clixadA free GitHub Copilot alternative for agent tasks
Copilot Free is built around the editor: suggestions as you type, counted by the month, with a limited amount of chat and agent use on top. Clixad is built around the agent: you describe a change in the terminal, it edits and runs the tests, and five models are free every day.
- 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.
Copilot Free and Clixad, side by side
GitHub's side comes from its Copilot plans page, read on 29 September 2026.
| Copilot Free | Clixad | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $0. Pro is $10, Pro+ $39 and Max $100 a month | $0. One-time credit packs from $5, optional |
| Free allowance | "2000 completions and 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits)" | 24,000 credits of usage a day on five models, and 25,000 credits on signup |
| Refills | Monthly | Daily, at 00:00 UTC |
| Suggestions as you type | 2,000 a month | None |
| Agent mode and CLI | "Free plan supports CLI and agent mode." | A terminal agent is the whole product |
| Paid usage | GitHub AI Credits, "1 AI credit = $0.01 USD" | Credits metered on tokens, 100,000 to one US dollar of list value |
| Advertising | None | A marked ad line while a model call runs, off with CLIXAD_SPONSOR=0 |
A month of requests next to a day of tokens
The two allowances are counted in different units, and there is no exchange rate between them. Copilot counts completions and chat requests. Clixad counts the tokens a request actually uses. What one chat request is worth depends on how much of your code it reads, which is why a request is not a unit of work.
What can be said is how far the Clixad side goes. A turn of 20,000 input and 1,500 output tokens costs 484 credits on DeepSeek V4 Flash, the model a new account starts on, so the daily allowance is about 49 turns there, every day. On GPT-5 Nano, the cheapest model, it is about 100. The free turns sit inside a daily budget shared by everybody and can end sooner on a busy day, and past them the same models cost credits, earned on completion of an offer in a browser tab or bought. A screenout, where a survey ends part way with nothing or a small bonus, is the most common outcome of starting a survey.
When Copilot is the better choice
If you mostly want suggestions as you type. That is Copilot Free's generous half, and Clixad has nothing like it.
If you are a student, a teacher or an open source maintainer. GitHub's plans page mentions access to Copilot Pro "through an existing verified OSS, student, faculty, or MVP account". Check whether you qualify before you pay anybody, us included.
If you want everything inside your editor and on GitHub. Copilot works in the editors and on github.com. Clixad works in a terminal.
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 turns them off. Copilot shows none.
Using both
They do not compete for the same keystrokes. Copilot Free can keep suggesting lines in your editor while Clixad takes the multi-file tasks in a terminal beside it. The allowances are separate accounts, so using one does not spend the other. Clixad signs in with GitHub too, as a separate app with its own account.
FAQ
Is there a free alternative to GitHub Copilot?
For agent work in the terminal, Clixad is one: no API key, no subscription, and five models free up to 24,000 credits of usage a day. For suggestions as you type in an editor, Clixad has no equivalent, and Copilot Free is the better fit.
How much does GitHub Copilot Free include?
GitHub's plans page says Copilot Free users are limited to 2000 completions and 50 chat requests, including Copilot Edits, and that the Free plan supports the CLI and agent mode.
Can students get GitHub Copilot for free?
GitHub's plans page mentions access to Copilot Pro through a verified OSS, student, faculty or MVP account. If you qualify, that is worth checking before you look anywhere else.
Does Clixad do inline code completion?
No. Clixad is a terminal agent: you describe the change, it reads and edits files and runs commands, and it asks before each edit.
Read next
Sources
- GitHub, Copilot plans and pricing, for Free at $0, Pro at $10, Pro+ at $39 and Max at $100 a month, 2,000 inline suggestions a month on Free, "GitHub Copilot Free users are limited to 2000 completions and 50 chat requests (including Copilot Edits).", "Free plan supports CLI and agent mode.", "1 AI credit = $0.01 USD", and Copilot Pro access "through an existing verified OSS, student, faculty, or MVP account". 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.