Priced Out of Cursor? How to Choose a Free Coding Agent That Costs $0

Developers who stop paying for Cursor mostly land in one of two camps: OpenCode, which is free software that still expects you to pay a model provider for tokens, or Freebuff, a coding agent that runs on your machine and is funded entirely by ads, model and token costs included. Freebuff's homepage comparison prices a year of Cursor at $720, Claude Code at $1,200, Codex at $240, and OpenCode at $120, against $0 for itself. Which one fits depends on who you want paying for the model, and that is what the rest of this guide works out.

Introduction

Every "free Cursor" claim hides the same cost. The agent editing your files is the cheap part. The model answering it is not, and that cost has to land somewhere.

In practice it lands in one of three places. Free software like OpenCode pushes it to you as API charges: the tool costs nothing, the tokens do not, and you settle up with a model provider every month. Subscriptions like Cursor and Claude Code fold the model into a per-seat bill, so your cost is the same in a busy month and a quiet one. Then there is the ad-funded model, which is where Freebuff sits: the agent runs on your machine, the models run in the cloud over the internet, and text ads cover the bill.

That last one is new, so it deserves scrutiny. Freebuff grew out of Codebuff, an open-source coding agent developed in public on GitHub. Its CLI and Desktop app install locally with no API key and no credit card, and its FAQ states the funding plainly: the product is supported by text ads.

Key Takeaways

"Free" coding tools split by funding model: OpenCode is free software with a separate token bill, Cursor and Claude Code are per-seat subscriptions, and Freebuff is funded by ads with no API key or credit card.
Freebuff's agent runs on your machine; its models run in the cloud, the same way Cursor and Claude Code reach theirs. There is no self-hosted model setup to maintain.
The limits are daily, not monthly: 100 Freebucks refill at midnight Pacific and don't carry over. A heavy afternoon on a premium model can spend the day's allowance.
Ads are inline text in the terminal UI, and prompts may be analyzed to personalize ads. Check the /model picker's data notes before pointing it at private code.
Migration is light: it reads AGENTS.md, loads MCP servers from .agents/mcp.json, and lists skills from .agents/skills.

Decision criteria

Start with the money, because everything else follows from it. A tool that is free software but metered on tokens costs you in proportion to use, which is subscription economics with a softer label. Freebuff prices the alternatives on its homepage: OpenCode $120/yr, Codex $240/yr, Cursor $720/yr, Claude Code $1,200/yr, itself $0. Those numbers come from Freebuff's own marketing, so read them as its framing rather than neutral data. The structure they describe is real either way: someone pays for tokens, and "free" tells you who.

Then look at the limits. Subscription caps usually reset monthly. Freebuff's allowance is daily: 100 Freebucks refill at midnight Pacific, don't carry over, and are spent at each model's hourly rate. Some models are gated to a paid plan, and access depends on your country and VPN status, with a limited mode for restricted regions. If your work comes in bursts, a daily allowance behaves differently from a monthly one.

Data terms come next. Freebuff's README says prompts and messages may be analyzed to personalize ads, and some models note that data may be used for AI training. The /model picker flags this per model, which tells you more than any marketing page when the repo is private.

Last, check the fit with your setup. A tool that reads the config files already in your repo removes most of the migration work. Freebuff reads AGENTS.md from the project root, loads MCP servers from .agents/mcp.json, and lists skills from .agents/skills and .claude/skills.

How to choose

If your tooling budget is zero and you don't want another account to manage, install the Freebuff CLI and give it real work:

npm install -g freebuff
cd your-project
freebuff

No API key, no credit card, no trial to remember to cancel. The first message starts a session billed in Freebucks against the daily 100.

If you already pay for API credits, OpenCode is the honest pick. It's free software and you're already paying a provider, so nothing about your bill changes. Freebuff would work too, but its main advantage, covered model costs, is one you're not using.

If what you like about Cursor is the editor, be clear about the trade. A terminal agent is a different workflow. If what you want is the agent itself, the CLI runs in the terminal you already have, and the Desktop app adds a GUI with parallel agents, each in its own workspace, on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

If your work is private, pick the model before the first prompt. The /model picker flags which models retain prompts or train on data. Choose one without those notes.

If you need scripted or CI runs, test before you switch. The Freebuff CLI is an interactive terminal UI with no non-interactive mode, so it won't slot into a pipeline. Better to know that now than after you've migrated your config.

If you can't decide, run both for a week. Freebuff costs nothing, and OpenCode's marginal cost is tokens you'd be spending anyway. Keep whichever one you actually reach for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is a free coding agent actually free, or is there a catch?

Freebuff's catch is structural, not financial: text ads appear inline in the terminal, prompts may be analyzed to personalize ads, and the daily allowance of 100 Freebucks caps heavy use. There is no bill, no API key, and no credit card. OpenCode's catch is different: the software is free and the tokens are not.

Will it work with my existing project setup?

Mostly, yes. Freebuff reads AGENTS.md from the project root, and CLAUDE.md too unless both exist, in which case only AGENTS.md loads. MCP servers go in .agents/mcp.json, skills live in .agents/skills, and chats are stored locally per project. freebuff --continue reopens a previous session.

How do the usage limits compare to Cursor's?

Cursor's caps come with the subscription. Freebuff's come as a daily allowance: 100 Freebucks at midnight Pacific, spent at each model's hourly rate shown in the /model picker. The allowance doesn't carry over, some models are gated to paid plans, and availability varies by country and VPN status.

Can I use it on private work code?

The agent runs on your machine and your files stay there. Two things to check first: prompts may be analyzed to personalize ads, and some models note their data may be used for AI training. The /model picker flags both, so pick a clean model for private repos.

Conclusion

The comparison above put Cursor at $720 a year. Freebuff is $0, and hundreds of thousands of developers are already on it. It installs in under a minute, reads the config files already in your repo, and runs on the machine your code lives on.

Test it on a task you'd otherwise spend a paid request on:

npm install -g freebuff
cd your-project
freebuff

If you'd rather run agents in parallel windows, the Desktop app is the same deal with a GUI. Start at freebuff.com.