Trae, Free AI IDE by ByteDance
About Trae
Free AI-powered IDE built on VS Code by ByteDance. Features Builder Mode for autonomous project scaffolding, multimodal input for design-to-code, and access to premium models like Claude 4 and GPT-4o.
Key Capabilities
Completely free tier with premium AI models
Builder Mode for full-project scaffolding from prompts
Multimodal input: upload screenshots and mockups to generate code
Access to Claude 4, GPT-4o, DeepSeek R1, Gemini 2.5 Pro
Cloud IDE option; no download required
Custom agent system with configurable tools and skills
Standout Features
Builder Mode
Autonomous agent that scaffolds complete projects, frontend, backend, and config, from natural language descriptions.
Multimodal Input
Upload screenshots, mockups, and design files and the AI generates matching UI code.
Premium AI Models
Free access to Claude 4, GPT-4o, DeepSeek R1, and Gemini 2.5 Pro.
Cloud IDE
Browser-based development environment with one-click deployment; no local setup needed.
Custom Agent System
Build your own AI team by configuring tools, skills, and logic via MCP integrations.
Perfect for
Compare Trae
Community Buzz

TRAE just dropped the most aggressive pricing in AI coding history. $3/month. Full model access. GPT-5.2, Gemini-3-Pro, all of them. Cursor charges $20 for less.

TRAE just made one of the boldest pricing moves in AI coding. $3 entry tier. Premium models included. Free Pro trial. I ran the numbers vs Cursor and Claude.

I run out of all credits @cursor_ai @windsurf @Trae_ai this month. What's next?
Similar Tools to Trae

Google AntiGravity
Google's agent-first IDE with mission control, multi-agent workflows, and a built-in browser for testing complex coding tasks end-to-end.
Cursor
AI-native IDE (VS Code fork) with Composer for multi-file editing and Agent mode for autonomous coding. Agent picks files, runs terminal, iterates on errors, and supports up to 8 parallel agents via git worktrees. Background Agents, Bugbot PR autofix, MCP plugins, and .cursor/rules complete the picture.

Kiro
Agentic AI-powered IDE by AWS that turns natural language into structured requirements, designs, and task lists so solo founders can go from prototype to production with less ambiguity.
Windsurf (by Cognition)
Windsurf (formerly Codeium, now by Cognition/Devin team) is an agentic IDE with Cascade for multi-step coding, proprietary SWE-1.5 model (13× faster than Sonnet 4.5), Fast Context for rapid codebase search, AI-powered Codemaps for visual code navigation, and plugins for 40+ IDEs.

Zed
The spiritual successor to Atom, built in Rust for extreme performance. Features built-in AI collaboration and supports multiple LLMs (Claude, OpenAI, etc.).
OpenAI Codex App
OpenAI's native macOS desktop app for orchestrating multiple Codex agents with worktrees, skills, automations, and a human-in-the-loop review queue.











