ByteDance's free AI-first IDE. Claude 3.7 + GPT-4o with a built-in Builder that scaffolds entire apps.
Trae is the AI-native IDE launched in early 2025 by ByteDance (TikTok's parent). It's a fork of VSCode that ships with deep Claude 3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4o integration — and unlike Cursor, the AI features are completely free during the open beta. The killer feature is AI Builder, a chat-driven agent that can scaffold an entire Next.js + Tailwind + Prisma app from a single prompt.
Who it's for: Indie devs and small teams who want Cursor-class AI without the $20/mo. Also strong for non-English-first developers — Trae ships native Chinese, Japanese, and Korean UI.
Describe your app in plain English. Trae's Builder agent scaffolds routes, components, database schema, and styles. Real multi-file edits, not just snippets.
Switch between Anthropic and OpenAI flagship models per chat, per file, even per prompt. Trae routes each request to whichever model fits best — Claude for reasoning, GPT-4o for code.
Highlight code, hit Cmd-I, ask for any change. Same UX as Cursor's Cmd-K but with no daily quota during beta.
First AI IDE with full Chinese, Japanese, and Korean localization. The chat replies in your language, including comments and commit messages.
Trae is the most aggressive price move in AI coding tools in 2026. If you're a solo dev or student who's been paying $20/mo for Cursor and wondering if it's worth it, give Trae a serious try. The Builder agent is the real deal, and the dual-model routing is a genuinely better UX than picking one. Just understand you're trusting ByteDance with your source code.
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