Compare AI tools

	Aider A	OpenRouter S	GitHub Copilot B	Claude S
Tagline	Terminal-based AI pair programmer. Git-aware, model-flexible.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.	Microsoft/GitHub's autocomplete. Deep VS Code + JetBrains integration.	Anthropic's flagship — best reasoning + longest useful context.
Category	coding	dev platform	coding	chat
Pricing	Free (open source) + whatever API you use	Pay per token — model-dependent	Free (limited) + $10/mo Pro + $19/mo Business	Free + $20/mo Pro + team/enterprise
Best for	Developers who want open-source tooling with full control.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.	Teams with GitHub already. Devs who don't want to change IDEs.	Long writing, code, careful thinking, documents over 50 pages.
Strengths	Works in any terminal Auto-commits changes with meaningful messages Works with any model (Claude, GPT, local) Minimal learning curve	300+ models from one endpoint Automatic fallbacks between providers No subscription — just pay what you use	Great enterprise story Works in your existing IDE Chat + autocomplete	Best-in-class writing + nuanced reasoning 1M context on Opus Artifacts for code/docs Lowest hallucination rate in my testing
Weaknesses	Terminal-only Less agentic than Claude Code Setup on Windows is fiddly	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed	Less agentic than Cursor/Claude Code Model quality varies	Image generation is weak No native web search on all tiers
Kai's verdict	A-tier. The right answer if you want open-source + terminal-native + model-agnostic.	S-tier for model-shopping. I use this for every prototype before committing.	B-tier. Solid for autocomplete but the category moved past it. Pick Cursor unless you can't.	S-tier for reasoning and writing. If you only pay for one chatbot, pay for this one — especially for long work.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →