Vibe Coding Tools Free: What You Really Get at $0
Several vibe coding tools have a real free plan, but each one has a limit, and the limit is rarely the part that hurts. The catch is usually what you cannot do with your game afterwards, so read the third column first.
What does each free plan give me?
All of this comes from the tools' own pages on 2 November 2026.
| Tool | What $0 gets you | What to look out for |
|---|---|---|
| Google AI Studio | Access with free model use | On the free tier, what you send is used to improve Google's products, so keep private things out |
| Antigravity | Individuals plan with basic weekly limits | The page does not give a number |
| Codex in ChatGPT Free | For "quick coding tasks" | Not meant for a long project |
| GitHub Copilot Free | 2,000 completions a month, Copilot CLI | Completions are suggestions as you type, so you need some way of working with code |
| Cursor Free | Limited agent and chat requests | Good for a look, not for a whole game |
| Bolt Free | 1 million tokens a month, up to 300,000 a day, hosting | Bolt branding, no custom domain, not the newest models |
| Lovable Free | 5 build credits daily, capped at 30 a month | Small daily steps |
| Rosebud Free | 8,000 credits a week in eligible regions | Commercial rights and code export need a paid plan |
| GDevelop Free | Full engine, 40 AI credits a month, 3 cloud projects | The engine stays free, the AI help is capped |
The free plan for Claude does not include Claude Code, which starts with the paid Pro plan.
Old lists may still recommend Gemini CLI as a generous free option. Its own documentation now says that for unpaid users it was replaced by Antigravity CLI on 18 June 2026. This is a good reminder to read the date on any tool list, including this one.
What four questions should I ask of any free plan?
- Can I get my files out? If you cannot take your game with you, you are renting it. A free plan you can leave is worth far more than a generous one you cannot.
- May I sell what I make? Rosebud is the clear case above, and other tools have their own terms. Read them before you spend months on a game. Your plan decides what the terms give you, and it does not settle every legal question.
- What happens at the limit? Does it stop and wait, or does it ask for a card? A limit that hits halfway through a change can leave a game half broken, so save a copy before each big request.
- What happens to what I type? The Google line in the table is honest about this. Assume less privacy on free plans unless the page says otherwise, and never paste passwords or other people's data.
What is free with no limit?
The engines. Godot, Phaser and three.js cost nothing at any size, and you can write for them with whichever AI you have. So the expensive part of a game is rarely the tool itself. It is the AI's messages, and those you can stretch. How to vibe code for free shows how, with a day-by-day plan.
Paste this to your AI
I want to use the free plan of [tool] for my game. Here is the text of its pricing and terms page: [paste it].
Using only that text, draw a Mermaid chart of what happens to my project in three situations: the limit runs out halfway through a change, I stop using the tool, and I want to sell the game. Go through each path to its end, and flag any that end with my game stuck.
Then answer: can I get my files out, may I sell what I make, what happens at the limit, and what happens to what I type?
Quote the sentence each answer rests on. If the page does not say, write "the page does not say". Do not fill that in from memory or from what other tools do.
Or skip this and connect the MCP: your AI then finds all of this by itself.Connect the MCP
How to check it worked
- Find one quoted sentence yourself. Is it really on the page?
- Count "the page does not say". Those are your open risks. Decide if you can live with them.
- Send one message and watch the counter. How much of your allowance did it use?
- Export something now. Do it on day one, not when you are about to leave.