# Cline Review

> Cline review: BYO-key OSS agent; free for individuals, pay only for inference; Plan/Act modes; also CLI, desktop app, SDK (also oss_self_hosted). Verified.

![Cline logo](https://www.versusref.com/logos/cline.png)

BYO-key OSS agent; free for individuals, pay only for inference; Plan/Act modes; also CLI, desktop app, SDK (also oss_self_hosted)

See pricing · Open source · facts verified Oct 2, 2026

## What we know about Cline

Cline sits in the ai coding agents category, where it is bYO-key OSS agent; free for individuals, pay only for inference; Plan/Act modes; also CLI, desktop app, SDK (also oss_self_hosted). We keep this Cline profile grounded in primary sources, each fact dated to when we last confirmed it.

Cline does not publish a public per-minute rate we have been able to verify, so the price figure here stays blank until we can confirm one. We would rather show nothing than a guessed number; if you have a current Cline quote, it is the fastest way for us to close that gap.

On capabilities, Cline covers enterprise plan (contact sales), pick the model per task, runs local models, self-hosted / vpc deployment, admin audit logs, and autonomous multi-file edits, and does not offer opens prs from issues. Each of those is verified against Cline's own docs or dashboard, not marketing copy.

In total we track 27 verified facts for Cline today, each linking the primary source it came from so you can check our work - and vendor claims we have not measured ourselves are labeled as such on the Cline fact sheet below.

## Fact sheet

### Pricing

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| How usage is metered | Own API key + per-token + time windows | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |
| What the free plan allows | Free for individual developers: VS Code extension | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |
| Cheapest paid plan (monthly) | $9.99 | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/cline-pass) |
| Rate-limit window | 5-hour rolling window + weekly calendar period + monthly... | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/getting-started/clinepass) |
| Bring your own API key | true | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |
| Enterprise plan (contact sales) | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |

### Capabilities

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pick the model per task | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline) |
| Runs local models | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/running-models-locally/overview.md) |

### Compliance & trust

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Trains on your code? | Vendor states 'your code is never used to train models'... | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/enterprise) |
| SSO | true (Enterprise only) | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |
| Self-hosted / VPC deployment | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/enterprise) |
| Admin audit logs | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/enterprise-solutions/overview.md) |

### Build experience

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Where it runs | VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, CLI/TUI +3 more | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/) |
| Editor support | VS Code (Marketplace + Open VSX, so Cursor/Windsurf) +1 more | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/) |
| Autonomous multi-file edits | ✓  true | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline) |
| Runs terminal commands | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/features/auto-approve.md) |
| Background / cloud agents | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/cli/scheduling.md) |
| Parallel agents | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/usage/kanban.md) |
| Opens PRs from issues | ✗  No | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/usage/kanban.md) |
| MCP support | ✓  true (MCP Marketplace) | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/mcp/mcp-overview.md) |
| Project rules files | .clinerules/, .cline/rules/, AGENTS.md, .cursorrules +4 more | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/customization/cline-rules.md) |
| Checkpoints / rollback | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://docs.cline.bot/core-workflows/checkpoints.md) |

### Commercial

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline) |
| GitHub stars | ~69,700 | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline) |
| Last release | v4.1.22 (extension), 2026-09-30 | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline/releases) |
| Supported model providers | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google Gemini, OpenRouter +11 more | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/cline/cline) |
| Hosted / paid option | Cline (usage-billing) pay-as-you-go credits | Oct 2 | [source](https://cline.bot/pricing) |

## Cline head-to-head

| Comparison | Record | Per use case |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Cline vs Cursor](https://www.versusref.com/coding-agents/cline-vs-cursor/) | won 6 · lost 1 · tied 0 | Beginners: won; Enterprise: lost; Free Plans: won; Local Models: won; Open Source: won; Terminal Workflows: won; VS Code: won |
| [Cline vs Kilo Code](https://www.versusref.com/coding-agents/cline-vs-kilo-code/) | won 3 · lost 4 · tied 0 | Beginners: lost; Enterprise: won; Free Plans: lost; Local Models: lost; Open Source: lost; Terminal Workflows: won; VS Code: won |

Source: https://www.versusref.com/coding-agents/tools/cline/