Google killed Gemini CLI's free tier — the free coding agents that are left

Disclosure up front: I'm the author of OB-1, one of the tools below, and it's listed first on the page I link at the bottom. That's a conflict of interest, not a ranking — read the rest before taking my word for anything.

Context: on 18 June 2026 Google stopped serving Gemini CLI requests for free-tier, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra individual accounts. A paid Google AI subscription doesn't get you back in. API-key auth and enterprise Gemini Code Assist licences still work, and the repo itself is alive — still Apache-2.0, still committing. Google is pushing people to Antigravity CLI, which is free to use but closed source.

If you were relying on that free tier, the realistic options:

Actually free, no key, no account: OB-1 (mine — Apache-2.0, in-process router over keyless free tiers, parallel subagents, best-of-N, self-correction loop up to 3 rounds) and Freebuff (Apache-2.0, ad-funded, curated catalog).

Free client, you supply the models: Pi (MIT, needs /login or a key, intentionally no subagents or plan mode), OpenCode (Zen is $20 PAYG with some free models, else BYO key), Aider (BYO key, most mature of the lot).

The honest caveat on mine: it depends on third-party free tiers, so it carries the same durability risk Google just demonstrated. The mitigation is portability — it runs in your process, providers are swappable, and it takes your own keys, endpoint, or local models.

Writeup with sources: https://overbrilliant.com/gemini-cli-free-tier/