Complete pricing guide for Aider. Compare all plans, analyze costs, and find the perfect tier for your needs.
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LLM API costs apply separately (e.g., Claude 3.7 Sonnet ~$3/$15 per M tokens, GPT-4o ~$2.50/$10 per M tokens). Local models via Ollama are free.
Pricing sourced from Aider · Last verified March 2026
Aider itself is free and open-source under the Apache 2.0 license. However, you need an LLM to power it. Cloud models like Claude 3.7 Sonnet or GPT-4o charge per token (typically $3-15 per million tokens). If you use local models through Ollama or LM Studio, the entire stack is free. A typical coding session with cloud models costs $0.50-5.00 depending on codebase size and request complexity.
Cursor ($20/month) and Copilot ($10-19/month) are IDE-based tools that offer inline suggestions and chat within the editor. Aider is free, terminal-based, and edits files directly with auto-commits. Aider gives you more model flexibility and works in any environment, but lacks the visual polish of IDE-integrated tools. If you live in VS Code, Cursor is more convenient. If you live in the terminal or want to avoid subscription fees, Aider is the better pick.
Claude 3.7 Sonnet is the top performer for complex multi-file edits and refactoring. GPT-4o is a close second and cheaper for simpler tasks. DeepSeek R1 excels at reasoning-heavy problems like algorithm design. For local models, Qwen 2.5 Coder 32B via Ollama provides decent quality for routine work at zero cost.
Yes. Aider runs locally on your machine and only sends code context to whatever LLM you configure. For complete privacy, use a local model through Ollama or LM Studio. No code leaves your machine. For cloud models, only the files you explicitly add to the chat are sent to the API.
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