Trae
A free AI coding IDE from ByteDance that bundles Claude and GPT-class models at no cost.
What is Trae?
Trae is a VS Code fork built by ByteDance, the company behind TikTok, that ships as a full AI-native coding IDE. It gives you chat, inline autocomplete, and an agent mode that can plan and edit across multiple files — and unusually, lets you use frontier models like Claude and GPT-class models without a subscription.
Trae arrived internationally well after Cursor and Windsurf were already entrenched, so it competes almost entirely on price: the same class of model access those tools charge a monthly fee for, Trae gives away. That's a classic subsidised-growth play from a company with deep pockets, and it comes with the usual asterisk — free access today is not a guarantee of free access once the user base is big enough that the economics change.
Key features
- VS Code-based interface with familiar shortcuts and extensions
- Agent mode that plans and edits across multiple files
- Free access to Claude and GPT-class models
- Inline autocomplete tuned per language
- Built-in terminal and debugging integration
- One-click import of existing VS Code settings
Pros
- Genuinely free access to frontier models that cost real money elsewhere
- Familiar VS Code layout means almost no learning curve
- Agent mode handles multi-file refactors competently
Cons
- Free forever isn't guaranteed — ByteDance has repriced other products before
- Data handling and privacy terms deserve a careful read given the parent company
- Smaller plugin ecosystem than mainstream VS Code
