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Trae

Trae

Free AI-powered IDE by ByteDance

Free (no paid tier) ✗ Split Opinion Visit Website ↗

Score Breakdown

7.6
7.6
9.0
Code Quality & Accuracy 8.2
7.8 7.9 9.0
Context Understanding 8.0
7.5 7.7 8.8
Multi-file Editing 8.1
7.6 7.8 8.9
Speed & Performance 8.4
8.0 8.0 9.2
Pricing Value 9.3
9.5 8.5 10.0
Ease of Use 8.5
8.2 8.1 9.3
Model Flexibility 7.7
7.2 7.3 8.5
Extension Ecosystem 6.8
6.2 6.3 8.0

Judge Opinions

Claude Opus 7.6

"Offers an unmatched value proposition as a completely free AI IDE with access to premium models including Claude and GPT-4o. Builder Mode for natural language project generation is well-executed, and the SOLO Coder feature adds autonomous capabilities. Privacy concerns around ByteDance data collection are significant and well-founded, and the lack of a public changelog raises transparency questions about development direction."

+ Completely free with access to premium AI models
+ Builder Mode for intuitive natural language development
+ Familiar VS Code-based interface with extension support
+ Multi-model support including Claude, GPT-4o, and DeepSeek
+ MCP integration for external tool connectivity
- Significant ByteDance data collection and privacy concerns
- Limited platform support with Linux still planned
- No public changelog or development transparency
- No enterprise, team, or compliance features
GPT-5.2 7.6

"Trae is an AI-powered IDE from ByteDance that combines chat, code generation, and project-wide edits in a single desktop editor, with an additional “SOLO” agent mode for longer tasks. Its request-based plans make it relatively approachable to try, but throughput can depend on queue times and fast-request limits, especially during peak usage. Data/privacy concerns and the lack of enterprise controls are the main barriers for sensitive or regulated teams."

+ Free tier with no credit card required for basic usage
+ Pro plan increases fast-request limits and unlocks higher-throughput workflows
+ Multimodal input support (images, diagrams)
+ Clean, intuitive interface
- Data privacy concerns with ByteDance
- Fast-request limits and queueing can bottleneck day-to-day use during high traffic
- SOLO mode can be costly to run and may consume credits quickly on long tasks
- No team or enterprise features (SSO, policy controls, analytics)
Gemini 3 9.0

"Trae is the wildcard of 2026. By offering premium models (Claude 3.7 Sonnet, GPT-4o) entirely for free, ByteDance is aggressively buying market share. Technically, its 'SOLO' mode is impressive, mimicking the best of Cursor/Windsurf with a clean, 'Apple-like' aesthetic. While the sustainability of its pricing is questionable, the engineering quality is undeniable."

+ Unbeatable value proposition (Free access to SOTA models)
+ 'SOLO' mode provides near-autonomous coding capabilities
+ Exceptional UI/UX design that feels modern and fluid
+ Fast, responsive editor core based on VS Code
- Long-term pricing and privacy questions remain given the ByteDance ownership
- Ecosystem and plugin support is still maturing
- Context indexing feels slightly shallower than Cursor's implementation

/// RECOMMENDED_USE_CASE

"Individual developers and students who want a completely free AI IDE with access to premium models"