Antigravity vs Claude Code: models, plans, free tier, MCP

Antigravity vs Claude Code: Google Antigravity is an agent-first desktop app, CLI and IDE that runs Gemini models plus some Claude and open models, with a free tier for personal Google accounts; Claude Code is Anthropic’s terminal-first agent (also in IDEs, a desktop app and the web) that runs Claude models and needs a paid Claude plan or Console account.

Applies to: Antigravity 2.0 v2.19.1, Antigravity CLI v1.2.12 and Claude Code 2.1.285 (docs as of October 2, 2026). Last checked: October 2, 2026.

On this page

What each one is

Google Antigravity has three surfaces (getting started):

• Antigravity 2.0, a desktop app where agents work inside Projects (sets of local folders or Git repos), in Local Mode or in an isolated Git worktree.
• Antigravity CLI, a terminal UI started with agy.
• Antigravity IDE, a standalone editor, plus extensions for VS Code, Visual Studio (preview), JetBrains, Zed and Xcode (download).

There is also a Python SDK for building custom agents.

Claude Code is “an agentic coding tool that reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands, and integrates with your development tools”, available in the terminal, VS Code and Cursor, JetBrains IDEs, a desktop app and the web at claude.ai/code (overview).

Install and platforms

Antigravity CLI (download page), macOS and Linux:

curl -fsSL https://antigravity.google/cli/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://antigravity.google/cli/install.ps1 | iex

Then run agy in your project. Antigravity 2.0 is a download for macOS 12 (Monterey) or later on Apple Silicon or Intel, Windows 10 (64-bit) or later on x64 and ARM64, and Linux with glibc 2.28+ and glibcxx 3.4.25+ (for example Ubuntu 20, Debian 10, Fedora 36, RHEL 8), x64 and ARM64.

Claude Code (advanced setup), macOS, Linux and WSL:

curl -fsSL https://claude.ai/install.sh | bash

Windows PowerShell:

irm https://claude.ai/install.ps1 | iex

Then run claude. Requirements: macOS 13.0+, Windows 10 1809+ or Windows Server 2019+, Ubuntu 20.04+, Debian 10+ or Alpine Linux 3.19+, 4 GB+ RAM, x64 or ARM64. Homebrew (brew install --cask claude-code) and WinGet (winget install Anthropic.ClaudeCode) are also documented.

Models

Antigravity’s reasoning-model table (models):

Claude Code model aliases (model configuration) are default, best, fable, opus, sonnet, haiku, sonnet[1m], opus[1m] and opusplan. On the Anthropic API, opus resolves to Opus 5.5 and sonnet to Sonnet 5.5. Switch with /model or claude --model <alias|name>. Claude Code can also run against Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud’s Agent Platform or Microsoft Foundry (setup).

Plans and free access

Antigravity

Sources: Antigravity pricing, plans docs, Google AI plan prices. All plans get unlimited Tab completions and access to all product features, including Scheduled Tasks and the CLI. Pro and Ultra users can spend AI credits once the baseline quota runs out, controlled by the AI Credit Overages setting (Never or Always). The plans page says bring-your-own-key is not supported for extra rate limits.

Free access has conditions. The FAQ says Antigravity is available to personal Google accounts in approved countries, is unavailable to users under 18, and suggests an @gmail.com address if a Workspace account fails to sign in.

Claude Code

Source: claude.com/pricing. Usage runs on a rolling five-hour session window, with weekly limits on paid plans. Claude Code can also be billed per token through a Console account (costs); per-token rates are on Anthropic’s API pricing page.

Both vendors use a five-hour refresh window on their paid tiers plus a weekly cap.

Instructions, skills and hooks

Sources: Antigravity rules, Antigravity skills, Antigravity hooks, Claude Code memory, Claude Code skills, Claude Code hooks. Both tools’ skills build on the Agent Skills standard, so collections in the skills directory that ship plain SKILL.md folders can go in either tool’s skills folder.

MCP

Antigravity (MCP docs) adds servers from an MCP Store in Antigravity 2.0 or from raw config in ~/.gemini/config/mcp_config.json (global) or .agents/mcp_config.json (workspace). Remote servers use serverUrl; the docs say legacy url and httpUrl fields are not supported:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "my-remote-server": {
      "serverUrl": "https://api.example.com/mcp/",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Transports: stdio, Streamable HTTP, SSE and WebSocket.

Claude Code (MCP docs):

claude mcp add --transport http notion https://mcp.notion.com/mcp

Scopes are local (default, ~/.claude.json), project (.mcp.json, approved on first use) and user. Transports: stdio, HTTP, SSE (deprecated) and WebSocket. Claude Code’s JSON uses a url field for remote servers, while Antigravity requires serverUrl, so the key changes when you move an entry between them. See the MCP directory for per-client snippets.

Permissions and sandboxing

Antigravity permission presets (permissions):

Deny, Ask and Allow lists are evaluated in the order Deny > Ask > Allow.

Claude Code permission modes (permission modes) are default, acceptEdits, plan, auto, dontAsk and bypassPermissions, with allow/ask/deny rules on top. The Bash sandbox is off by default; /sandbox turns it on, using Seatbelt on macOS and bubblewrap on Linux and WSL2 (sandboxing).

Warning

Antigravity’s Turbo preset runs terminal commands unrestricted with full filesystem access and no sandbox, and its docs note that explicit allow rules override the default guardrails. Anthropic says bypassPermissions (--dangerously-skip-permissions) should be used “only in isolated environments like containers, VMs, or dev containers without internet access” and “offers no protection against prompt injection”. The safer documented options are Antigravity’s Default preset with the sandbox, and Claude Code’s auto mode or the sandboxed Bash tool.

Which to pick

• If you need a free tier, the docs show Antigravity’s For Individuals plan at $0 with a weekly quota (personal Google account, approved country, 18+); Claude Code is not in Claude’s Free plan.
• If you need Gemini models, the docs show Antigravity runs Gemini 3.x; Claude Code runs Claude models.
• If you need the newest Claude models, the docs show Claude Code’s opus alias at Opus 5.5 on the Anthropic API; Antigravity lists Claude Sonnet and Opus 4.6.
• If you need a desktop app that runs agents in isolated Git worktrees, the docs show Antigravity 2.0’s New Worktree Mode; Claude Code documents parallel sessions with worktrees.
• If you need cloud sessions that keep running with your laptop closed, the docs show Claude Code on the web and claude --cloud, running in Anthropic-managed VMs (cloud docs).
• If you need to plug in your own API key for more quota, Antigravity’s plans page says BYOK isn’t supported; Claude Code documents API-key billing through the Console.
• If you need an extension for Zed or Xcode, the docs show Antigravity extensions for both; Claude Code documents VS Code, Cursor and JetBrains.