# Pi Review

> Pi review: Minimal-by-design harness: no built-in subagents, plan mode or permission popups; extend via packages, skills and SDK. Verified pricing, features.

![Pi logo](https://www.versusref.com/logos/pi.png)

Minimal-by-design harness: no built-in subagents, plan mode or permission popups; extend via packages, skills and SDK

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

## What we know about Pi

Pi sits in the ai coding agents category, where it is minimal-by-design harness: no built-in subagents, plan mode or permission popups; extend via packages, skills and SDK. We keep this Pi profile grounded in primary sources, each fact dated to when we last confirmed it.

Pi 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 Pi quote, it is the fastest way for us to close that gap.

On capabilities, Pi covers pick the model per task, runs local models, autonomous multi-file edits, runs terminal commands, mcp support, and checkpoints / rollback, and does not offer parallel agents. Each of those is verified against Pi's own docs or dashboard, not marketing copy.

In total we track 15 verified facts for Pi 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 Pi fact sheet below.

## Fact sheet

### Pricing

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| How usage is metered | Own API key | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Bring your own API key | Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |

### Capabilities

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Pick the model per task | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Runs local models | ✓  Ollama | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |

### Build experience

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Where it runs | CLI (interactive TUI), print/JSON mode, RPC, TypeScript SDK | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Autonomous multi-file edits | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/docs/latest) |
| Runs terminal commands | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Parallel agents | ✗  No | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| MCP support | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Project rules files | AGENTS.md (from ~/.pi/agent/, parent directories... | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |
| Checkpoints / rollback | ✓  Yes | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |

### Commercial

| Fact | Value | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| License | MIT | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi) |
| GitHub stars | 111,700 | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi) |
| Last release | v1.0.0 (2026-10-01) | Oct 2 | [source](https://github.com/earendil-works/pi/releases) |
| Supported model providers | Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, Bedrock, Mistral +10 more | Oct 2 | [source](https://pi.dev/) |

## Pi head-to-head

| Comparison | Record | Per use case |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [Pi vs Claude Code](https://www.versusref.com/coding-agents/claude-code-vs-pi/) | won 3 · lost 4 · tied 0 | Beginners: lost; Enterprise: lost; Free Plans: won; Local Models: won; Open Source: won; Terminal Workflows: lost; VS Code: lost |

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