Background AI Agents Compared
Agents you hand a task to and come back later. Facts from official announcements/docs (verified 2026-10-23); sources and GitHub stars/releases re-checked automatically (last check 2026-10-23 10:54 UTC).
| Agent | What it is | Status | Pricing | Platform | Open-source signals | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Duet Anthropic | Proactive work agent (cloud VM + browser) | Research preview, waitlist (US Pro & Max) — announced 2026-10-21 | Included in Claude Pro/Max; uses plan limits | iOS, Android, claude.ai | Closed source | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| Cursor Cloud Agents Anysphere | Background coding agents in remote environments | Available | Uses your Cursor plan's usage at model rates | Cursor app, web | Closed source | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| Gemini API CLI (gemini-api) | Shell tool giving any agent Gemini models + managed agents (e.g. Deep Research) | Experimental preview (v0.4.x), released 2026-10-19 | Free CLI; Gemini API usage billed per your API key | macOS, Linux, Windows | google-gemini/gemini-api-cli ★ 181 Latest: 0.4.3 stable (2026-10-19) | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| Gemini CLI | Open-source terminal coding agent | Available | Free tier with Google account; or API key | Terminal | google-gemini/gemini-cli ★ 107,558 Latest: 0.65.0 stable (2026-10-20) | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| GitHub Copilot cloud agent GitHub | Assign issues → agent opens a pull request | Available | Copilot Pro ($15/mo) and up; uses AI credits | GitHub.com, IDEs, CLI | Closed source | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| Jules | Async coding agent (clones repo to cloud VM, opens PRs) | Available | Free 15 tasks/day; more with Google AI Pro/Ultra | Web + GitHub | Closed source | Official ✅ source checks pass |
| OpenAI Codex (cloud tasks) OpenAI | Coding agent: cloud tasks, CLI, IDE | Generally available | Included in ChatGPT Free/Go/Plus/Pro/Business; or API key | Web, CLI, IDE extension, iOS | openai/codex ★ 130,560 Latest: 0.164.0 stable (2026-10-23) | Official ✅ source checks pass |
Listed alphabetically — this is a comparison, not a ranking. Related: AI subscription prices · coding agent release tracker · AI coding agents ranking.
Independence: no affiliate links or sponsors affect this page; order is alphabetical by vendor/name, not a ranking. We did not hands-on test these products — facts come from official pages only.
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