Claude Code vs Antigravity (Google Gemini CLI Replacement)

Claude Code vs Antigravity comes down to one question: do you want raw speed or dependable trust? Antigravity (Google's Gemini CLI replacement) generates tokens about 4x faster and bundles 1M context into a $20/mo plan, but Claude Code scores higher on hard real-world bug fixes (64.3% vs 55.1% on SWE-Bench Pro) and is the only one of the two with enterprise compliance certifications like SOC 2 and HIPAA. For production SaaS work, Claude Code is the safer long-term bet.

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Why this matters to you

If you used Gemini CLI (Google's free command-line coding agent), you are now a refugee. On June 18, 2026, Google shut off free, Pro, and Ultra access and pushed everyone to Antigravity instead. You need to know whether to trust the new tool or move to Claude Code. This post answers that with numbers, not vibes.

The bait-and-switch most comparisons skip

Here is the part other reviews leave out. Gemini CLI was open source under the Apache 2.0 license (a license that lets anyone read, copy, and modify the code for free). Google accepted more than 6,000 community pull requests (code changes submitted by outside developers) and pointed to those contributions as proof the project was a success.

Then Google killed it. Announced at Google I/O on May 19, 2026, the free tiers went dark 30 days later on June 18. Gemini CLI was replaced by Antigravity CLI, a closed-source Go binary you run with the agy command. Closed-source means you can no longer read or fork the code. The shutdown stranded the 13,700+ forks (copies developers made on GitHub) and the people who built them.

So the real question is not just which tool benchmarks higher. It is which vendor you can depend on for the next year. Claude Code has not pulled a move like this. That is the trust gap.

The benchmark story depends on the task

Benchmarks are tests that score how well an AI handles a fixed set of problems. The two tools win different tests, so look at the test that matches your work.

Antigravity wins on:

• Raw speed. Reported 289 tokens per second vs 67 for Claude Code. A token is roughly a chunk of a word, so this is how fast it types out answers.
• General reasoning. ARC-AGI-2 (an abstract puzzle test): 77.1% vs about 40%.
• UI visual tasks. ScreenSpot-Pro (finding the right spot on a screen): 72.7% vs about 38%.

Claude Code wins on:

• SWE-Bench Verified (fixing real GitHub issues): 77.2% vs 76.2%.
• SWE-Bench Pro (harder, real-world bugs): 64.3% vs 55.1%.

The takeaway: speed matters less than correctness when a bad fix costs you a paying customer. For shipping a SaaS product, the 9-point gap on hard bugs is the number that counts.

Claude Code vs Antigravity CLI: head to head

Source figures are reported vendor and community benchmarks as of June 2026. Verify against current vendor docs before you buy.

The compliance gap is a hard blocker for some teams

Compliance certifications are formal audits that prove a tool handles data safely. Claude Code ships SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA-readiness, SSO (single sign-on login), SCIM (automated user account management), audit logs, and a Compliance API with downloadable proof documents.

Antigravity has none of these as named-product certifications. Google's cloud infrastructure is certified, but those certs do not automatically cover the Antigravity product itself. If you work in fintech, healthcare, or enterprise B2B, this alone can decide it. No SOC 2, no deal.

The context window pricing trap

Context window is how much text the AI can hold in memory at once. Both tools support 1M tokens, but the price to reach it differs.

• Antigravity: 1M context on every paid tier, starting at $20/mo.
• Claude Code: 1M context requires Max ($100/mo), Team ($25/user/mo), or Enterprise. On the $20/mo Pro plan, Claude Code caps at 200K tokens.

Be honest with yourself here. If huge context is your main need and compliance is not, Antigravity wins on price. That is a real Antigravity advantage, not a footnote.

If you trust neither Google nor Anthropic

Some developers want no lock-in to either vendor. After the shutdown, the community shipped three forks within weeks: OpenGravity, EchoCopi, and Centravity. These are community attempts to keep an open Gemini-CLI-style tool alive. They are early-stage, so treat them as experiments, not production tools yet.

Enterprise deployment flexibility

Claude Code runs through Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, and Microsoft Foundry. That means a company can buy it through cloud contracts it already has, which is often the deciding factor in regulated industries. Antigravity has no equivalent path. For procurement teams, that flexibility is the tiebreaker.

Where Build This Now fits

Whichever CLI you pick, the harder part is wiring it to ship real apps instead of code snippets. The Build This Now Code Kit ($29 one-time) is a build system for Claude Code: a production SaaS skeleton with auth, Stripe payments, and PostgreSQL with row-level security on every table, plus Claude Code subagents, a tuned CLAUDE.md, and workflows already set up. It runs on Claude Code, so a separate Claude subscription is required, and you can deploy anywhere. If you are migrating off Gemini CLI and want a fast on-ramp, it removes the blank-page problem.

FAQ

Is Antigravity CLI better than Claude Code?

It depends on the task. Antigravity generates tokens about 4x faster and scores higher on general reasoning and UI tasks. Claude Code scores higher on complex code bug resolution (SWE-Bench Pro: 64.3% vs 55.1%) and is the only option with enterprise compliance certifications such as SOC 2 and HIPAA. For production SaaS work, Claude Code is the safer pick.

What happened to Gemini CLI?

Google shut down Gemini CLI for free, Pro, and Ultra users on June 18, 2026, which was 30 days after announcing the change at Google I/O on May 19. It was replaced by Antigravity CLI, a closed-source Go binary you run with the agy command. Enterprise users on Gemini Code Assist Standard or Enterprise plans were not affected.

Is Antigravity CLI open source?

No. Antigravity CLI is a closed-source proprietary binary. Gemini CLI, which it replaces, was Apache 2.0 licensed with 13,700+ GitHub forks at the time of shutdown. Antigravity publishes only a changelog, a readme, and a demo GIF.

Claude Code vs Antigravity: which has the bigger context window?

Both support 1M tokens, but access differs by plan. Antigravity includes 1M context on all paid tiers starting at $20/mo. Claude Code's 1M context requires the Max plan ($100/mo), Team ($25/user/mo), or Enterprise. On the $20/mo Pro plan, Claude Code is limited to 200K tokens.