# Cline: what AI models say (September 2026)

Source: Memetik Index, https://www.memetik.ai/vendors/cline
Website: https://cline.bot

Cline was named in 30 of 50 AI answers across 1 category. Best position: AI coding agents, 60% answer share, ranked #5, named first in 0%.

## What Cline is

Cline is an open-source coding agent runtime for developers working in IDEs, terminals, scripts, cron jobs, CI pipelines and embedded products. It can be used with a developer’s own model keys, endpoints or weights. The page also announces ClinePass, a plan for open-weights models.

Cline coordinates multi-file edits, with linter-aware fixes, diffs, checkpoints and undo. It runs bash commands in a terminal and responds to the output. Developers can use Plan mode for strategy and Act mode for execution. Through its SDK, Cline can register custom tools and lifecycle hooks, and connect to MCP servers.

Pricing: Users can bring their own key or their own weights; the page also announces ClinePass as a plan for open-weights models.
(From Cline's own website, read 2026-09-02.)

## By category

| Category | Rank | Answer share | Named first | Models |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI coding agents (https://www.memetik.ai/index/ai-coding-agents) | #5 of 12 | 60% | 0% | GPT-5.6 Sol, GPT-5.6 Luna, Claude Opus 5, Claude, Claude Fable 5, Gemini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity, Sonar Reasoning Pro |

## What the models said

> "Choose Aider or Cline if you want total control over which LLMs you use without subscription lock-in."
> — Gemini, AI coding agents

> "Choose Cline if you want a free, open-source agent that runs directly inside standard VS Code where you pay only for the exact API tokens you use."
> — Gemini 3.5 Flash, AI coding agents

> "Open-source or cost-sensitive setup: use Cline or Aider if you want model flexibility and more control over spending."
> — Perplexity, AI coding agents

> "Aider is git-native pair programming, Continue.dev targets self-hosted enterprise deployments, Cline is the open-source agent inside VS Code."
> — Claude Opus 5, AI coding agents