Continue vs OpenCode: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of Continue and OpenCode across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of Continue and OpenCode across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
Either way, you pay for the model calls. A median coding-agent day on our gateway is 95 requests and 8.6 million tokens. The table prices every step at one model’s rate.
Both run on Standard Compute, where each step goes to the cheapest model that can do it: routine steps go to efficient open models, hard ones to frontier models such as Claude Fable 5.1 or GPT-6 Astra.
| Model | Typical day | Busy day |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $7.34 | $59.10 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $3.67 | $29.55 |
| GPT-6 Luna | $0.23 | $2.43 |
Fixed monthly plans from $19. Eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute first, no card. Trial terms
Pick a winner in each category. You can change your vote anytime. 24 votes cast so far.
One fact decides most of this comparison now: Continue is no longer maintained. Its team joined Cursor and the continuedev/continue repo has been read-only since mid-2026, while OpenCode ships new releases most weeks. If you want Continue's in-editor style in a maintained tool, look at Cline or Kilo Code.
Continue and OpenCode are both open source and both bring-your-own-model, but they're different classes of tool. Continue is an AI assistant living inside VS Code and JetBrains: chat, autocomplete, and inline edits with unusually deep configuration: custom context providers, local models, slash commands. It assists while you drive; autonomy is deliberately limited.
OpenCode is an agent: give it a task in the terminal and it plans, edits files, and runs commands through to a result. That autonomy gap is the real difference: Continue polishes the keystroke-by-keystroke experience, OpenCode takes work off your hands in bigger units.
If you're choosing between them, you're really choosing your interaction model: continuous assistance in the editor, or delegated tasks in the terminal. Cost-wise both are free tools where you pay only for the model behind them.
ContinueOpenCodeChoose Continue if you are developers who want full control over their AI coding assistant. Choose OpenCode if you are terminal users who want a polished AI coding interface with LSP support.
In our editorial scoring, OpenCode leads in 4 of six categories (output quality, autonomy, reliability and speed), while Continue leads in 1 (value). On price, Continue runs free (byo api key), no longer maintained and is open source; OpenCode runs free (mit) / free zen models / go $10/mo and is open source.
Across 24 community votes on this matchup, OpenCode currently leads in 5 of six categories. Cast your own vote above to move the needle.
What it costs to run Continue or OpenCode
Best API for Continue →
4 options compared, with prices and limits
Best API for OpenCode →
7 options compared, with prices and limits
Standard Compute sends each step to the cheapest model that can do it, on providers we vet for price, uptime and speed. Plans start at $19 a month, and eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute with no card. Choose your agent below to connect.
See the trial and activation steps →
More on OpenCode: OpenCode Pricing: Plans, Subscription and API Costs (2026) · How do I use GPT models like GPT-5.6 in OpenCode?
Continue is an open-source (Apache 2.0) AI coding assistant for VS Code and JetBrains IDEs, plus a CLI. It offers chat, autocomplete, and inline editing with full control over which models you use, including local models, cloud APIs, and custom context providers. It is no longer developed: the Continue team joined Cursor, the GitHub repo is read-only, and the last release (2.1.0 for VS Code) shipped in June 2026. The extension still installs and works, but expect no fixes for new models or editor versions.
OpenCode is an open-source (MIT) AI coding agent best known for its terminal TUI, now also shipping a desktop app and IDE extensions with OpenCode 2. It connects to 75+ LLM providers through models.dev, has LSP integration for real code understanding, and runs several sessions in parallel. The tool is free; for models you bring your own key, use OpenCode's free Zen models, pay as you go on Zen, or subscribe to its Go plan ($10/month, Go Plus $40).
Continue and OpenCode both run on Standard Compute
