What is Freebuff?
Freebuff is a coding agent that reads your project, edits files, runs commands and opens pull requests, free of charge. It comes as a terminal app (`npm install -g freebuff`), a desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux that runs several agents side by side, a browser app builder (formerly Vly), a cloud service that runs agents on GitHub repositories, a chat app and an Android app.
It is made by Freebuff, Inc., a four-person Y Combinator company in San Francisco founded by James Grugett and Dawson Chen, which also runs the Codebuff agent framework that Freebuff is built on. The code is open source under Apache-2.0 on GitHub. Text ads shown in the app pay for the models, which are mostly low-cost open models such as MiMo v2.6 Flash, DeepSeek V4.1 Flash and GLM 5.3 Flash, with small daily allowances of Claude Haiku 5.5 and flagship models.
Usage is metered in hours of agent time: the free tier refills 30 hours a day on the cheapest model, and paid plans from $8 a month add more. New terms and a new privacy policy take effect on 12 November 2026.
How much does Freebuff cost?
| Plan | Price | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | 30 hours a day on MiMo v2.6 Flash Slow, or 1 hour on Claude Haiku 5.5; ad-supported |
| Starter | $8/month | 50 hours a day plus a 60-hour monthly bonus |
| Plus | $25/month | 80 hours a day plus a 100-hour monthly bonus |
| Pro | $60/month | 130 hours a day plus a 160-hour monthly bonus |
Free (30 hours a day on MiMo v2.6 Flash Slow, 1 hour on Claude Haiku 5.5, ad-supported); Starter $8/month; Plus $25/month; Pro $60/month; yearly billing saves 22%.
Is Freebuff worth it?
A month of Claude Code or Cursor costs about as much as a nice dinner out, and if you only code at weekends that bill is hard to justify.
Freebuff's answer is to put text ads in the agent and give the agent away. You install it with one npm command, run it in a project folder and describe what you want; it finds the relevant files, makes the changes and runs your checks. Behind it sit nine specialist subagents (file finder, planner, reviewer, browser tester and so on) and a picker of mostly open models. The free tier refills 30 hours a day on MiMo v2.6 Flash Slow, the cheapest model, or 10 hours on DeepSeek V4.1 Flash; Claude Haiku 5.5 gets one hour. Outside the countries where ads pay best, or on a VPN, you drop to limited access of 5 hours a day (4 on a VPN).
The catch: the privacy policy that takes effect on 12 November 2026 is the real price. Freebuff says it may use your prompts and project data to personalise ads and train ad models, and that ad tracking can include text you type before you send it. Anything an agent reads becomes part of that data. When a model is labelled for training, Freebuff may "share, license, or sell" your submissions, agent traces included. Partners may assess repositories you connect to its cloud service for their "technical or commercial value". Deleting a project does not delete what was already collected, and outside places where the law requires it, you cannot opt out of the advertising processing. The terms add an 18+ age limit, one free account per person, possible ID checks with a government ID and a selfie, and a rule that a human must stay present while every session runs.
Quality has its own fine print. The README says models may be served from compressed (Q8_0) builds, so answers can trail the same model elsewhere, and the pricing page warns that fair-use limits can pause a session even when you still have hours left.
Our take: Freebuff is a fair deal for a student, a hobby project or an open-source repo you would publish anyway. For an employer's code or a client's, we found nothing in the privacy policy that treats paid plans differently, so the cheaper honest option is a paid tool whose terms say no training on your code, such as Claude Code or Codex.
Where it earns its place
A computer science student in the UK
Get help finishing coursework projects without paying for a subscription
Install the CLI and work on the free tier's daily hours of MiMo or DeepSeek; it costs nothing, but check your university's rules, since prompts and code feed Freebuff's ad profile.
A maintainer of a public open-source library
Clear small bugs and documentation fixes from the issue list
Connect the public repo to Freebuff Cloud and let agents open pull requests for review. The code is public already, so the data terms matter less; the free tier covers a few issues a day.
A solo founder testing an app idea in a weekend
Get a working full-stack prototype online without setting up hosting
Freebuff Web turns a prompt into a deployed app in a sandbox. Free to try, but anything you would later want to keep private, such as customer data or keys, should never go into the prompt.
Before you commit
- Setup
- `npm install -g freebuff`, then run `freebuff` in a project folder; desktop builds cover macOS, Windows and Linux (.deb and AppImage). No API key or card, but you must be 18 or over and may be asked for ID.
- Integrations
- GitHub, Linear and Stripe connections; Freebuff Desktop can also drive locally installed Claude Code and Codex with your own accounts; the Codebuff SDK lets you build custom agents on the same framework.
- Data and privacy
- Freebuff may use your prompts and project data to personalise ads and train ad models. Data sent to training-labelled models may be shared, licensed or sold; separately uploaded files and connected repositories are not given to ad providers, but anything pasted into a prompt counts as the prompt. No certifications are published. Which AI tools train on your data?
- Cost at scale
- Free for one person; Pro at $60 a month gives 130 hours a day plus a 160-hour monthly bonus. There is no team plan, sharing accounts is banned and automation without a person present breaks the terms, so it does not suit company rollouts.
- Limits
- Hours are weighted by model, so a 3x model uses three hours per hour; fair-use rules can pause a session with hours left; limited access outside top ad markets; prices and allowances can change during the beta.
What's good
- Genuinely free daily allowance, no card needed
- Terminal, desktop, browser, cloud and Android apps
- Open-source codebase under Apache-2.0
- Paid plans from $8 a month are cheap
What's not
- Prompts and project data feed ad targeting
- Data from training-labelled models may be sold
- ID checks, device fingerprinting and one account per person
- Session limits and interruptions on busy models
Best for
Students, hobbyists and open-source contributors who want a capable coding agent without a subscription and have nothing confidential in the repo.
Freebuff alternatives
Freebuff: common questions
- Is Freebuff worth it?
- Freebuff really is free, but you pay in data, and its privacy policy asks for more of your code than any work project should give. We rate it 3.4 out of 5.
- How much does Freebuff cost?
- Free (30 hours a day on MiMo v2.6 Flash Slow, 1 hour on Claude Haiku 5.5, ad-supported); Starter $8/month; Plus $25/month; Pro $60/month; yearly billing saves 22%.
- What are the downsides of Freebuff?
- Prompts and project data feed ad targeting; data from training-labelled models may be sold; iD checks, device fingerprinting and one account per person; session limits and interruptions on busy models.
- Who is Freebuff best for?
- Students, hobbyists and open-source contributors who want a capable coding agent without a subscription and have nothing confidential in the repo.
- How much does Freebuff cost for a team or in production?
- Free for one person; Pro at $60 a month gives 130 hours a day plus a 160-hour monthly bonus. There is no team plan, sharing accounts is banned and automation without a person present breaks the terms, so it does not suit company rollouts.
- Is Freebuff safe for company data?
- Freebuff may use your prompts and project data to personalise ads and train ad models. Data sent to training-labelled models may be shared, licensed or sold; separately uploaded files and connected repositories are not given to ad providers, but anything pasted into a prompt counts as the prompt. No certifications are published.
- What are the best Freebuff alternatives?
- The closest alternatives we have reviewed are Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cline, Kilo Code and Amp.
Answers checked Oct 26, 2026.