claude-code vs gemini-cli
The two are close in size: 144.1k stars for claude-code, 106.8k for gemini-cli. Over the days we have tracked them claude-code moved +4.4% and gemini-cli +0.7%, so claude-code is growing faster right now.
gemini-cli leads on context depth and noise control and customization and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin.
Stars and commit dates come from our own daily tracking. The six axes are read off each project's documentation by our review pipeline, so they describe what a project says about itself, not what we measured in its code.
Where they stand today
A terminal-first agent that executes routine coding tasks and integrates git workflows, plus @claude GitHub tagging.
- Stars
- 144.1k
- Tracked growth
- +4.4%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 15h ago
- Language
- Python
- License
- none declared
- Cost to run
- Anthropic cloud; see docs
Terminal-first access to Gemini 3 with multimodal models, a 1M-token context window, built-in Google Search grounding, and MCP extensibility.
- Stars
- 106.8k
- Tracked growth
- +0.7%
- Maturity
- ●●●●●
- Last commit
- 9h ago
- Language
- TypeScript
- License
- Apache-2.0
- Cost to run
- Free tier (60 req/min, 1,000 req/day); usage-based billing with API key
Six axes, head to head
Each axis runs 0 to 5. The label under a score is what that project's own docs claim, not a category average.
| Axis | claude-code | gemini-cli |
|---|---|---|
Context depth How much of your codebase it sees before it answers: the open diff, the diff plus related files, or the whole repository. | ●●●●● Diff / file only | ●●●●● Whole-repo analysis |
Noise control How it keeps output volume down — severity thresholds, deduplication, incremental runs over new commits only. | ●●●●● No noise controls | ●●●●● Config & trusted folders |
Customization How far it bends to your team: custom rules, prompts, style guides, per-path config. | ●●●●● Plugins & config | ●●●●● Extensible configs & extensions |
Privacy Whether your code stays on your own infrastructure: fully local, self-hostable, or cloud API only. | ●●●●● Cloud service only | ●●●●● Cloud API (your key) |
Model freedom Whether you can point it at any provider, or it is wired to one. | ●●●●● Anthropic only | ●●●●● Gemini + Vertex |
Setup ease What it takes to get a first useful run out of it. | ●●●●● One-command install | ●●●●● One-command run |
Which one to pick
Pick claude-code if…
Easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Pick gemini-cli if…
Easy setup — run instantly with npx to get Gemini 3 access in your terminal for large-context code understanding, GitHub PR review, and extensible tools.
- Context depth: Whole-repo analysis (5/5 against 1/5)
- Noise control: Config & trusted folders (3/5 against 1/5)
- Customization: Extensible configs & extensions (5/5 against 3/5)
- Model freedom: Gemini + Vertex (3/5 against 1/5)
What people want from each one
anthropics/claude-code
Hacker News: Issue: Claude Code is unusable for complex engineering tasks with Feb updates drew 1364 points and 753 comments.
google-gemini/gemini-cli
Hacker News: It looks like the status/need-triage label was removed drew 303 points and 82 comments.
Questions people ask
Is claude-code better than gemini-cli?
gemini-cli leads on context depth and noise control and customization and model freedom. claude-code does not take any axis by a clear margin. claude-code is worth picking when easy setup — install with one command to get a local, terminal-native coding assistant that helps with git workflows and code explanation.
Which of claude-code and gemini-cli keeps my code private?
claude-code: Cloud service only (2/5). gemini-cli: Cloud API (your key) (3/5).
What does each one cost to run?
claude-code: Anthropic cloud; see docs. gemini-cli: Free tier (60 req/min, 1,000 req/day); usage-based billing with API key.
Full profiles: anthropics/claude-code and google-gemini/gemini-cli. Everything else in CLI coding agents.