As a developer, I’m always looking for tools that can streamline my workflow. For the past year, AI coding assistants have become indispensable. I started with GitHub Copilot, moved to the more integrated experience of Cursor, and was happily living in that VS Code-forked world. But I’d also heard of Claude Code—an AI coding tool from Anthropic that was supposedly even more powerful. When I first heard about it, I was skeptical. An AI assistant in the command line? How could that possibly compete with a seamless, graphical IDE? That skepticism, combined with its steep $200/month price tag, kept me away.

So, when Google launched gemini-cli, I jumped at the chance to try it, and the results completely subverted my expectations. After just a few days of use, I found that gemini-cli isn’t just a novelty; it’s a powerful tool that fills a different, crucial niche. For certain tasks, it’s not just as good as Cursor—it’s better.

What is Gemini CLI?

In simple terms, gemini-cli is a command-line interface that lets you chat with the Gemini model directly in your terminal. The key difference is that it has context of your local file system. It can read files, write files, and even execute shell commands on your behalf. It’s like having a junior developer pair-programming with you, but one who lives entirely in your terminal.

Getting Started: Installation

Setting it up was surprisingly straightforward. If you have Node.js installed, it’s a one-line command:

npm install -g @google/gemini-cli

After the installation, you can start it:

gemini

This command gives you a choice: you can provide a Gemini API key if you have one, or you can simply authenticate through your browser with your Google account. I opted for the browser login, and it’s been incredibly convenient.

The Big Showdown: Gemini CLI vs. Cursor

So, is it time to ditch Cursor? Not exactly. They excel in different areas.

Where Cursor Wins: The Visual Experience & Model Choice

Cursor is an IDE. Its power lies in its deep, visual integration. Inline diffs, “Cmd+K” magic, and having everything in one window is a fluid, intuitive experience. It also aggregates a ton of different models, giving you the freedom to choose the best one for a specific task.

Where Gemini CLI Wins: Unmatched Power and Integration

gemini-cli offers a different kind of power that appeals to the terminal-centric developer.

  1. A Perfectly Paired Model: While Cursor offers choice, its prompts can feel generic to accommodate all models. gemini-cli is built by Google, for the Google Gemini model (like the 2.5 Pro). This tight integration means the tool can be highly optimized for the model’s strengths, and it often feels like it.

  2. Massive Context and Effortless Awareness: The 1M token context window of Gemini 2.5 Pro is a monster. It can hold the context of most of my projects in a single session. This seems to have a profound side effect: where Cursor often has to use grep or other commands to find the right files to feed to the LLM, gemini-cli often feels like it innately knows where the relevant code is. It’s a subtle but massive time-saver.

  3. Shockingly Good Free Access: This might be the biggest practical advantage. Perhaps because it’s a newer project, I have been using my free, standard Google account for months without hitting any meaningful paywall or rate limit. Compared to the steep subscription fees for other premium models, this makes gemini-cli incredibly accessible.

Conclusion: The Right Tool for the Right Job

I haven’t uninstalled Cursor. Its visual-first approach is still unbeatable for large-scale refactoring and exploring an unfamiliar codebase.

But for my daily, focused work, I’m spending more and more time with Gemini CLI. It’s my go-to for quick questions, generating boilerplate, running tests, and performing targeted refactors without ever taking my hands off the keyboard.

If you live in the terminal, gemini-cli is more than just a chatbot. It’s a powerful, transparent, and efficient partner that proves the command line is still one of the most powerful developer interfaces in the world.