I've been a die-hard Cursor fan for months now. I use it daily for building UserJot with Claude Sonnet and Opus, and honestly, it's been a game-changer for my productivity.

But lately, all I've been hearing about is Claude Code. My Twitter feed is full of developers raving about it. Friends are switching over. Even my most stubborn vim-using colleagues are talking about how the $200 Max plan is "actually worth it" for the 20x usage limits.

And you know what? Cursor seems worried. They just rolled out new pricing tiers with higher limits, clearly trying to stop the bleeding. The momentum has been undeniable – Claude Code has been eating everyone's lunch in the terminal-based AI coding space.

I was literally planning to give Claude Code a try this week. Then Google dropped a bomb.

Enter Gemini CLI: Google's "Hold My Beer" Moment

Today, Google announced Gemini CLI – and the pricing is absolutely wild:

• 60 requests per minute
• 1,000 requests per day
• Completely free

For context, Claude's Pro plan ($20/mo) gives you roughly 10-40 prompts every 5 hours. The Max plan at $200/mo gets you 200-800 prompts in the same timeframe.

Google is basically saying: "Why pay $200/month when you can get more for free?"

It's Not Just About Price

Here's the thing – this isn't some half-baked tool Google threw together. Gemini CLI runs on Gemini 2.5 Pro, which has been quietly becoming developers' favorite model. The 1 million token context window means you can throw entire codebases at it without breaking a sweat.

They've also made it properly open source (Apache 2.0), integrated it with Google Search for real-time data, and built in support for MCP (Model Context Protocol) – basically everything Claude Code has, minus the price tag.

What This Really Means

Google is clearly playing catch-up here. While Anthropic has been steadily building a loyal developer following with Claude Code, Google's been watching from the sidelines. Now they're using their classic playbook: enter the market late, but with such aggressive pricing that it forces everyone to reconsider.

The timing is interesting too. Just as Claude Code was gaining serious momentum with their integrated Pro/Max plans, Google drops this free alternative. It's the same strategy they used with Gmail vs Hotmail, Chrome vs Firefox, and countless other products.

My Take

Will I switch from Cursor to Gemini CLI? Maybe not immediately – I'm pretty happy with my current setup. But that free tier is tempting.

What's fascinating is watching AI pricing collapse in real-time. These models have been heavily subsidized by VCs, often operating at a loss. Now with open-source LLMs getting better and developers building tool alternatives that work with any model, the competition is fierce.

Just look at the last few months: Cursor's new plans, Claude's Max tier, and now Google's free offering. It's a race to the bottom in AI pricing, and developers are winning.

For those already paying for Claude Code, Google just made that monthly expense look pretty questionable.

The real winner here? Us developers. Competition like this pushes everyone to improve their products and pricing. Whether you stick with Claude, switch to Gemini, or keep using Cursor, we're all getting better tools at better prices.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go try out Gemini CLI. For science, of course.

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P.S. - If you're building a SaaS and need a way to collect user feedback without the enterprise pricing, check out UserJot. We built it specifically for developers who want a simple feedback tool that doesn't break the bank. Kind of like what Google just did with Gemini CLI.