever editor you already use. It needs no subscription and no API key, and its free allowance is a published number.
- No API key
- No monthly subscription
- Free models every day
npm install -g clixad
Node 20 or newer. Then clixad login signs you in with GitHub, and clixad in a project opens the agent.
Cursor and Clixad, side by side
Cursor's side comes from its pricing page and its own site, read on 29 September 2026.
| Cursor | Clixad | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Hobby: "No credit card required", "Limited Agent requests", "Access to Composer" | 24,000 credits of usage a day on five models, and 25,000 credits on signup |
| Size of the free allowance | Not published | Published, and /model shows the turns left on each free model |
| Paid plans | Individual from $20 a month, as Pro, Pro+ or Ultra | None. One-time credit packs from $5, optional |
| Where it runs | A desktop app, a CLI and cloud agents | Your terminal only |
| Models | "Access to frontier models" on Individual | 13 models from five vendors on one balance, each priced per token |
| Advertising | None | A marked ad line while a model call runs, off with CLIXAD_SPONSOR=0 |
The free part, in numbers
Cursor's Hobby plan lists "Limited Agent requests" and no figure behind them. Clixad's free allowance is 24,000 credits of usage per account per day, spent on any of five models. In turns of 20,000 input and 1,500 output tokens:
| Model | Credits per turn | Free turns a day |
|---|---|---|
| GPT-5 Nano | 240 | 100 |
| Gemini 2.5 Flash-Lite | 390 | 61 |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | 484 | 49 |
| Gemini 3.5 Flash-Lite | 1,463 | 16 |
| Kimi K2.5 | 2,352 | 10 |
The allowance is one pool for all five, it resets at 00:00 UTC, and it sits inside a daily budget shared by everybody, so on a busy day the free turns can end sooner. Past it the same models cost credits, which you earn by completing an offer in a browser tab, credited on completion, or buy in one-time packs. A screenout is the most common outcome of starting a survey, and it pays nothing or a small bonus.
When Cursor is the better choice
If you want AI inside your editor. Clixad has no editor and does not complete code as you type. It works in a terminal, and shows each change as a diff there before it writes anything.
If you use cloud agents or automated review. Cursor's Individual plan lists cloud agents and Bugbot. Clixad runs on your machine and nowhere else.
If you already pay for Cursor and use it every day. A plan you use daily is usually a better deal than per-token credits, which carry a 1.5 markup over provider cost when you buy them.
If you want no advertising. While a model call runs, Clixad can show a line marked
Ad, and up to two more places marked the same way. Nothing you type takes part in choosing them,
and CLIXAD_SPONSOR=0 stops every request for them. Cursor shows none.
Using both
Clixad is a terminal program, so it runs in Cursor's integrated terminal as it runs anywhere else. Some people keep the editor they like for reading and small changes and hand the multi-file jobs to an agent in the terminal beside it. The allowances are separate, so a day that runs through Hobby's limits still has Clixad's free turns in it, and the other way round.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to Cursor?
Clixad is one if you work in a terminal. It needs no subscription and no API key, five models are free up to 24,000 credits of usage a day, and it runs beside any editor, Cursor included. It has no editor of its own.
Does Cursor have a free plan?
Yes. Cursor's Hobby plan is free and lists "No credit card required", "Limited Agent requests" and "Access to Composer". The pricing page does not say how many requests the limit allows.
Does Clixad complete code as I type?
No. Clixad is a terminal agent: you describe a change, it reads and edits the files and runs commands, and it shows each edit as a diff before writing it.
Can I run Clixad inside Cursor?
Yes. Clixad is a terminal program, so it runs in Cursor's integrated terminal the same way it runs in any other.
Read next
Sources
- Cursor, Pricing, for Hobby at no cost with "No credit card required", "Limited Agent requests" and "Access to Composer", Individual from $20 a month in Pro, Pro+ and Ultra tiers, "Access to frontier models", "Cloud agents" and Bugbot. Read 29 September 2026.
- Cursor, cursor.com, for "Cursor is your coding agent for building ambitious software." and its desktop app, and Cursor CLI, for running agents in the terminal. Read 29 September 2026.
- Every Clixad figure:
packages/pricing(creditsForUsage,signupBonusCredits,freeTierDailyCreditsPerUser,FREE_MODEL_IDS,maxAdRewardUsdPerDay,CREDIT_PACKS), over the model catalogue read from OpenRouter on 27 September 2026, recomputed by the test beside this page. A turn is 20,000 input and 1,500 output tokens,FREE_TURN_USAGE, the size the/modelpicker estimates with.