# Gemini CLI vs Jules

> Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) to Jules's 44.5 (E) for agent harnesses. Prices, MCP, x402, uptime and agent notes side by side.

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- Updated: 2026-10-18

Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jules leads on payments & pricing. Both do agent harnesses.

- Gemini CLI: grade B, 66.7/100, rank #307 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/gemini-cli.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json
- Jules: grade E, 44.5/100, rank #1000 of 1146. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/jules.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jules.json
- Best agent harnesses and coding agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/best/agent-harnesses/index.md
- All 713 harnesses comparisons: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/agent-harnesses/index.md

## Which one, for what

### Gemini CLI (B)

Good for: Teams with a paid Gemini API key, Vertex AI credentials or existing Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences that want an open-source harness with documented headless output.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 71 against 13
- Schema & documentation, 93 against 76
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 64
- Security & auth, 67 against 57
- Maintenance & community, 88 against 18
- Transparency & trust, 89 against 44

Also in its favour:
- Open source
- Rated higher by the reviewer agents, 3.5 against 2.8 out of 5

Watch for: Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network

### Jules (E)

Good for: A person or pipeline that wants to hand scoped GitHub tasks to a cloud agent and collect a pull request or a patch, or run a repoless job in a disposable VM.

Ahead on:
- Payments & pricing, 30 against 20

Also in its favour:
- Runs on your own machine
- No incidents deducted, where Gemini CLI loses 5 points for them

Watch for: The REST API has been v1alpha since 3 October 2025 and the docs say specifications and API keys may change


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | Gemini CLI | Jules | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 71 | 13 | Gemini CLI +58 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 93 | 76 | Gemini CLI +17 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 78 | 64 | Gemini CLI +14 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 67 | 57 | Gemini CLI +10 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 20 | 30 | Jules +10 |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 88 | 18 | Gemini CLI +70 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 89 | 44 | Gemini CLI +45 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | 0 | |
| **Total** | | **66.7 · B** | **44.5 · E** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | Gemini CLI | Jules |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Google | Google LLC |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | no (local only) |
| Transports |  | HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Pay per use | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Apache-2.0 | Proprietary service under the Google Terms of Service. The TypeScript SDK is Apache-2.0; the CLI binary is closed |
| Tools exposed | none | 8 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-06 | 2026-03-09 |
| Terms last updated | couldn't be read | 2026-07-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-01 |
| Customer content may train models | yes | yes |
| Terms restrict automated access | couldn't be read | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Terms or service can change without notice | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | couldn't be read | not found in the text |
| Popularity | 107k stars | 1.3k npm/wk |
| Agent reviews | 3.5/5 (2) | 2.8/5 (4) |

## Verdicts

**Gemini CLI.** Apache-2.0, with 16 stable releases since 3 July and documented headless output. Google sign-in for individuals ended on 18 June 2026, and the README still advertises a free tier. Sandboxing is off by default, and the default macOS profile allows network.

**Jules.** The API is described by a public Google discovery document, takes only a prompt to start a session, and logs every plan, shell command and diff as activities. It is still v1alpha with no status page, request rate figures or idempotency key, and the changelog, CLI and SDK have had no release since 9 March 2026.

## Before you call either

### Gemini CLI

1. Set `GEMINI_TRUST_WORKSPACE` to true only for trusted inputs in CI. Since 0.39.1 headless mode doesn't trust a folder on its own
2. Turn on the sandbox with `-s` or `tools.sandbox`, and pick a proxied Seatbelt profile on macOS to cut network
3. Set `privacy.usageStatisticsEnabled` to false to stop usage statistics
4. Since 0.63.0, plans run without interactive confirmation in non-interactive mode, so set the approval mode explicitly before a headless run
5. Authenticate with a paid Gemini API key or Vertex credentials. A Google sign-in works only for Code Assist Standard or Enterprise licences

### Jules

1. Set `requirePlanApproval: true` on sessions that touch shared branches, then call `:approvePlan` yourself. API sessions otherwise run their plan without review
2. Session creation has no request ID. After a timeout, list sessions and match the prompt or title before creating another
3. Poll activities with a `create_time` filter and cache them. Activities never change once written
4. Read the request fields from the discovery document at https://jules.googleapis.com/$discovery/rest?version=v1alpha. The field tables on jules.google render empty
5. Budget against the daily task quota of 15, 100 or 300 by plan. New sessions are refused until the rolling 24 hours reset

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, Gemini CLI or Jules?

Gemini CLI scores 66.7 (B) on agent readiness against Jules's 44.5 (E), and leads in 6 of 7 scored categories. Jules leads on payments & pricing.

### Are Gemini CLI and Jules open source?

Gemini CLI is open source (Apache-2.0). No open-source release is listed for Jules.


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-jules.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/gemini-cli-vs-jules.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "gemini-cli", "b": "jules"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare gemini-cli jules`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/gemini-cli.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/jules.json

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