Aider Pricing 2026
Complete pricing guide with plans, hidden costs, and cost analysis
Aider pricing ranges from $0 to $100/month.
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All Aider Plans & Pricing
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free (Open Source) | Free | Free | Not specified |
| Verified pricing · last checked June 2026 · 6 sources
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| What's included at Free (Open Source)
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View all features by plan (compare side-by-side)
Free (Open Source)
- Open-source terminal tool
- Works with all major LLMs
- Git integration with auto-commits
- Multi-language support (Python, JavaScript, Rust, Go, etc.)
- Codebase mapping for large projects
- Automatic linting and testing
- Local model support via Ollama
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Aider costs Free to $100 per month as of August 2026 including a free tier. Plan: Free (Open Source) (free). The median contract is $180/year based on 4 verified purchases.
Use the interactive pricing calculator to estimate your exact cost based on team size and requirements.
- Free tier: Yes
Aider offers 1 pricing tiers: Free (Open Source).
Compared to other ai coding assistants software, Aider is positioned at the mid-market price point.
- Median contract: $180/yr from 4 purchases Thin data
- 2 documented hidden costs beyond list price
How much does Aider cost?
Aider Pricing Overview
Aider has 1 pricing plans, including a free tier. Paid plans range from $0 to $100/month. The Free (Open Source) plan is free.
Aider with a None minimum commitment.
The median Aider customer pays $180/year based on 4 verified purchases.
There are at least 2 documented hidden costs beyond Aider's list price, including implementation, training, and add-on fees.
This pricing was last verified in June 2, 2026 from 6 independent sources.
Aider is an AI pair programming tool that works directly in your terminal, allowing developers to collaborate with large language models to write and edit code in their local Git repositories. It integrates with popular LLMs and also supports local models through Ollama, automatically committing changes with sensible commit messages and creating codebase maps for larger projects.
Aider is offered under a single Free (Open Source) tier at $0/month. There are no subscription fees or paid plans — the only cost is whatever you spend on the underlying LLM API usage, which can be eliminated entirely by running local models.
How Aider Pricing Compares
Compare Aider pricing against top alternatives in AI Coding Assistants.
Compare Aider vs Alternatives
Before committing to Aider, compare pricing with these 3 alternatives in the same category.
What Companies Actually Pay for Aider
The median Aider buyer pays $180/year based on 4 verified purchase transactions.
Aider Year 1 Total Cost by Company Size
Real deployment costs including licenses, implementation, training, and admin — not just the sticker price.
Developer using Aider occasionally for small projects, 5-10 hours per week with DeepSeek or Gemini Flash models
Full-time developer using Aider with Claude Sonnet for daily coding tasks, 40 hours per week on medium-sized codebases
Heavy usage with Claude Opus or GPT-4 on enterprise-scale projects, extensive refactoring and feature development
Using Aider with local Ollama models for complete cost elimination, or DeepSeek for minimal API costs
Team of 5 developers each using Aider with Claude Sonnet for daily development work
Single small project using Aider with API-based models
Using high-end reasoning models through OpenRouter
Using Aider with a SOTA model to build a small, self-contained project such as a QR code generator. API costs remain minimal with a focused task.
Typical project-level use of Aider with GPT-4 or Claude Sonnet across a meaningful codebase — the common developer use case.
Intensive agentic use of Aider with SOTA models where the tool drives multi-step automated coding sessions continuously throughout the month. API costs scale steeply at this level.
How Aider Pricing Compares
| Software | Starting Price | Top Price |
|---|---|---|
| Aider | Free | $100/month |
| Amazon Q Developer | Free | $19/user/month |
| Augment Code | $20/month | $200/month |
| Bolt.new | Free | $50/month |
| Cline | Free | $20/month |
| Continue | $3/month | $20/month |
Detailed pricing comparisons:
Aider Contract Terms
Aider contracts do not auto-renew. Changes require advance notice. These terms are sourced from verified buyer experiences.
No tiers to downgrade through; Aider itself is entirely free and open-source with no paid tiers
How to Negotiate Aider Pricing
Aider contracts are negotiable. These 5 tactics are sourced from real buyer experiences and procurement specialists.
Aider is free and open-source; all costs come from LLM API usage. Use free model tiers (Claude Haiku, GPT-4o-mini, or local Ollama models) to reduce per-token costs by 80-95% compared to premium models like GPT-4o or Claude Opus.
Aider documentation on model selectionYour real cost is the LLM API, not Aider itself. Apply for volume discounts with Anthropic or OpenAI (both offer enterprise contracts at $0.002-0.005/1K tokens vs pay-as-you-go rates). A team doing 500K+ tokens/month qualifies for negotiated pricing.
Anthropic and OpenAI enterprise pricing programsSelect more affordable models for routine coding work. One developer switched from Claude Sonnet 3.7 to Gemini 2.5 Pro because it was 'substantially cheaper' while delivering comparable results for most workflows. Aider makes model switching easy via a single config change.
HN comment (TeMPOraL, 2025-06-26)For heavy agentic use, paying $100–$200/month for a flat-rate subscription (e.g., Claude Max or a similar provider plan) can be cheaper than burning the equivalent amount in a single day or two via API. Calculate your monthly API spend and compare to subscription alternatives before committing to pure pay-as-you-go.
HN comment (TeMPOraL, 2025-06-26)Pool team API keys under a single enterprise account to hit volume thresholds faster. OpenAI's Tier 4 ($10K/month spend) unlocks higher rate limits and better per-token economics versus each developer using an individual account.
OpenAI API tier documentationAider Pricing FAQ
01 Is Aider free?
Yes, Aider is completely free and open-source software. You can download and use it without any subscription fees. However, you will need to pay for the underlying AI model API usage when using cloud-based LLMs like Claude or GPT-4.
02 How much does Aider cost to use?
Aider itself is free. It ships as a single Free (Open Source) tier priced at $0/month, with no paid plans or subscription fees. The only cost of using Aider is the API usage for whichever LLM you connect it to, and that cost drops to $0 if you run local models via Ollama.
03 What models does Aider support?
Aider works best with Claude 3.7 Sonnet, DeepSeek R1 & Chat V3, OpenAI o1, o3-mini & GPT-4o. It can connect to almost any LLM including local models through Ollama. You can easily switch between different models since you only pay for API calls.
04 How does Aider compare to Cursor?
Aider is open-source and free (pay only for API usage, typically $10-50/month), while Cursor charges $20/month for Pro. Aider is terminal-based and IDE-agnostic, while Cursor is an integrated IDE. Aider offers more flexibility and lower costs, while Cursor provides a more integrated development environment.
05 Can I use Aider without API costs?
Yes, you can run Aider with local models through Ollama, which eliminates API costs entirely. However, this requires local computing resources and the quality may vary compared to cloud-based models like Claude or GPT-4.
06 What are typical Aider API costs per month?
Most developers spend $10-50/month for light to moderate use. One developer reported spending around $10/month maximum when using Aider with Cursor Pro. Power users working on large codebases may spend $50-200/month. Using cost-optimized models like DeepSeek can reduce costs to $5-20/month.
07 Does Aider have a graphical user interface?
No, Aider is a command-line interface (CLI) tool. While this provides flexibility and you can run it inside VS Code, users who prefer graphical interfaces will miss the UI elements available in standalone AI IDEs like Cursor or Windsurf.
08 Does Aider have a free plan?
Yes. Aider is 100% free and open-source under its Free (Open Source) tier — no subscription, no seat limit, no project cap. However, you must supply your own API keys for the AI models you use. Those API calls are billed directly by the model provider (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, etc.); Aider itself charges nothing.
09 How much do API costs actually run when using Aider?
It depends on usage intensity and model choice. Light use on small projects can cost around $1 per project. Typical project-level work runs $2–$5 per project. Intensive agentic workflows with SOTA models can reach $100–$200 per month at API rates, at which point a flat-rate model subscription may be more economical.
10 Which AI models can I use with Aider?
Aider connects to any LLM, including local models. Developers report using GPT-4, Claude Sonnet (various versions), Gemini 2.5 Pro, DeepSeek-R1, and O3-mini with high reasoning effort. Model pricing varies considerably — upgrading to newer SOTA models can cost approximately three times more than prior-generation models for the same workload.
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