Zed Freemium

What it is

Zed is a fast, open-source code editor written in Rust by Zed Industries, the team that created Atom and Tree-sitter. It runs on macOS, Linux and Windows, and the code is mainly GPL-3.0-or-later with some Apache-2.0 components. Real-time multiplayer collaboration is built in. For AI, Zed takes an open approach: you can use its own agent, run external agents inside the editor, or turn AI features off completely.

Key features

• Native, GPU-accelerated editor that stays responsive on large projects
• Agent panel for prompting agents, adding context, reviewing changes and managing threads
• Parallel agent threads across projects and worktrees
• Inline assistant for transforming a selection in place
• Edit prediction as you type, plus AI-written commit messages in the Git panel
• Terminal threads for running agent CLIs directly in the editor

Skills, subagents and MCP

Zed supports the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), which lets other agents run inside the editor. The docs list external agents including Claude, Codex, OpenCode, GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Pi, with Gemini CLI also documented as an option. Zed's own agent can use built-in tools, profiles, skills, instructions and MCP servers (which Zed calls context servers). Model access is flexible: Zed-hosted models, your own API keys, existing subscriptions, gateways or local models.

Pricing

At the time of writing (September 2026), the Personal plan is free forever, with 2,000 accepted edit predictions and unlimited use of your own API keys or external agents. Pro costs $10 per month with unlimited edit predictions and $5 of monthly token credit, then usage-based billing; a 14-day trial is available. Business is $30 per seat per month with organisation-wide AI policies and access controls. Verified students can get Pro features for 12 months, with some top-tier models excluded.

Who it is for

Developers who want a fast native editor and prefer to choose their own agents, and teams that pair-program in real time.

Verdict

Zed is the most agent-neutral editor in this directory: it runs Claude, Codex and others through ACP instead of locking you into one assistant. Its extension ecosystem is smaller than VS Code's, and Windows support is the newest platform.