AI Levels


Disclaimer: table generated with [Grok](https://grok.com/), except by the last column.

| AI IDE / Tool | Company | Free Tier / Version                          | Pricing (Paid) |Pros | Cons | My notes |
|--------------------|---------------------------|----------------------------------------------|------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| -- |
| [Cursor](https://cursor.com/)                     | [Anysphere](https://anysphere.inc/)         | Hobby: 2,000 completions/mo + 50 slow premium requests; 14-day Pro trial | $20/user/mo (Pro), $40/user/mo (Business) | Best-in-class agentic features (Composer/Agent mode), excellent multi-file edits & repo understanding, fast UX, supports multiple models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, etc.) | Free tier very limited after trial, higher price than some rivals, can feel unpredictable on very complex refactors | Using it for work |
| [Claude Code](https://claude.com/product/claude-code) | [Anthropic](https://www.anthropic.com/)     | Limited free tier / API credits; terminal-focused | ~$17–20/mo (Pro equivalent via API usage or plans), pay-as-you-go | Exceptional reasoning/debugging, massive 200K+ context, ideal for complex logic/architecture, integrates well into VS Code/terminal | More CLI/agent than full visual IDE, costs scale with heavy usage, no native multi-file editor UI | Planning to use it for work. Everyone in my bubble is migrating to claude |
| [Google Antigravity](https://antigravity.google/) | [Google](https://antigravity.google/) | Yes — full public preview (generous limits, no hard cutoff yet); some Pro features emerging | Free (preview); ~$20/mo Pro expected soon | Completely free access right now (Gemini 3 Pro + others), huge context (1M+ tokens), strong multi-agent planning, browser/automation skills | Preview-stage bugs & quota complaints (e.g., refresh inconsistencies), Google ecosystem lock-in, maturity still catching up | Using for personal projects |
| [GitHub Copilot](https://github.com/features/copilot) | [GitHub / Microsoft](https://github.com/features/copilot) | Limited free (students/open-source); 50 requests/mo trial in some cases | $10/mo (Individual), $19–39/mo (Business/Enterprise) | Mature & reliable, works in many IDEs (VS Code, JetBrains, etc.), excellent GitHub integration, model choice (Claude, GPT, Gemini) | Less fully agentic than dedicated IDE forks (more autocomplete + chat), subscription needed for full power | Second option when no credits on antigravity. On free tier, it is dumber than antigravity |
| [Windsurf](https://windsurf.com/) | [Windsurf](https://windsurf.com/) (originally Codeium) | Yes — generous for individuals: 25 credits/mo, unlimited basic completions, limited Cascade/agent flows | $15/mo (Pro: 500 credits), $30/user/mo (Teams) | Strong value & speed, great for prototyping & budget users, solid multi-file & autocomplete, often called best free-capable option | Credit limits hit heavy users quickly on free tier, slightly behind Cursor in some deep reasoning/agent benchmarks | Planning to use it for personal projects | 

Also planning to play with vscode + [qwen](https://github.com/QwenLM) + ([cline](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=saoudrizwan.cline) or [continue](https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Continue.continue))

AI IDEs


I already spoke about [cursor on a previous post](/blog/posts/2024-11-29-cursor), to expand on that, I saw this post on X:

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Would you watch a video on how I use .mdc files to get the most out of <a href="https://twitter.com/cursor_ai?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@cursor_ai</a>? <a href="https://t.co/6Ks7hzKBrc">pic.twitter.com/6Ks7hzKBrc</a></p>&mdash; Elie Steinbock — oss/acc (@elie2222) <a href="https://twitter.com/elie2222/status/1906727472164462749?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 31, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

The rules he created is on [this github repository](https://github.com/elie222/inbox-zero/tree/main/.cursor/rules)

# Questions?

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Since I open sourced my .mdc rules for Cursor I&#39;ve been getting a lot of questions.<br><br>Here are all the answers in one place:<br><br>1. Isn&#39;t 20 mdc files too much information for Cursor?<br>No. This is what .mdc files solve. Cursor Rules file is now deprecated. You no longer provide all… <a href="https://t.co/iNEjyIx8vS">pic.twitter.com/iNEjyIx8vS</a></p>&mdash; Elie Steinbock — oss/acc (@elie2222) <a href="https://twitter.com/elie2222/status/1907070722960187745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 1, 2025</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Cursor Rules


I received a newsletter today, [Which IDEs do software engineers love, and why?](https://blog.pragmaticengineer.com/ide-that-software-engineers-love/).

The top IDE in the list is [Cursor](https://www.cursor.com/). I am playing with it, it seems amazing.

The AI integration with the code is seamless, good feedbacks, fast, good suggestions. And it is a vscode fork, so I can use all my plugins.

I am super impressed, I will play with it for a while and see how it goes.
