All stacks
Zero-Cost Dev Stack
Complete AI-powered development without spending a dime. All tools have generous free tiers, no credit card required.
$0/month6 layers
Best For
Students, hobbyists, bootstrapped founders, and anyone avoiding subscriptions
Stack Components
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3
CLI
Gemini CLI / OpenCode Zen
1,500 req/day Gemini 3 Flash or OpenCode Zen free models
View tool details4
5
6
Tools in this Stack
Unified API for 29 free models
Free tierAPIPopular
No credit card required
20 RPM, 50 requests/day (1,000/day with $10+ credits)
API6 models
View OpenRouter detailsAI-native IDE with GPT-5.5-Instant
Free tierPopular
No credit card required
Limited Agent requests + limited Tab completions/mo + 1-week Pro trial
Hybrid5 models
View Cursor detailsGoogle's official CLI with Gemini 3 Flash (1,500 req/day)
Free tierOpen sourceAPI
No credit card required
1,500 req/day (Gemini 3 Flash), 100 req/day (Gemini 2.5 Pro)
API2 models
View Gemini CLI detailsRun frontier models locally
Open sourceLocalPopular
No credit card required
100% free, unlimited local usage
Local6 models
View Ollama detailsSimple Python-native vector DB
Open sourcePopular
No credit card required
Free, unlimited local
Hybrid
View ChromaDB details1M tokens/day free, multilingual
Free tierAPIPopular
No credit card required
1M tokens/day
API
View Jina Embeddings v3 details