Gemini CLI Review (2026): Google's Free Terminal AI Agent, Tested for Australia
- From
- A$26.42/mo per user
The gate: Five stars need 21+ and Australian Fit of at least 4/5.
Skip to the verdictPricing figures updated 6 September 2026: USD prices are converted at the current rate (1 USD ≈ 1.40 AUD, verified 5 September 2026) and shown ex-GST, replacing the retired 1.55 + GST basis. A GST-registered Australian business that supplies its ABN is not charged GST on an imported digital service; other buyers should allow ~10% on top (Methodology).
The verdict: Gemini CLI is the most generous free entry into terminal-based AI coding there is — an open-source agent (Apache 2.0) that puts Google's Gemini models, Google Search grounding and a one-million-token context window into your command line, free, just for signing in with a personal Google account. As a piece of engineering it earns its 105,000 GitHub stars. But there is a problem an Australian reader needs up front: on 18 June 2026 — a week before this review — Google stopped serving the free consumer tier and began funnelling individual users to a new product, Antigravity CLI. Gemini CLI itself lives on as open-source software and still runs on paid enterprise keys, but the free, sign-in-with-Google magic that made it worth recommending to a non-enterprise Australian has been switched off. There is also a data catch on the free tier that matters here. Score: 15/25 — Good, and falling, because the thing we would have recommended is the thing Google just retired. Read who this is actually for before you install it.
Who this is for (read this first)
Be clear-eyed about one thing: Gemini CLI is a developer tool. It lives in a terminal, you talk to it in a command line, and it is built to read, write and refactor code, run shell commands and automate engineering work. The AI Directory's usual reader — a Melbourne business owner who wants AI to write a proposal or tidy a spreadsheet — is not the audience here, and we will not pretend otherwise.
If you write code, manage infrastructure, or run a technical team, this review is for you. If you do not, the honest answer is that there is nothing here you need, and a tool like Gemini in your browser or Claude on the web will serve you far better. We are reviewing it because "the free, open rival to Claude Code and OpenAI's Codex" is a question we get asked, and the answer in Australia in mid-2026 is more complicated than the marketing suggests.
What it is
Gemini CLI is an open-source AI agent that runs in your terminal. You type a plain-English instruction — "summarise yesterday's changes," "write me a Discord bot from this FAQ file," "debug this failing test" — and it reads your files, reasons about them, and acts: editing code, running commands, fetching from the web, querying your repository. It is the command-line counterpart to Google's Gemini models, and Google describes it as "the most direct path from your prompt to our model."
It is genuinely open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, written in TypeScript, with the full code on GitHub. At the time of writing it has around 105,000 stars, 13,900 forks and over 6,000 commits — one of the most-watched developer projects of its generation. You install it with a single npm or Homebrew command and run it with one word: gemini.
Its headline selling point, repeated all over the project, is the free tier: 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 requests per day, at no cost, just by signing in with a personal Google account — with access to Google's top Gemini models and a one-million-token context window. That is a remarkably generous offer, and it is the reason the tool exploded. It is also the offer that, for individual users, Google has just withdrawn.
The timing problem you have to know about
On 19 May 2026, at Google I/O, Google announced it was transitioning Gemini CLI to a new product called Antigravity CLI — a faster, Go-based, "agent-first" terminal built on the same backend as Google's Antigravity desktop app. The announcement set a hard date.
On 18 June 2026, Gemini CLI stopped serving requests for free individual users, Google AI Pro and Google AI Ultra subscribers. Google's own words: it will "stop serving requests for Google AI Pro and Ultra, as well as those using it free of charge using Gemini Code Assist for individuals." That date has passed. As of this review — 25 June 2026 — a consumer who signs in to Gemini CLI with a personal Google account, exactly the path the project still advertises, is being directed to migrate to Antigravity CLI instead.
Two things survive the cut. The code is open source, so the software itself does not disappear — you can still install and run it. And paid access continues: organisations on a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licence, or using paid Gemini or Vertex AI API keys, keep full access with "the latest Gemini models and other updates." So Gemini CLI is not dead. But the specific, free, individual offer that made it the people's terminal agent is gone, and Google's energy is now openly pointed at Antigravity.
It is worth noting that the project's own GitHub page had not fully caught up when we looked — it still front-pages the free tier and now references "Gemini 3 models." Treat the README as marketing that lags the policy. The policy is the 18 June sunset.
What it costs in Australia
Google publishes no Australian price for Gemini CLI itself (the software is free and open source), but the paid licences that keep it running are priced in AUD for Australian Google Cloud billing accounts. Here is the real cost picture for an Australian after 18 June 2026.
| Path | Status for individuals (post-18 June 2026) | Indicative USD | Approx AUD ex-GST |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier (sign in with Google) | Retired for consumers — migrate to Antigravity CLI | US$0 | — |
| Gemini API key (AI Studio) | Available; free allowance plus usage-based billing | Usage-based | Varies |
| Gemini Code Assist — Standard | Available (org licence) | US$19/user/mo (12-month term) | A$26.42/user/mo on a 12-month term; A$31.70 month to month (Google's AUD SKU price) |
| Gemini Code Assist — Enterprise | Available (org licence) | US$45/user/mo (12-month term) | A$62.57/user/mo on a 12-month term; A$75.08 month to month (Google's AUD SKU price) |
| Vertex AI (Gemini 2.5 Pro API) | Available; pay-as-you-go tokens | from US$1.25 / 1M input tokens | from ~A$1.75 / 1M tokens |
A few Australian notes. Gemini Code Assist has native AUD prices: Google's Cloud SKU list prices it in AUD for billing accounts that pay in Australian dollars (read 30 September 2026), and those are the figures shown. The API rows are USD, and their AUD figure is our conversion at roughly 1.40, ex-GST. GST does apply: Google Cloud and Google API sales to Australian business accounts are subject to 10% GST, invoiced by Google Australia Pty Limited, so the cost is real and locally taxed even though the sticker is in US dollars. The token-based Vertex AI and API routes are the honest "what will I actually pay" path for an individual now, and they are unpredictable — every request re-sends your context, and a one-million-token window is expensive to fill repeatedly. Budget on usage, not on a tidy monthly number.
How it works / features
Once installed, Gemini CLI is a capable agent. What you get:
- Three Gemini models in the terminal, with a one-million-token context window — enough to load a sizeable codebase into a single session. The original launch models were Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash; the project now references newer Gemini models.
- Built-in tools. Google Search grounding for real-time answers, file-system operations, shell command execution and web fetching — the agent does not just talk, it acts on your machine.
- MCP (Model Context Protocol) support, so you can plug in custom tools and connect it to GitHub, Slack, databases and more.
- GEMINI.md context files, letting you give the agent persistent, project-specific instructions — the same idea as a project brief that it reads every session.
- Checkpointing, to save and resume long sessions, plus a non-interactive scripting mode (
--output-format json) for automation and CI pipelines. - GitHub Actions integration — automated pull-request reviews, issue triage and on-demand
@gemini-clihelp inside your repositories. - Three authentication paths: sign in with Google (the free, now-consumer-retired route), a Gemini API key, or Vertex AI for enterprise.
It is, in short, a serious, well-built agent — not a toy. The engineering is not the problem here.
What it does well
The free tier was extraordinarily generous — while it lasted. Sixty requests a minute and a thousand a day, free, with a flagship model and a million-token window, is more headroom than most individual developers could exhaust. Google said it set the limits at roughly double its own observed power-user usage. For the window it was offered, nothing else in the category came close on price.
It is truly open source. Apache 2.0, full code on GitHub, weekly releases, thousands of community contributions. You can read exactly what it does, fork it, and run it yourself. In a category full of black boxes, that transparency is a real and durable strength — and it is why the software survives even as the hosted free offer is withdrawn.
The terminal-first design is fast and scriptable. For developers who live in the command line, having the agent right there — grounded in Google Search, able to run shell commands and edit files in place — is genuinely productive, and the non-interactive mode makes it usable in automation, not just chat.
Google's models and the million-token context are top-tier. The ability to load a large codebase into one session and have the agent reason across all of it is a real advantage for understanding and refactoring big projects.
Where it falls short
It is being retired for the people most likely to want it free. This is the overriding fault and it is not the tool's engineering — it is Google's product strategy. The free, sign-in-with-Google path that made Gemini CLI worth recommending to an individual stopped serving requests on 18 June 2026. You are being pushed to Antigravity CLI, a newer, closed-source product that — by Google's own admission — does not have full feature parity yet. Building a personal or small-team workflow on Gemini CLI's free tier in mid-2026 means building on a foundation Google is actively walking away from.
The free tier uses your data to improve Google's products. On the free, AI-Studio-keyed path, Google may use your inputs and outputs to improve its models. For a developer pasting in proprietary code, client work or anything sensitive, that is a serious consideration. The protection — Google not training on your prompts — sits on the paid Gemini API, Vertex AI and Google Workspace routes, not the free one. So the cheapest path is also the least private, which is exactly the wrong way around for confidential work.
Rate limits and quota confusion are a recurring complaint. Even before the sunset, users reported hitting limits earlier than the advertised numbers suggested, and the community has had running threads about quota behaviour and abuse-mitigation throttling. The headline "1,000 a day" was not always the lived experience.
It is developer-only. No graphical interface, no hand-holding, no help for a non-technical Australian. If the command line is unfamiliar territory, this is not your tool, and nothing about it is designed to change that.
Nothing about it is built for Australia. No AUD pricing, no Australian data residency, no local support, no AU-aware behaviour. It is a global developer tool that Australians can use, taxed locally through Google's billing — and that is the extent of the local fit.
Australian fit
Pricing: US dollars throughout; no AUD list. GST does apply at 10%, invoiced by Google Australia Pty Limited, so the cost is real and locally taxed. Data residency: none specific to Australia, and on the free tier your data may be used to train Google's models — a material gap for confidential or Privacy Act-sensitive work, only closed by moving to paid Vertex AI or Workspace. Support: no Australian entity or local-time support for the open-source tool; enterprise support flows through Google Cloud. Availability: globally accessible and Australians could sign up freely — but the free individual route that mattered most has been switched off as of 18 June 2026, with migration to Antigravity CLI. There is nothing Australia-specific in the product. Australian Fit: 2/5.
Score
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Value for Money | 3/5 | The free tier was the best-value entry in the category — but it has been retired for individuals, leaving USD token-billing or org licences. The score reflects what an Australian can actually get today, not the headline. |
| Ease of Use | 3/5 | Excellent for developers, scriptable and well-documented — but terminal-only, with no path for a non-technical user. |
| Feature Depth | 4/5 | Top-tier models, million-token context, Google Search grounding, MCP, GitHub Actions, checkpointing and scripting. The engineering is strong. |
| Australian Fit | 2/5 | No AUD, free-tier data used for training, no AU residency or support, and the free consumer route withdrawn. GST applies but that is the limit of the local story. |
| Reliability & Support | 3/5 | Open-source, weekly releases and a huge community, offset by quota-limit complaints and, decisively, Google retiring the consumer tier and shifting focus to Antigravity. |
| Total | 15/25 |
⭐⭐⭐ Good (11–15).
Australian Fit is 2/5, below the 4/5 threshold in our methodology, so Gemini CLI cannot be named a category Top Pick regardless of its score. To be excellent for Australians, a tool has to be excellent for Australians — and a free tier that trains on your data and is being switched off does not clear that bar.
Bottom line
If you are a developer who already runs Gemini CLI on a paid enterprise or API key, carry on — that path is unaffected, the tool is well-built, and the million-token context and Google Search grounding are genuinely useful. Just keep an eye on Google's direction, because the energy is now behind Antigravity.
If you came here for the free, sign-in-with-Google terminal agent, the honest news is that you are a week too late: Google stopped serving it for individuals on 18 June 2026. You can still install the open-source software, but the free hosted offer now routes you to Antigravity CLI. Evaluate that product on its own merits rather than assuming Gemini CLI's free tier is still there.
If you write confidential or client code, do not use the free tier regardless. On that path Google may use your inputs to improve its models. Pay for Vertex AI or a Gemini API key, where Google commits not to train on your prompts — the privacy you need is on the paid side, not the free one.
If you are a non-technical Australian who landed here wondering whether Gemini CLI is for you: it is not. It is a developer's terminal tool. Use Gemini in your browser, or a web-based assistant, and skip the command line entirely.
Update history
- 30 Sep 2026 🇦🇺 POSITIVE — Google prices Gemini Code Assist in AUD; this review said it published no AUD figure.
cloud.google.com/products/gemini/pricingon an Australian connection still gives the USD rates (Standard about US$19 a month on a 12-month term, US$22.80 month to month; Enterprise US$45 / US$54) and says that if you pay in a currency other than USD, the prices listed in your currency on Cloud Platform SKUs apply. The SKU list in AUD gives Standard A$26.42 a month (12-month) or A$31.70 (monthly), Enterprise A$62.57 or A$75.08. Table and the Australian note rewritten; the note had also said the AUD column carried "10% GST added" when the figures were ex-GST. The API token rows were not re-read.aud_native: true(web). The directory tile was blank; pinned at A$26.42/mo per user (Code Assist Standard, 12-month term). Score unchanged: this review turns on the retired free tier, not the licence price. Capture:Dossiers/captures/gemini-code-assist-pricing-2026-09-30.txt; Wayback 30 Sep 2026. - 22 Sep 2026 — The Register’s transition piece is 404, and it was never load-bearing. Struck through and left beside its 5 September 2026 capture, labelled with that real date rather than implied to be contemporaneous. The Antigravity announcement and the 18 June 2026 free-tier cut-off are both sourced in the body to Google’s own wording, so nothing loses its primary. No score moved.
- 21 Sep 2026 — Corrected a leftover from the retired exchange-rate basis. This review's prose told the reader to expect the Australian dollar to add “roughly 55% over the sticker”, which is the fixed ~1.55 rate our AUD pricing rule retired on 5 September 2026. The figures in the pricing table were re-cut to the live rate by the FX sweep at the time; the sentence describing them was not, so the review has been contradicting its own footnote ever since — one line saying the A$ column was converted at 1.4045, another telling the reader to budget as though it were 1.55. At 1.4045 the uplift is 40.45%, so the sentence now says about 40% and cites the rate and its date inline, as our AUD pricing rule requires. No price, figure or score changes — the table was already correct; only the sentence a reader budgets from was wrong.
- 25 Jun 2026 — First reviewed.
Frequently asked questions
Is Gemini CLI free?
It was — 60 requests a minute and 1,000 a day, free, by signing in with a personal Google account. But on 18 June 2026 Google stopped serving that free tier for individual users and began directing them to Antigravity CLI. The software is still open source and installable, but the free hosted consumer offer has been retired. Paid access via Gemini Code Assist, the Gemini API or Vertex AI continues.
Is Gemini CLI really open source?
Yes. It is licensed under Apache 2.0, with the full code on GitHub, weekly releases and thousands of community contributions. That open-source status is why the software itself survives even though Google has withdrawn the free hosted tier for consumers.
Does Gemini CLI use my data to train Google's models?
On the free tier, yes — Google may use your inputs and outputs to improve its products. The paid Gemini API, Vertex AI and Google Workspace routes commit not to train on your prompts. For confidential or client code, use a paid path, not the free one.
What is Antigravity CLI and do I have to switch?
Antigravity CLI is Google's newer, Go-based, agent-first terminal, announced at Google I/O in May 2026 as the successor to Gemini CLI. From 18 June 2026, free individual and Google AI Pro/Ultra users of Gemini CLI are directed to migrate to it. Google says it does not yet have full feature parity with Gemini CLI.
Does Gemini CLI cost more in Australia because of the exchange rate and GST?
Effectively, yes. All pricing is in US dollars, so the weak Australian dollar adds about 40% over the sticker at 1.4045 (Frankfurter/ECB, 18 September 2026), and Google charges 10% GST on Australian business accounts, invoiced by Google Australia Pty Limited. There is no AUD price list for the product.
Is Gemini CLI good for non-technical users?
No. It is a terminal-based developer tool with no graphical interface. A non-technical Australian will get far more value from Gemini in a browser or a web-based AI assistant.
Read next
- Claude Code review: Anthropic's terminal coding agent, tested for Australia
- Cursor review: the AI code editor, tested for Australia
- The best AI coding tools for Australian developers
- How we score AI tools — our review methodology
Sources
- https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli (primary; repo, README, Apache 2.0 licence, free-tier claim, features)
- https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/ (primary; launch, free-tier limits)
- https://developers.googleblog.com/an-important-update-transitioning-gemini-cli-to-antigravity-cli/ (primary; 18 June 2026 consumer sunset, Antigravity transition)
- https://developers.google.com/gemini-code-assist/docs/deprecations/code-assist-individuals (primary; individuals deprecation)
- https://www.geminicli.com/docs/resources/quota-and-pricing/ (primary; quotas and pricing)
- https://docs.cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/discover/data-governance (primary; data governance, free vs paid training)
- https://cloud.google.com/products/gemini/pricing (primary; Gemini Code Assist Standard/Enterprise pricing)
- https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing (primary; Gemini 2.5 Pro token pricing)
- https://support.google.com/cloud/answer/7079025 (primary; Australian GST, Google Australia Pty Limited)
- https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli/discussions/22970 (secondary; quota/abuse-mitigation throttling)
- ~~
theregister.com/ai-ml/2026/05/20/bye-bye-gemini-cli-google-nudges-devs-toward-antigravity/~~ (secondary; transition coverage) — HTTP 404 as of 22 September 2026. Archived: Wayback 5 September 2026 — context only, captured 72 days after this review’s check date. Secondary throughout: the Antigravity transition and the 18 June free-tier cut-off are both quoted in this review from Google’s own wording, not from this article
Wayback Machine snapshots queued.
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