AI coding agents · scenario rankings

Attribute probe: free / open-source / student plans

Most Popular Free or Open-Source AI Coding Agents

This cell adds a free / open-source / student-friendly qualifier. Same reading as above: conditional retrieval, and its ranks are not compared with the unqualified cells.

Medium

Measured 2026-09-22 · 12-seat model panel · 10 scenarios · methodology #2 v2026-09-22.1

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The ten

Rank	Entity	Mention rate (of answers)	Wilson 95% interval	Seats that mentioned it	Seats with stable coverage
1	Continue.dev	97.7%	[94.2%, 99.1%]	12 of 12	12 of 12
2	Aider	94.2%	[89.7%, 96.8%]	12 of 12	12 of 12
3	Cline	75.7%	[68.8%, 81.5%]	12 of 12	9 of 12
4	OpenHands	70.5%	[63.3%, 76.8%]	12 of 12	10 of 12
5	Windsurf (Devin Desktop)	69.9%	[62.7%, 76.3%]	12 of 12	12 of 12
6	GitHub Copilot	65.3%	[58.0%, 72.0%]	12 of 12	11 of 12
7	Cursor	64.7%	[57.4%, 71.5%]	12 of 12	11 of 12
8	Tabby	52.0%	[44.6%, 59.3%]	12 of 12	5 of 12
9	Tabnine	39.3%	[32.3%, 46.7%]	11 of 12	5 of 12
10	Roo Code	30.1%	[23.7%, 37.3%]	10 of 12	3 of 12

How it is counted: mention rate = answers naming it ÷ 173 (5 phrasings × 3 repeats × 12 seats = 180 calls, 173 valid); the last two columns count seats, and "stable coverage" means more than half of that seat's 14 answers. Different denominators, so 12 of 12 next to a rate below 100% is not a contradiction.

The sample behind this cell

Valid samples / calls expected: 173 / 180
Completeness: 96.1%
Effective entities (effN): 18.8
Entities mentioned at least once: 79

How this cell was asked

This cell used 5 phrasings, each asked 3 times. Every call asked for the ten names only — no reasons, no scores.

Most Popular Free or Open-Source AI Coding Agents
Free or open-source AI coding agents, ideally with a student plan?
I'm a student with no budget. Which AI coding agents can I use for free or self-host?
free open source ai coding agent students
List some AI coding agents that are free to use or open source.

Where this page stops

This is one measurement, not a trend line. The next run of the same phrasings comes next quarter.
Each call collected ten names at most. Anything past the tenth name is invisible in this cell, which is not the same as being absent.
Mention rate is the share of samples in this cell where a name came up. It is not market share, and it is not a judgement about the product.

Methodology: the panel, the phrasings and how completeness is counted

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