Can’t Afford Cursor Pro — Looking for How To bypass it

[cyb3rammar]

I want to vibe-code an app. I use Antigravity and Cursor, but they hit quota and PR limits very quickly. Because of this, my website never gets completed. I can’t afford paid plans.

If anyone knows How To Bypass or free tools that can help with coding, development, or AI assistance, that would be appreciated.

I’m looking for tools that are:

• Free or open-source

• Suitable for building real projects

• Not limited by aggressive quotas

Any genuine recommendations would help.

[cocaine_squirrel]

Check out heckyeahfreemedia

Or get student email for cursor

[Sag]

You could easily get a google student offer using telegram bots to get their Pro subscription for free for 1 year and it provides a good amount of quota for Antigravity

But if you don’t want all that hassle, for every code refactor or generation that your AI did, make sure that the agent create a documentation and add to it overtime for your website (eg. what is the folder function, the file function, code architecture, etc). Then you can switch google account to continue your work by make the agent read the documentation(If you need to create multiple google accounts, just create it on the youtube app, it bypass the need for phone numbers)

Hope this helps

[Abdelilah109]

best answer ever

[SRZ]

The “I’m Broke But I Still Ship” Starter Pack

You don’t need Cursor Pro. You need a strategy.

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What You Walk Away With

A full toolkit of free + dirt-cheap AI coding assistants that actually work for real projects — no subscription walls, no surprise limits halfway through your build.

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Why This Matters

Cursor Pro is $20/mo. Antigravity burns through limits faster than you can say “one more feature.”
Meanwhile, there are tools giving away 1,000 requests/day or unlimited completions — and nobody’s talking about them.
This isn’t about “bypassing” anything. It’s about knowing what exists.

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The Actual Benefits

• Zero-cost options that handle real projects (not just “hello world”)
• Rotation strategy — hit a limit? Switch tool, keep building
• Self-hosted options — unlimited, private, yours forever
• $3/mo nuclear option — essentially unlimited AI coding
• BYOK tools — bring your own cheap API key, skip the middleman

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THE COMPLETE FREE AI CODING TOOLKIT

🥇 TIER 1: Completely Free (No Card Required)

Gemini CLI — The Hidden Giant

Google’s terminal AI agent. 1,000 requests/day. 60 per minute. Free.

• Gemini 2.5 Pro with 1 MILLION token context window
• Built-in Google Search, file ops, shell commands
• Works: npm install -g @google/gemini-cli → login with Google → done

https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
https://google-gemini.github.io/gemini-cli/
https://geminicli.com/docs/quota-and-pricing/

Reality check: ~10-15 prompts on Pro model, then it falls back to Flash. Still massive for free.

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GitHub Copilot Free Tier

• 2,000 code completions/month
• 50 chat requests/month
• Claude 3.5 Sonnet + GPT-4o included
• Works in VS Code, JetBrains, Neovim

https://github.com/features/copilot

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Gemini Code Assist

• 180,000 code completions/month (yes, really)
• Works in VS Code + JetBrains
• Same Gemini models as the CLI

https://cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/codeassist/overview

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Codeium (Now Part of Windsurf)

• Unlimited autocomplete — forever free
• Trained on permissively-licensed code only
• VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, 40+ editors

https://codeium.com/

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Windsurf Free Tier (Post-Acquisition)

• 25 prompt credits/month (≈100 GPT-4.1 prompts)
• Unlimited SWE-1 Lite model (0 credits)
• Unlimited Fast Tab completions
• 1 app deploy/day via Netlify
• BYOK supported — bring your own API key, pay nothing to Windsurf

https://windsurf.com/changelog
https://ainativedev.io/news/ide-free-tier-war-windsurf
https://flexprice.io/blog/windsurf-ai-pricing-breakdown

🥈 TIER 2: BYOK Tools (Bring Your Own API Key)

The hack: These tools are FREE. You just plug in a cheap API key (DeepSeek = $0.14/million tokens).

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Aider — Terminal AI Pair Programmer

The Git-native coding assistant. Every AI change = a commit you can review/revert.

• Works with Claude, GPT, DeepSeek, Ollama (local), literally any model
• $0.007 per file with cheap APIs
• Voice commands, image support, auto-tests

pip install aider-install
aider-install
cd your-project
aider --model deepseek --api-key deepseek=YOUR_KEY

https://aider.chat/
https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider
https://aider.chat/docs/install.html

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Continue.dev — VS Code/JetBrains Extension

Open-source autopilot for your IDE.

• Tab to autocomplete, chat, edit inline
• BYOK: OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, OpenRouter, anything
• Self-host for complete privacy

https://continue.dev/
https://github.com/continuedev/continue

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Cline (Formerly Claude Dev)

VS Code extension, agentic coding, reads/writes files autonomously.

• BYOK with any provider
• Works with Z.ai $3 plan (see below)

https://github.com/cline/cline
https://cline.bot/

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Roo Code / Kilo Code

Cline alternatives with similar BYOK setup.

• Multi-file editing, agentic workflows
• Privacy-first design

https://github.com/RooVetGit/Roo-Code
https://kilocode.ai/

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Void Editor — Open Source Cursor Clone

“What if Cursor, but you owned it?”

• Full VS Code fork
• Direct API connection — no middleman
• Your themes, keybinds, settings transfer in one click

https://voideditor.com/
https://github.com/voideditor/void

Note: Development paused as of late 2025, but still runs.

🥉 TIER 3: Self-Hosted (Unlimited Forever)

Ollama + Local Models

Run AI models on your own machine. Unlimited. Private. Free forever.

# Install
curl -fsSL https://ollama.com/install.sh | sh

# Pull a coding model
ollama pull qwen2.5-coder:7b
ollama pull deepseek-coder-v2:16b
ollama pull codellama:13b

# Run
ollama run qwen2.5-coder:7b

Then connect to Continue, Aider, or any BYOK tool.

https://ollama.com/
https://github.com/ollama/ollama

Best free coding models:

• qwen2.5-coder — Best overall for coding
• deepseek-coder-v2 — Strong reasoning
• codellama — Meta’s coding model
• starcoder2 — Great for completions

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Tabby — Self-Hosted Copilot

GitHub Copilot, but on YOUR server.

• Real-time suggestions as you type
• 40+ languages
• RAG-based (understands your whole codebase)
• Consumer GPU friendly

docker run -it --gpus all -p 8080:8080 -v $HOME/.tabby:/data \
  tabbyml/tabby serve --model StarCoder-1B --device cuda

https://github.com/TabbyML/tabby
https://www.tabbyml.com/
https://tabby.tabbyml.com/docs/welcome/

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LocalAI

OpenAI API clone that runs 100% local.

• Drop-in replacement — same API calls work
• GGUF, GGML, GPTQ model support
• CPU or GPU

https://github.com/mudler/LocalAI

💰 TIER 4: The $3/Month Nuclear Option

Z.ai GLM Coding Plan

This is the move if you want “basically unlimited” for pocket change.

$3/month gets you:

• 120 prompts per 5-hour window (resets every 5 hours)
• GLM-4.7 — performs like Claude Sonnet at 1/7th the price
• Works inside Claude Code, Cline, Roo Code, OpenCode, Kilo Code
• No per-token billing — fixed monthly cost

$15/month (Pro):

• 600 prompts per 5-hour window
• Still 13x cheaper than Claude Max

# Setup with Claude Code
# 1. Subscribe at z.ai/subscribe
# 2. Get API key from dashboard
# 3. Add to Claude Code settings

https://z.ai/subscribe
https://docs.z.ai/devpack/overview
https://z.ai/blog/glm-4.7
https://cline.bot/blog/zai-cline-3-dollar-ai-coding
https://www.kdnuggets.com/vibe-coding-with-glm-46-coding-plan

Black Friday pricing (until Dec 5): First year = $22.68 total

https://aiengineerguide.com/blog/z-ai-glm-coding-plan-black-friday-offer-2025/

🔄 THE ROTATION STRATEGY

When you hit a limit, don’t stop. Switch.

Morning:     Gemini CLI (1000/day)
             ↓ hit limit
Afternoon:   Windsurf free tier (25 credits)
             ↓ hit limit
Evening:     Cline + Z.ai (120/5hr)
             ↓ hit limit
Night:       Aider + DeepSeek API ($0.14/M tokens)
             ↓ budget-conscious
Anytime:     Ollama local (unlimited)

Monthly total cost: $0–3
Monthly output: Unlimited

⚠️ AVOID: Trae IDE (ByteDance)

Free Claude 3.5 Sonnet + GPT-4o sounds amazing. Here’s the catch:

• 500 network calls in 7 minutes — even with telemetry “off”
• 26MB of data sent to ByteDance servers
• Collects: Hardware specs, file paths, keystrokes, usage patterns
• Telemetry toggle doesn’t actually work — only controls VS Code framework, not Trae’s own collection
• 5-year data retention, shared with ByteDance affiliates
• Remote feature toggle — they can modify your IDE without updates

Security researchers called it:

“A sophisticated data collection system disguised as an IDE” — Unit 221B

Use for: Throwaway projects, learning, nothing sensitive
Don’t use for: Client work, proprietary code, anything you care about

https://github.com/segmentationf4u1t/trae_telemetry_research
https://blog.unit221b.com/dont-read-this-blog/unveiling-trae-bytedances-ai-ide-and-its-extensive-data-collection-system
https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/bytedance_trae_telemetry/
https://cybernews.com/security/bytedance-ai-coding-tool-trae-data-collection/

📊 QUICK COMPARISON TABLE

Tool	Cost	Limits	Best For
Gemini CLI	Free	1000/day	Heavy terminal users
GitHub Copilot Free	Free	2000 completions/mo	VS Code users
Gemini Code Assist	Free	180K/mo	JetBrains users
Windsurf Free	Free	25 credits + unlimited lite	Full IDE experience
Codeium	Free	Unlimited completions	Autocomplete only
Aider + DeepSeek	~$1-5/mo	Pay per token	Terminal + Git lovers
Z.ai Lite	$3/mo	120/5hr window	Claude Code/Cline users
Ollama Local	Free	Unlimited	Privacy + offline
Tabby	Free	Unlimited	Self-hosters
Void	Free	Unlimited (BYOK)	Cursor refugees

🚀 STARTER RECOMMENDATION

If you want ONE setup that covers everything:

1. Install Gemini CLI — your daily driver (1000 free requests)
2. Install Continue.dev in VS Code — autocomplete + chat
3. Set up Ollama — backup when limits hit
4. Bookmark Z.ai — $3/mo when you need heavy lifting

Total cost: $0–3/month
Capability: Same as $20+ tools

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FULL RESOURCE LIST

All Links (Organized)

Gemini CLI

• https://github.com/google-gemini/gemini-cli
• https://google-gemini.github.io/gemini-cli/
• https://geminicli.com/docs/quota-and-pricing/
• https://blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/developers-tools/introducing-gemini-cli-open-source-ai-agent/
• https://developers.google.com/gemini-code-assist/resources/quotas

Aider

• https://aider.chat/
• https://github.com/Aider-AI/aider
• https://aider.chat/docs/install.html
• https://blog.openreplay.com/getting-started-aider-ai-coding-terminal/
• https://www.blott.com/blog/post/aider-review-a-developers-month-with-this-terminal-based-code-assistant

Windsurf

• https://windsurf.com/changelog
• https://ainativedev.io/news/ide-free-tier-war-windsurf
• https://aitoolanalysis.com/windsurf-review-wave-13/
• https://flexprice.io/blog/windsurf-ai-pricing-breakdown
• https://hostbor.com/cursor-vs-windsurf-ide-6-reasons/

Z.ai

• https://z.ai/subscribe
• https://docs.z.ai/devpack/overview
• https://z.ai/blog/glm-4.7
• https://cline.bot/blog/zai-cline-3-dollar-ai-coding
• https://www.kdnuggets.com/vibe-coding-with-glm-46-coding-plan
• https://blog.patshead.com/2025/11/is-the-z-dot-ai-coding-plan-a-no-brainer.html

Void Editor

• https://voideditor.com/
• https://github.com/voideditor/void
• https://www.infoq.com/news/2025/06/void-ide-beta-release/

Tabby

• https://github.com/TabbyML/tabby
• https://www.tabbyml.com/
• https://tabby.tabbyml.com/docs/welcome/

Continue.dev

• https://continue.dev/
• https://github.com/continuedev/continue

Cline/Roo/Kilo

• https://github.com/cline/cline
• https://cline.bot/
• https://github.com/RooVetGit/Roo-Code
• https://kilocode.ai/

Ollama

• https://ollama.com/
• https://github.com/ollama/ollama

Trae Warnings

• https://github.com/segmentationf4u1t/trae_telemetry_research
• https://blog.unit221b.com/dont-read-this-blog/unveiling-trae-bytedances-ai-ide-and-its-extensive-data-collection-system
• https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/28/bytedance_trae_telemetry/
• https://cybernews.com/security/bytedance-ai-coding-tool-trae-data-collection/
• https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/bytedance-ai-tool-caught-spying-on-users

Mega Guides

• https://dev.to/chirag127/the-ultimate-guide-100-best-free-ai-coding-agents-platforms-november-2025-230a
• https://openalternative.co/alternatives/cursor
• https://www.augmentcode.com/tools/8-top-ai-coding-assistants-and-their-best-use-cases
• https://www.builder.io/blog/cursor-alternatives-2026

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You don’t need to bypass anything.

You just needed to know where the free stuff actually is.

[Adam266]

Hello friend
for me i just use Windsurf as alternative
or Gemini one month free trial and use it on antigravity