Zed

About

Zed is an open-source code editor from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. Its meta description calls it "a high-performance, multiplayer code editor", and its homepage headline reads "The world's fastest IDE. Open source. AI optional." The source repository states that Zed is licensed primarily under GPL-3.0-or-later, with Apache-2.0 components where marked, and that you can download it for macOS, Linux and Windows. As of November 2026 the Personal plan is $0, Pro is $10 a month and Business is $30 per seat per month, with hosted AI usage billed at API list price plus 10%. It belongs with the editors on our best AI coding assistant page and our AI coding assistants collection. What Zed does • Editor and collaboration: Zed is a multiplayer editor, which its homepage says comes from the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter. The homepage lists Tree-sitter as "incremental parsing for programming languages", the parser library from the same team. • Agent Panel: the AI docs say you can "prompt agents, add context, review changes, and manage active threads". Parallel agents can "run multiple threads across projects and worktrees". • Zed Agent: Zed's native agent, with built-in tools, profiles, skills, instructions and MCP servers. • External agents through ACP: the Agent Client Protocol lets agents run in their own process while Zed hosts the conversation. The docs list Claude, Codex, OpenCode, Copilot, Cursor and Pi Coding Agent as common examples, with Gemini CLI and Poolside having their own setup sections. The list "is curated, not exhaustive", and agents are installed from the ACP Registry. Each agent handles its own sign-in and costs, and Zed does not charge for them. • Terminal threads: terminal-backed threads for running an agent CLI or TUI inside Zed. • Inline Assistant and Edit Prediction: transform a selection in place, and accept AI completions while you type. • Git commit messages: generate commit messages from the Git panel. • Models: the docs list five ways to get models: Zed-hosted models, API access, subscriptions, gateways and local models. Supported own-key providers on the pricing page include Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, GitHub Copilot, Deepseek, Google AI, LM Studio, Mistral, Ollama, OpenAI, OpenRouter and Vercel. • AI is optional: the pricing page says AI features can be fully disabled and the editor works without them. • Delta: the homepage lists a separate product, Delta, described as "a multiplayer environment for coding with agents, powered by DeltaDB", with a founding year of 2026. The Pro trial balance is shared across Zed and Delta. Pricing (as of November 2026) • Personal: $0, free forever. "Unlimited use with your API keys or external agents." • Pro: $10 a month, with a free trial. Includes unlimited edit predictions and $5 of tokens, with usage-based billing beyond the $5. • Business: $30 per seat per month. Includes org-wide AI model policies, data governance controls, unified spend visibility, unlimited edit predictions and role-based access controls. There is no minimum seat count, plans are self-serve and month to month, and order form contracts are available at 25 or more seats. The page says there is no free trial currently, and seats do not include a fixed AI credit allotment. • Pro trial: 14 days, $5 of GPT-6 Luna usage and unlimited accepted edit predictions, with no credit card required. It ends when the $5 is used or 14 days pass, whichever comes first, and GPT-6 Luna is the only hosted model in the trial. • Usage billing: hosted usage is billed at API list price plus 10%. Overage is charged at the end of the month or after every additional $10, whichever comes first, and a spending cap can be set. • Business controls: admins can restrict or disable hosted models by model, turn off edit predictions org-wide and lock data sharing settings. SSO, SAML and SCIM are listed as planned but not currently available. • Sponsorship: GitHub Sponsors is available, and it does not grant paid features, support or other benefits. Who it suits • Developers who want a fast native editor and treat AI as something they switch on when needed. • People who want to run several coding agents (Claude, Codex, OpenCode and others) from one editor through ACP. • Pair programmers and teams who want multiplayer editing. • Teams who want to set org-wide limits on which hosted models are available. Limitations to know • Zed is an editor for developers, not a no-code app builder. • Hosted AI use is metered. Pro includes $5 of tokens and charges beyond that, and Business seats include no fixed AI credit allotment. • SSO, SAML and SCIM were not yet available on Business. • External agents bring their own costs and sign-in, and Zed's settings do not carry over to them by default. • The homepage did not name supported operating systems. The repository states macOS, Linux and Windows. FAQs What is Zed? An open-source, high-performance, multiplayer code editor with an agent panel, edit prediction and support for external agents through ACP. Is Zed free? Yes. The Personal plan is $0 forever and gives unlimited use with your own API keys or external agents. Pro is $10 a month and Business is $30 per seat per month. Is Zed open source? The repository says it is licensed primarily under GPL-3.0-or-later, with Apache-2.0 components where marked. Which platforms does it support? The repository says you can download Zed for macOS, Linux and Windows. Can I use Claude or Codex in Zed? The docs list Claude and Codex among the external agents that integrate through ACP. Each agent handles its own sign-in and billing. Can I turn AI off? Yes. The pricing page says AI features can be fully disabled and the editor works without them. What we could not verify • Which hosted models Zed offers beyond GPT-6 Luna in the trial, because the pricing and provider pages we read do not list them. • What GPT-6 Luna refers to beyond its mention on the pricing page. • The latest release number and date, which the repository page did not show. • Edit prediction details such as the model used, which the pages do not describe. • The meaning of "Delta" in more detail than the one line on the homepage. How this listing was put together This listing is based on Zed's own homepage, pricing page, AI documentation and GitHub repository. Facts verified on 7 November 2026. Sources • Zed homepage • Zed pricing • Zed AI overview • Zed external agents • Zed model providers • Zed on GitHub