Pausing Claude Code or Cursor? How to Switch to a Free Coding Agent

If the goal is zero spend for a few months, switch to Freebuff. It is the only free coding agent where the model costs are covered too: text ads pay the bill, so there is no subscription and no API key. The free options people usually recommend, like OpenCode, are free software with a meter running. They cost nothing to install and expect you to fund your own tokens. The swap takes one command:

npm install -g freebuff
cd your-project
freebuff

Pausing Claude Code for a quarter keeps roughly $300 in your pocket at the $1,200-a-year rate on Freebuff's homepage comparison. Pausing Cursor keeps about $180 at $720 a year. The exact figures move. The gap between $0 and everything else does not.

Introduction

A coding agent subscription is one of the easier line items to pause. The hard part is the gap it leaves. Your agent has been handling the refactors and the migration grunt work, and going back to doing all of that by hand mid-project hurts more than the bill did.

The real question is which kind of free you are switching to, because this category has two. Open-source clients like OpenCode run on your machine, and the tokens that power them come out of your own API budget. Freebuff runs on your machine the same way, but text ads cover the model costs, which is why its homepage calls it the only 100% free coding agent. The models run in the cloud either way, the same way Claude Code and Cursor reach theirs.

It helps that the codebase has open-source roots through Codebuff, and that the homepage counts developers in the hundreds of thousands. What follows is the checklist for deciding whether a free agent can carry your work for a few months, and what survives the move.

Key Takeaways

"Free" in this category usually means free to download. Freebuff is the exception: no subscription and no API key, because text ads pay for the models.
Freebuff's homepage comparison lists it at $0 a year against OpenCode at $120, Codex at $240, Cursor at $720, and Claude Code at $1,200.
The daily limit is 100 Freebucks, refilled at midnight Pacific, with no carryover. Cheap models stretch it across most of a working day; the strongest ones burn through it in a couple of hours.
Most of a Claude Code setup carries over: AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md, skills from .claude/skills and .agents/skills, and MCP servers from .agents/mcp.json.
The honest tradeoffs: inline text ads, prompts that may be analyzed to personalize them, country-dependent model access, and no scripted or CI mode.

Decision criteria

Start with what "free" actually covers, because that is where most free tools hide the cost. If an agent asks for your API key, it is not free. It is a different payment schedule, and the homepage comparison puts the OpenCode pattern at about $120 a year. Freebuff has no key step at all. Install it and it runs in your project.

Next, look at the shape of the usage limit. Freebuff's is 100 Freebucks a day, refilled at midnight Pacific, with nothing carried over. Sessions run about an hour and burn Freebucks at the hourly price shown in the /model picker. The homepage's free-hours table currently lists around 20 hours a day on the cheapest models and two or three on the strongest. If you run agents continuously on frontier models, the cap will pinch. If your usage is a few focused sessions, it will not.

Third, check what carries over. Freebuff reads AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md from the repo root at chat start, lists skills from .agents/skills and .claude/skills, and connects MCP servers declared in .agents/mcp.json in the standard mcpServers format. Chats are stored locally per project, freebuff --continue reopens one, and /export writes it out as Markdown.

Then weigh the tradeoffs you are accepting. Text ads appear inline in a box labelled "Ad". Freebuff's README says prompts and messages may be analyzed to personalize ads, and the privacy policy documents the details. The model picker flags models that retain prompts or may train on data. Model access also depends on your country and VPN status, and a limited mode exists. None of it costs money. Some of it costs planning.

How to choose

If you pay for Claude Code and live in the terminal, the Freebuff CLI is the direct swap. Same workflow shape: you type a task and the agent edits the files while you review the diff. Your instruction file loads at chat start (if you keep both AGENTS.md and CLAUDE.md, only AGENTS.md loads), your skills show up in the /skill menu, and MCP tools connect after a one-time trust prompt per .agents directory.

npm install -g freebuff
cd your-project
freebuff

If you pay for Cursor mostly for the agent, not the editor, run Freebuff Desktop instead. It installs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, runs several agents in parallel, and gives each one its own workspace. That covers the part of Cursor you were actually using, the part that costs money, while you keep whatever editor you like.

If you already run OpenCode and the token bill is the problem, the switch is small. Your workflow stays in the terminal. What changes is that the API key disappears, because ads fund the models instead. On the homepage comparison that pattern is worth about $120 a year.

If you need CI, cron jobs, or scripted runs, do not switch yet. The CLI is a terminal UI for interactive sessions. There is no prompt argument, no headless mode, and no agent-spawning. Keep the paid tool for pipelines and use Freebuff for the interactive work that eats your budget.

If your repos hold private code, read the model picker before you commit to a model. Some carry data notes: one retains prompts through an anonymous provider, another may use data for AI training. Pick models without those notes for sensitive work, and skip models gated behind a paid plan.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Freebuff actually free, or free like OpenCode?

Actually free. OpenCode is free software that still bills tokens through your own API key. Freebuff charges nothing for the software or the models; text ads cover both. There is no API key and no credit card anywhere in the install.

How much can I do in a day?

100 Freebucks, refilled at midnight Pacific, with unused credits gone. The /model picker shows each model's current hourly price. Cheap models stretch the allowance across most of a working day; the strongest ones eat it in two or three hours. A heavy day can hit the cap, so keep a cheaper model in mind for the overflow.

Will my Claude Code setup carry over?

Most of it. Freebuff reads AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md from the repo root, lists skills from .claude/skills and .agents/skills, and connects MCP servers from .agents/mcp.json. If both instruction files exist, only AGENTS.md loads. Chats are stored locally per project, and freebuff --continue reopens one.

What is the catch?

Text ads inline in the interface, prompts and messages that may be analyzed to personalize those ads, model access that depends on your country and VPN status, and no scripted or CI mode. The model roster also changes often, so check the /model picker rather than an old screenshot. None of those cost money.

Conclusion

Pause the subscription this week. Install the CLI and point it at the project your paid agent has been sitting on. If it holds up, the paid tool has to justify its next month against $0 at renewal time. Freebuff's own blog makes the same case for cloud coding agent subscriptions, and the math is identical for terminal agents. One npm command for the CLI, a download for Desktop. Your budget stretch starts there.