Comparison
Aider vs Claude Code
Aider: Free terminal coding agent, with Git built in. Claude Code: Anthropic's coding agent, in your terminal and your editor.
| Aider | Claude Code | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 4.4 | 4.8 |
| Price | Free Free and open source (Apache 2.0). You only pay for the API of the model you use, or nothing if you run it locally with Ollama. | Paid Included in Claude's paid plans: Pro $17/month annual ($20 monthly), Max $100 and $200/month. Teams from $20/seat. Also available via API. |
| Free plan | ||
| API available | ||
| Open source | ||
| In Spanish | ||
| No watermark | — | — |
| Platforms | Windows · Mac · Linux | Windows · Mac · Linux · Web |
Aider or Claude Code?
Both are terminal agents that work on your repository, but the business model separates them. Claude Code requires a subscription from day one and in exchange gives you the most capable agent for long tasks across large repositories. Aider is free and open source: you pay only for the tokens of whichever model you connect, or nothing if you run it locally with Ollama.
Choose Aider if…
You do not want a subscription, prefer to choose the model yourself, or care that each change lands as a reviewable commit.
Choose Claude Code if…
You work on large repositories with long tasks and want the most capable agent with nothing to set up.
Aider
- Free and open source, no subscription
- Every AI edit is a reviewable Git commit
- Works with more than 75 providers, including local models
- You have to bring your own API key and pay for tokens
- No graphical interface: everything happens in the terminal
Claude Code
- Understands whole repositories and works across many files at once
- One subscription covers Claude web, desktop, mobile and Claude Code
- Anthropic doubled the usage limits in May 2026
- No free plan: it requires a paid subscription from day one
- Once weekly limits run out it can switch to per-token billing
The differences that actually matter
One lets you pick the model, the other brings its own
Aider is model-agnostic: you connect whichever API you like and pay for what you use, so you can run a cheap model for mechanical work and an expensive one for the hard parts. Claude Code is tied to Anthropic's models and is billed by subscription or API. Less flexibility, zero configuration.
How they touch your repository
Aider works with Git explicitly: it makes a commit per change, which makes reverting trivial when it gets things wrong. Claude Code operates more autonomously across the project, runs commands and chains several steps before stopping. One gives fine control, the other more reach per instruction.
Real cost depending on how you work
Aider is free as software and you only pay for tokens, which is very cheap for occasional use and expensive if you delegate long tasks. A Claude Code subscription costs the same whether you use it heavily or not, so it pays off the other way round. Look at your usage pattern before the price.
Frequently asked questions
Is Aider completely free?
The software is, it is open source. What you pay for is the API of whichever model you connect, and that spend depends entirely on what you ask: a few small fixes cost cents, while a multi-file refactor can run to several euros in one session.
Which suits me if I never want to leave the terminal?
Both live in the terminal, so the question is not that but how much autonomy you want to grant. Aider if you prefer approving change by change with Git history as your safety net; Claude Code if you would rather describe a task and have it solved end to end before showing you the result.