Claude Code
Anthropic's coding agent for the terminal, IDE and desktop
Profile researched and drafted with AI assistance from published sources; edited and published by NorwegianSpark SA (editorial policy).
Official website: claude.ai/code
About Claude Code
Claude Code is Anthropic's coding agent. It works on a whole project — from your terminal, and also from a desktop app, VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, the web and Slack, according to Anthropic's documentation — reading files, editing them, running commands and tests, and checking the results before it moves on. Anthropic's pricing page (read 16 October 2026) says Claude Code is included in all paid Claude plans: Pro at $20 a month, or $17 a month on an annual subscription billed $200 up front; Max from $100 a month; and Team, whose standard seats at $20 a month billed annually ($25 monthly) include it, with premium seats at $100 ($125). The free Claude plan does not include it; a Console account on pay-as-you-go API credits, or access through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud or Microsoft Foundry, are the other routes. Three features make it workable day to day. A CLAUDE.md project file is read at the start of every session, and Anthropic suggests keeping it under about 200 lines. Checkpoints are saved before each prompt and can be rewound with Esc twice or /rewind — though they do not track changes made by shell commands and are no substitute for Git. And permission modes, switched with Shift+Tab, decide what it may do without asking. The limits: it is slower than autocomplete for one-line edits, usage on subscription plans depends on the plan, and its output still needs a reviewer — Anthropic itself says human review remains crucial for coding agents. Cursor on this site is the editor-first alternative with tab completion, GitHub Copilot sits inside the IDE you already use, and Devin works asynchronously on tickets. Verdict: the strongest choice here for multi-file work in an existing codebase — start on Pro, write a CLAUDE.md, and commit before every large task.
Best For
Developers working in existing codebases who want an agent for multi-file changes, refactors, tests and debugging. Not for free-plan users, for real-time autocomplete while typing, or for teams that would merge its changes without review.
Key Features
- Included in Claude Pro, Max, Team and Enterprise
- Pro $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually ($200)
- Reads, edits, runs commands and tests across a project
- CLAUDE.md project memory; /init writes a first version
- Checkpoints you can rewind with Esc twice or /rewind
- Terminal, desktop app, VS Code, JetBrains, web and Slack
Category
Coding →How Claude Code compares in Coding
The 8 coding agents we track, listed alphabetically. 4 of the 8 publish a free tier. Prices are the vendor’s own published starting figure and change without notice — check the vendor’s pricing page before committing.
The bar under a price compares that plan with the dearest monthly plan in this table (3 of the 8 rows are flat monthly prices). Custom, per-seat, per-usage and annual prices are not on the same scale, so they carry no bar — a missing bar does not mean cheaper.
| Tool | Starting price | Pricing model | Free tier |
|---|---|---|---|
 Claude Code (this page) | $17/mo (Pro, annual) | Included in paid Claude plans | No |
 Cohere | Quote (free trial key) | Per token / enterprise | Yes |
 Cursor | $8/mo (Plus) | Freemium, usage-based | Yes |
 Devin | $500/mo | Subscription | No |
 GitHub Copilot | $10/mo | Freemium | Yes |
 Replit Agent | $20/mo | Subscription + usage | No |
| Tabnine | Not published | Now part of Tricentis | No |
| Windsurf (Devin Desktop) | Free (Pro from $20/mo) | Freemium | Yes |
