Gemini CLI brought Google's Gemini models into the terminal as a coding agent, with a notably large 1 million token context window that let it reason over far more of a codebase at once than most competing tools. Beyond code generation and debugging, it could call out to Google Search, perform local file operations, and reach external services like Imagen, Veo, and Chirp through the Model Context Protocol, covering tasks well beyond pure coding.
It also underpinned Gemini Code Assist inside IDEs like VS Code, preserving context when a developer moved between the terminal and the editor rather than starting fresh each time. Being Apache 2.0 licensed and open source meant it could be self-hosted or extended by anyone willing to dig into the code.
Google shut down free access for personal and Google AI Pro and Ultra accounts on June 18, 2026, steering consumer users toward Antigravity 2.0 instead. It's still usable with a Gemini API key, through Vertex AI, or with a Code Assist license, but it's no longer the free, casual entry point it once was.