Compare AI tools

	Cursor S	OpenRouter S	Claude Code S	Gemini A
Tagline	VS Code fork that made AI coding actually work.	One API, every model. Pay-as-you-go, no subscriptions.	Anthropic's CLI agent. Opus-powered, operates on your repo directly.	Google's answer. Best integrated with Workspace + free for a lot.
Category	coding	dev platform	coding	chat
Pricing	Free + $20/mo Pro + $40/mo Business	Pay per token — model-dependent	Part of Claude Pro/Max/Team plans	Free + $20/mo Advanced (bundled with 2TB Drive)
Best for	Developers. Non-developers who want to ship working code.	Developers experimenting across models. Apps that want fallback logic.	Developers who want an agent, not autocomplete. Large refactors, tests, docs.	Anyone already on Google, research tasks, summarizing long documents.
Strengths	Tab completion feels like mind-reading Composer for multi-file edits Runs Claude, GPT, Gemini — you pick	300+ models from one endpoint Automatic fallbacks between providers No subscription — just pay what you use	Runs locally, edits your actual files Strong on large codebases with 1M context Great at multi-step tasks	Native Google Workspace integration Very long context (1M+) Deep Research feature Free tier is generous
Weaknesses	Can feel overwhelming for non-coders Expensive at scale	Slight markup over direct API Some provider features not exposed	Terminal-based — learning curve Can't be used without Claude subscription	Writing quality trails Claude Over-refusals on edge content UI is cluttered
Kai's verdict	S-tier for coding. If you write code of any kind, this pays back the $20 in a day.	S-tier for model-shopping. I use this for every prototype before committing.	S-tier if you live in the terminal. Different shape than Cursor — complementary, not replacement.	A-tier. The Deep Research feature is genuinely useful. Don't sleep on it if you're already paying Google.
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