Is OpenCode free? Yes. The OpenCode app costs $0, it is open source under the MIT license, and it comes with a set of free AI models that work without your own API key. The catch is the limits. The free models have a daily usage cap, they are offered for a limited time, and some of them may use your prompts to improve the model.
If you need more, you pay for the AI model, not for OpenCode. This guide shows what is free, where the free limits are, and what OpenCode Zen, OpenCode Go and your own API key cost.
Quick Answer
Yes, OpenCode is free. The app is open source (MIT license) and costs $0 in the terminal, the desktop app and the editor extension. It also includes free AI models with a daily usage limit. You only pay if you pick a paid model: your own API key, pay-as-you-go OpenCode Zen, or OpenCode Go from $10 a month.
OpenCode Free Models: What You Get Without an API Key
OpenCode includes free AI models. You do not need your own API key to use them. Open OpenCode, run /models, and pick any model with “Free” in its name. The free models only work inside OpenCode. You cannot use them from other apps or tools.
Which OpenCode models are free right now?
This list was checked against the official OpenCode docs on 10 November 2026. OpenCode says every free model is offered “for a limited time”, so the list changes often.
| Free model | Cost | What happens to your data |
|---|---|---|
| Big Pickle | $0 | May be used to improve the model |
| GLM-5.3-Flash Free | $0 | Not stored, not used for training |
| DeepSeek V4.1 Flash Free | $0 | Not stored, not used for training |
| MiniMax M3.1 Flash Free | $0 | Not stored, not used for training |
| LongCat 2.5 Free | $0, 100 requests per day | Not stored, not used for training. Hosted in China |
| Beam Free | $0 | Not used for training. Kept for 30 days. Blocked in some countries |
| Flint 40B Free | $0 | May be used to improve the model. Kept for 30 days |
| MiMo-V2.6-Flash Free | $0 | May be used to improve the model |
| Iceman Free | $0 | Stored and used to improve the model |
| Inkling 2 Small Free | $0 | Stored and may be used for training. Not available in the EU |
| Nemotron 3 Ultra, 3.5 Lightning, 3.5 Super VL (Free) | $0 | NVIDIA trial terms. Do not send private or secret data |
OpenCode Free Limits: Is OpenCode Free Unlimited?
No. The OpenCode app has no limit, but the built-in free models do. Heavy daily coding will hit the cap.
What is the OpenCode free usage limit?
OpenCode does not publish one fixed number for the free limit. The official docs give a number for only one model: LongCat 2.5 Free allows 100 requests per day. When you reach the limit, OpenCode shows the message “Free usage limit reached” with a reset time.
How to fix “Free usage limit reached” in OpenCode
- Wait for the reset. The error shows the time when your free usage comes back.
- Switch to a free API key or a local model. A free Google Gemini or Groq key, or a local Ollama model, keeps your cost at $0.
- Pay for more usage. OpenCode Go starts at $10 a month. OpenCode Zen is pay-as-you-go.
- Already on Go? Run
/connect, choose OpenCode Go, paste your Go API key, and pick a model that starts withopencode-go/. If you pick a model that ends with-free, you are still on the free limit.
How to fix “OpenCode 1.18.0 or newer is required to use the free tier”
This message means your OpenCode version is too old for the free models, or you are on a test build that reports the wrong version. OpenCode v1 no longer supports free models.
- Check your version. Run
opencode --versionin the terminal, or open Settings, then About, in the desktop app. - Install the latest OpenCode v2 from the official site. The built-in updater in the old desktop app keeps you on version 1, so you must install v2 yourself.
- If you installed version 1 with a package manager, remove it first.
Source: the OpenCode team’s pinned note on free tier issues.
Is OpenCode Free or Paid? What Costs $0 and What Does Notfv
The OpenCode software is completely free and open-source. There are no paid editions, no locked features, and no required seat counts. What you download is the full tool, not a trial version of something bigger.
This is where most confusion about OpenCode pricing starts. OpenCode has two separate layers, and only one of them can ever cost money. The first layer is the application itself. The second is the AI model you plug into it.
OpenCode is built by Anomaly, the team behind SST, and released under the MIT licence. As an open-source coding agent, it runs in your terminal and reads your codebase, plans changes, edits files, and runs real commands.
Think of it as a terminal AI assistant that does the work of a coding teammate, without charging you for the seat.
The OpenCode application costs $0
The core OpenCode app is free. You install it, point it at a model, and start working. You do not even need an account to run the open-source tool.
The free layer includes the terminal interface (the command-line version) and a desktop app. The desktop app is currently in beta on macOS, Windows and Linux, so treat it as newer and less settled than the terminal version. There is also a VS Code style editor extension. All of these are part of the free software, with no separate charge to unlock them.
Why the connected AI model can still cost money
It connects to an outside AI model, and that model is where any cost can appear. The app stays free either way.
You have four main ways to give OpenCode a model: a free API tier, a local model, your own paid key, or a paid add-on. The next sections walk through each one.
How to Use OpenCode for Free With Your Own Model
You can use OpenCode at a total cost of $0 by connecting a free AI model. There are two reliable ways to do this: a free API tier, or a local model that runs on your own machine.
This is the part vendors with a single paid plan cannot offer. Because OpenCode is model-agnostic, it does not force you toward a paid model. That makes it one of the more genuinely AI coding tools available, not a free trial in disguise.
Route 1: Connect a free API tier
A free API tier is a no-cost access level from an AI provider. You get a key, paste it into OpenCode, and the provider’s model does the thinking. Common examples people connect are Google Gemini and Groq, both of which offer free access levels.
Free tiers usually come with their own limits, and those limits are set by the provider, not by OpenCode. Availability and caps can change over time, so it is worth checking the provider’s own page before you rely on one for heavy work.
How to set it up:
- Create a free API key on the provider’s site.
- In OpenCode, run
/connect, choose the provider, and paste the key. - Run
/modelsand pick a model.
Free API tiers have their own rate limits. The provider sets them, not OpenCode. When you hit one, wait for it to reset or switch to another free model.
Route 2: Run a local model through Ollama
Ollama lets you run AI models on your own computer, offline. You download a model once, and it runs on your hardware instead of a paid server. Connect it to OpenCode and the whole stack can run for zero dollars.
This is the most private route too, since your code never leaves your machine. Local models depend on your computer’s power, so a stronger machine handles bigger models more comfortably. But for keeping OpenCode use free, Ollama local models are the cleanest path.
Pro tip: Start with a free API tier to test how OpenCode behaves, then move to a local Ollama model once you know which model size your machine can run smoothly. You lose nothing by trying both, since neither costs money.
BYOK: What You Pay When You Bring Your Own API Key
BYOK means bring your own key. It is the route where a real bill can appear, but that bill comes from the AI provider, not from OpenCode. You pay the model maker directly for what you use.
With BYOK, you take an API key from a commercial provider such as OpenAI or Anthropic’s Claude, and connect it to OpenCode. From then on, every request you send uses that provider’s model, and the provider charges you for the tokens (the small chunks of text a model reads and writes). OpenCode adds no markup and takes no cut.
What you are paying for with BYOK
The payment is for commercial-model usage, and only that. The AI provider bills you, based on how much you use. The free OpenCode application is not part of that bill at all.
This matters for budgeting. A quiet week with little coding costs little. A heavy week of large tasks costs more, because token usage costs scale with how much the model reads and writes. You are renting the model by the token, while the tool that drives it stays free.
If you want to weigh a commercial model like Claude against the free routes, our claude guide breaks down where a paid model earns its cost and where a free model is enough.
OpenCode Zen Pricing: Pay-As-You-Go Costs and Fees
OpenCode Zen is an optional pay-as-you-go gateway for models, with no monthly fee. You add credit to a balance and pay per token, only for what you actually use. A quiet month can cost nothing.
Zen exists for people who like BYOK’s usage-based pricing but do not want to hunt down and manage keys from many providers. It gives you a curated set of benchmarked models through one connection, and it tops up your balance automatically when you run low. This is the second of OpenCode’s two optional paid add-ons, and it sits between full BYOK and a fixed subscription.
The important point for OpenCode pricing is that Zen is optional and usage-based. You are not locked into a monthly charge. If you stop coding, the meter stops with you.
OpenCode Go Pricing and Limits: $10, $40 and $20 Plans
OpenCode Go is an optional subscription. You do not need it to use OpenCode. It gives steady access to popular open coding models such as GLM-5.3, Kimi K3 and Kimi K2.7 Code.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Go | $10 a month | One person who codes most days |
| Go Plus | $40 a month | One person who needs higher limits |
| Go Teams | $20 per member a month | Teams. Each member gets their own limits |
OpenCode Go limits explained
Go is not unlimited. Each model has a monthly limit set in dollars. On the $10 plan, GLM-5.3-Flash has a $60 monthly limit and GLM-5.3 has a $15 monthly limit.
You can use up to 20% of a model’s monthly limit in any 5 hours, and up to 50% in any week. If you reach a limit, you can keep working on the free models, or turn on Extra Usage to spend your pay-as-you-go balance.
Is there an OpenCode Go free trial?
The official Go page does not list a free trial (checked 10 November 2026). The free way to test OpenCode is the built-in free models.
Common mistake: assuming “generous limits” means unlimited. Go has usage caps on its bundled models, and free tiers have their own caps too. Free and low-cost does not mean infinite. Match the plan to how much you actually code, not to the best-case headline.
OpenCode Zen vs Go vs BYOK vs Free: Cost Comparison
OpenCode pricing changes based on which AI-access route you pick, never on the app itself. The table below shows how the cost structure differs across all four routes. The software column stays $0 in every single row.
| Route | Software cost | AI access cost | Who bills you | Runs offline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free API tier | $0 | Free, within provider limits | No charge | No |
| Ollama local model | $0 | Free | No charge | Yes |
| BYOK commercial model | $0 | Pay per token | The AI provider | No |
| OpenCode Zen | $0 | Pay per token, prepaid balance | OpenCode (Anomaly) | No |
| OpenCode Go | $0 | Flat monthly subscription | OpenCode (Anomaly) | No |
Which OpenCode Option Should You Pick?
The right route depends on one question: do you want to pay for AI access at all, and if so, how? Here is a simple way to decide, based only on cost structure and setup, not on which model is “best”.
- Want a fully free route? Connect a free API tier such as Google Gemini or Groq, or run a local model with Ollama. Total cost stays $0.
- Want to use a specific commercial model? Use BYOK with your own key and pay that provider for token usage. Good when you already have an account with a provider.
- Want usage-based billing without managing keys? Use OpenCode Zen and pay per token from a prepaid balance. A quiet month can cost nothing.
- Want one predictable monthly bill? Subscribe to OpenCode Go for a flat monthly price and steady access to open-source models.
Our Honest Verdict
OpenCode is free in the way that matters. The app costs $0 and nothing forces you to pay. The built-in free models are enough to test it and to do light work. The limit is real, though. Heavy daily coding will hit the free cap, and the free model list changes often.
Our advice: start on the free models. Add a free Gemini or Groq key, or a local Ollama model, when you hit the cap. Pay for OpenCode Go only when you code most days.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is the OpenCode desktop app free?
Yes. The OpenCode desktop app and the terminal interface are both part of the free, open-source software, so they cost $0. The desktop app is still in beta on macOS, Windows and Linux. You only pay if you connect a paid AI model or choose an optional add-on.
Does OpenCode have paid editions or feature locks?
No. OpenCode has no paid edition of the software itself. There are no locked features and no required seat counts. The core tool is MIT-licensed and free for everyone. The only paid parts are optional model add-ons, OpenCode Zen and OpenCode Go, which cover AI model access, not the app.
Do teams need to pay for OpenCode seats?
No. OpenCode does not charge per seat for the software. Every team member can install and run the open-source tool for free. Your only shared cost is the AI model usage, which depends on whether you use a free model, your own paid API key, or a paid add-on like Zen or Go.
Does BYOK mean I pay OpenCode for token usage?
No. With BYOK, which means bring your own key, you pay the AI provider directly, not OpenCode. If you connect OpenAI or Anthropic’s Claude with your own key, that provider bills you for token usage. OpenCode takes no cut and adds no markup for a model you connect yourself.
What is the difference between OpenCode Zen and OpenCode Go?
OpenCode Zen is a pay-as-you-go gateway with no monthly fee, where you add credit and pay per token. OpenCode Go is a flat $10 a month subscription with generous usage limits on a curated set of open-source models. Zen suits light or spiky use. Go suits steady daily coding.
Can I use a free API tier instead of subscribing to OpenCode Go?
Yes. You do not need OpenCode Go to use OpenCode. You can use the built-in free models, connect a free API tier such as Google Gemini or Groq, or run a local model with Ollama. These routes cost nothing, so Go stays fully optional.
