Gemini CLI

About

Gemini CLI is Google's open-source terminal agent for working with Gemini models, published at github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli under the Apache 2.0 licence. Its status changed in 2026. Google announced on 19 May 2026 that it was transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI, and a maintainer notice on 18 June 2026 says Gemini CLI stopped serving requests for Google AI Pro, Google AI Ultra and free tier individual accounts. As of November 2026, Google's announcement and maintainer notice say access continues for Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise licence holders and for API key authentication. It belongs with the terminal agents on our best AI coding assistant page and our AI coding assistants collection. What changed in 2026 • 19 May 2026: the Google Developers Blog post "An important update: Transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI" says Antigravity CLI became available to everyone that day. • 18 June 2026: the post says Gemini CLI and the Gemini Code Assist IDE extensions stop serving requests for Google AI Pro and Ultra subscribers and for users on the free "Gemini Code Assist for individuals" tier. A maintainer notice in the project's GitHub discussions says "Gemini CLI will stop serving requests for Google AI Pro, Google AI Ultra, and free tier individual accounts." • Who keeps access: the blog post says holders of Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences keep access and that organizations using Gemini Code Assist for GitHub through Google Cloud keep access. The maintainer notice says enterprise users with Code Assist licences and API key authentication "remain completely unaffected". The post also says Gemini CLI remains accessible through paid API keys. • The replacement: the post describes Antigravity CLI as a new terminal experience under Google Antigravity, built in Go, able to run multiple agents in the background, and sharing its harness with the Antigravity 2.0 desktop app. It keeps Agent Skills, Hooks, Subagents and Extensions, with extensions now called Antigravity plugins, and says there will not be "1:1 feature parity right out of the gate". • Newer models: the Gemini CLI site says "Gemini CLI has not been optimized for Gemini 4 Argon" and points users to Antigravity for it. What Gemini CLI does • Terminal agent: the repository describes it as an open-source AI agent that brings Gemini into your terminal, used to query and edit large codebases, generate apps from PDFs, images or sketches, and debug in natural language. • Built-in tools: Google Search grounding, file operations, shell commands and web fetching. • Install: npx @google/gemini-cli, npm install -g @google/gemini-cli, Homebrew (brew install gemini-cli), MacPorts, or an Anaconda environment with Node.js. • Scripting and automation: non-interactive use in scripts with --output-format json and stream-json, plus a Gemini CLI GitHub Action for pull request reviews, issue triage and @gemini-cli mentions. • Context and sessions: GEMINI.md project context files and conversation checkpointing. • Extensibility: Model Context Protocol servers configured in settings, plus extensions, Agent Skills, hooks, subagents, plan mode, model routing and sandboxing, which the documentation index lists as features. • Release channels: weekly stable (tag latest) on Tuesdays at 20:00 UTC, weekly preview on Tuesdays at 23:59 UTC, and a daily nightly build. Quotas and pricing (as of November 2026) The official "Quotas and pricing" page lists these daily request limits: • Google account plans: Gemini Code Assist (Individual) 1,000, Google AI Pro 1,500 and Google AI Ultra 2,000. The page also carries the notice that Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI on 18 June 2026 for unpaid tier and Google One users, so read it against the announcement above. • Gemini API key: the free (unpaid) tier is 250 requests a day on the Flash model only, and pay as you go varies by pricing tier. • Vertex AI: Express mode (free) varies by account, and regular pay as you go uses dynamic shared quota or pre-purchased provisioned throughput, priced by model and tokens. • Google Workspace and Code Assist: Code Assist Standard 1,500, Code Assist Enterprise 2,000 and Workspace AI Ultra 2,000 requests per user per day. • Unsupported plans: Google AI Plus is listed as unsupported for individuals, and Workspace AI Standard, Plus and Expanded are listed as unsupported for organizations. • Global limit: requests are also limited per user per minute and depend on service availability in times of high demand. The `/stats model` command shows session token usage and limits. Who it suits • Developers on enterprise Gemini Code Assist licences or on API keys who want a terminal agent. • People who want an Apache 2.0 licensed codebase they can read and extend. • Developers moving from Gemini CLI who should read the Antigravity CLI migration notes first. Limitations to know • Free usage through a personal Google sign-in is no longer served by Gemini CLI. • Gemini CLI is a coding agent for developers, not a no-code app builder. • The project's own pages disagree in places (see below), so check the current quota page before relying on a number. • Antigravity CLI is a different product with its own feature set. FAQs Is Gemini CLI still free? Not through a personal Google sign-in. The maintainer notice says Gemini CLI stopped serving free tier individual accounts on 18 June 2026. The quota page still lists a free Gemini API key tier of 250 requests a day on Flash. What replaced Gemini CLI? Google's Antigravity CLI, announced as available to everyone on 19 May 2026. Who can still use Gemini CLI? Per the official post and notice, Gemini Code Assist Standard and Enterprise licence holders and users with API key authentication. Is Gemini CLI open source? The GitHub repository lists the Apache 2.0 licence. How do I install it? Run npm install -g @google/gemini-cli, use npx, or install with Homebrew or MacPorts. Does it support MCP? Yes. The repository says it is extensible through MCP servers configured in settings. What we could not verify • The repository README still states a free tier of 60 requests per minute and 1,000 requests a day with a personal Google account and 1,000 requests a day with a Gemini API key, which conflicts with the quota page (250 a day on Flash for an API key) and with the June 2026 notices. We list the quota page figures. • The documentation page header says "Last updated: Apr 17, 2026" while the quota page says last updated 18 June 2026, so some pages may lag. • Whether Google AI Pro and Ultra consumers can still use Gemini CLI with an API key, which the pages do not spell out. • Windows support, which the README does not state in one place. • Future plans for the open-source repository. How this listing was put together This listing is based on the Gemini CLI GitHub repository, geminicli.com documentation, Google's Developers Blog announcement and the project's maintainer notice. Facts verified on 7 November 2026. Sources • Gemini CLI on GitHub • Gemini CLI site • Gemini CLI documentation • Quotas and pricing • Transitioning Gemini CLI to Antigravity CLI • Maintainer notice, 18 June 2026