Trae

Trae

Freemium

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Development Tools
IDEs & Editors

Published 29 May 2026 · Last updated 1 October 2026

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Scores

Popularity1/5

Early adoption phase; primarily known in Asia and ByteDance-adjacent communities.

Learning Curve2/5

Minimal setup with a smoothly integrated ByteDance AI assistant; quick to get started.

Flexibility3/5

ByteDance plugin system; less mature than VS Code's extension ecosystem.

Performance3/5

Electron-based with a ByteDance AI backend; comparable performance to Cursor.

Portability3/5

ByteDance AI features are platform-specific; underlying editor skills transfer to VS Code.

About Trae

Trae is ByteDance's AI coding product. TraeCode is an AI-native IDE forked from Visual Studio Code and compatible with most VS Code extensions. You describe a project in natural language, and the agent plans the work, edits across files, and scaffolds the frontend, backend, and configuration. Trae supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) for connecting external tools and data sources. AI chat handles code explanation, debugging, and bug fixes, and an integrated webview supports web development.

TraeWork is the workspace for delegating longer tasks to cloud agents, with the number of concurrent cloud tasks growing by plan. The Free plan runs in Auto mode, where Trae chooses the model, and paid plans unlock all models with a monthly usage allowance that scales by tier.

Trae has also drawn privacy scrutiny: security researchers documented extensive telemetry to ByteDance-controlled endpoints that continued even with telemetry disabled in settings. That matters most to developers working on sensitive or proprietary codebases.

Key Features

  • TraeCode IDE built on a VS Code fork, compatible with most VS Code extensions
  • Agent that plans and scaffolds a full project from a natural-language description
  • Multi-file edits and cross-file refactoring
  • MCP support for external tools and data sources
  • AI chat for explaining code, debugging, and fixing bugs
  • TraeWork for delegating longer tasks to cloud agents
  • Auto mode on the Free plan and all models on paid plans
  • Integrated webview for web development

Pros

  • A free plan with Auto mode and limited autocomplete needs no payment
  • Familiar VS Code interface and extension compatibility
  • Scaffolds a complete project before writing code
  • Pro+ and Ultra scale usage and concurrent cloud tasks for heavier work
  • MCP support connects external tools without custom scripting

Cons

  • Telemetry to ByteDance servers persists when disabled in settings, as documented by security researchers
  • Personal data is retained for 5 years after account deletion, and non-personal data indefinitely
  • ByteDance ownership raises geopolitical and data-handling concerns for enterprise use
  • The Free plan is limited to Auto mode with limited usage and a standard queue
  • No offline mode or local-only operation

Trae Pricing

Freemium
FreeFree
  • · Auto mode only, with limited usage
  • · 5,000 autocompletions per month
  • · Standard queue
  • · 2 concurrent cloud tasks
Pro$20/monthly
  • · Auto mode plus all models
  • · $20 of usage per month
  • · Unlimited autocomplete
  • · Fast queue
Pro+$60/monthly
  • · Everything in Pro
  • · $60 of usage per month, 3x Pro
  • · Up to 15 concurrent cloud tasks in TraeWork
Ultra$200/monthly
  • · Everything in Pro+
  • · $200 of usage per month, 10x Pro
  • · Model early access
  • · Up to 20 concurrent cloud tasks in TraeWork

Tools Related to Trae

Alternatives to Trae(9)

Devin (formerly Windsurf)

Devin (formerly Windsurf)

AI-native IDE by Cognition, formerly Windsurf by Codeium. Built on VS Code with Devin Local agent for multi-file tasks and an Agent Command Center for managing local and cloud agents.

Freemium
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4/5

Trae (ByteDance) and Devin are both AI-native IDEs; Devin uses Cognition's Devin Local agent, Trae is backed by ByteDance.

Kiro

Kiro

Kiro is AWS's spec-driven agentic IDE built on VS Code that converts natural-language requirements into user stories, architecture docs, and working code — taking projects from prototype to production.

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4/5

Both AI-native IDEs by major tech companies; Kiro is backed by Amazon, Trae by ByteDance — same emerging AI IDE category.

PyCharm

PyCharm

JetBrains' Python IDE with code completion, debugging, testing, and Jupyter support, free for core use with a Pro subscription for advanced features.

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4/5

PyCharm is JetBrains' Python IDE with deep refactoring and debugging; Trae is a free VS Code fork with built-in model access and a Builder Mode. PyCharm for serious Python projects, Trae for free AI-assisted building.

Google Antigravity

Google Antigravity

Google Antigravity is Google's agent-first development platform, a desktop app and CLI where parallel AI agents plan, code, test, and verify tasks using Gemini, Claude, or OpenAI's open-weight gpt-oss models.

Freemium
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4/5

Trae is ByteDance's VS Code fork with free model access and an agentic Builder Mode; Antigravity is Google's agent-first platform with parallel agents. Trae for a free, familiar editor, Antigravity for multi-agent task delegation.

Cursor

Cursor

Cursor is an AI coding tool from Anysphere: a VS Code-based editor with Tab completion and autonomous agents, also available as a CLI, in the browser, on mobile, and from Slack.

Freemium
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4/5

Trae (ByteDance) is an emerging AI IDE; Cursor is more established — same AI-first code editor category.

Claude Code

Claude Code

Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool that runs in your terminal and IDEs, reads your entire codebase, edits files, runs commands, and handles git workflows through natural language. It supports multi-agent orchestration, MCP integrations, and custom automation via CLAUDE.md and hooks.

Paid
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4/5

Claude Code is a terminal-based agentic CLI; Trae is an IDE — different interaction paradigms for AI-assisted coding.

Links

Website Docs

Vendor

ByteDance

Tags

Free TierAI-powered

Details

Maintained
Yes
Primary languages
Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Java, Go, Rust
Type
AI IDE
Open source
No
AI features
Chat, Agent, Inline edit, Autocomplete