Gemini CLI: Your Open-Source AI Agent

Gemini CLI offers the industry’s largest usage allowance at 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 model requests per day at no charge. Thre...

Gemini CLI offers the industry’s largest usage allowance at 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 model requests per day at no charge.

Three months ago, Google introduced Gemini CLI, a lightweight, open-source AI agent that brings Gemini directly into the terminal. For developers, the command-line interface (CLI) isn’t just a tool — it’s home. Forget about traditional setups like Kali Linux — Gemini CLI delivers AI-powered penetration testing straight from the terminal. 

It acts as an intelligent assistant that understands your reconnaissance goals, automates cybersecurity tasks, and continuously adapts to your workflow — all from within the command line. This seamless integration of Google’s Gemini AI into core developer tooling is redefining modern cyber operations, bridging the gap between automation, intelligence, and hands-on security execution. 

Gemini CLI code assist demo.

It provides lightweight access to Gemini, giving you the most direct path from your prompt to our model. ''While it excels at coding, we built Gemini CLI to do so much more. It’s a versatile, local utility you can use for a wide range of tasks, from content generation and problem solving to deep research and task management.'' Google also integrated Gemini CLI with Google’s AI coding assistant, Gemini Code Assist, so that all developers get access free, Standard, and Enterprise Code Assist plans, get prompt-driven, AI-first coding in both VS Code and Gemini CLI. 

Unmatched usage limits 

To use Gemini CLI free-of-charge, simply login with a personal Google account to get a free Gemini Code Assist license. That free license gets you access to Gemini 2.5 Pro and its massive 1 million token context window. To ensure you rarely, if ever, hit a limit during this preview, we offer the industry’s largest allowance: 60 model requests per minute and 1,000 requests per day at no charge. If you’re a professional developer who needs to run multiple agents simultaneously, or if you prefer to use specific models, you can use a Google AI Studio or Vertex AI key for usage-based billing or get a Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise license.

You have two ways to install Gemini CLI: Global installation or via npx.

Now in preview, Gemini CLI provides powerful AI capabilities, from code understanding and file manipulation to command execution and dynamic troubleshooting. It offers a fundamental upgrade to your command line experience, enabling you to write code, debug issues and streamline your workflow with natural language. Its power comes from built-in tools allowing you to:

• Ground prompts with Google Search so you can fetch web pages and provide real-time, external context to the model
• Extend Gemini CLI’s capabilities through built-in support for the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or bundled extensions
• Customize prompts and instructions to tailor Gemini for your specific needs and workflows
• Automate tasks and integrate with existing workflows by invoking Gemini CLI non-interactively within your scripts

Because Gemini CLI is fully open source (Apache 2.0), developers can inspect the code to understand how it works and verify its security implications. We fully expect (and welcome!) a global community of developers to contribute to this project by reporting bugs, suggesting features, continuously improving security practices and submitting code improvements. Post your issues or submit your ideas in our GitHub repo. 

Google also built Gemini CLI to be extensible, building on emerging standards like MCP, system prompts (via GEMINI.md) and settings for both personal and team configuration. We know the terminal is a personal space, and everyone deserves the autonomy to make theirs unique. Sometimes, an IDE is the right tool for the job. When that time comes, you want all the capabilities of a powerful AI agent by your side to iterate, learn and overcome issues quickly.

Gemini Code Assist, Google’s AI coding assistant for students, hobbyists and professional developers, now shares the same technology with Gemini CLI. In VS Code, you can place any prompt into the chat window using agent mode, and Code Assist will relentlessly work on your behalf to write tests, fix errors, build out features or even migrate your code. Based on your prompt, Code Assist’s agent will build a multi-step plan, auto-recover from failed implementation paths and recommend solutions you may not have even imagined.

Gemini Code Assist agent mode is available at no additional cost for all plans (free, Standard and Enterprise) through the Insiders channel. If you aren’t already using Gemini Code Assist, give it a try. Its free tier has the highest usage limit in the market today, and only takes less than a minute to get started. So what are you waiting for? Upgrade your terminal experience with Gemini CLI today. Get started by installing Gemini CLI. All you need is an email address to get Gemini practically unlimited in your terminal.