Comparison · under IB-CODE-2026.2

Cline vs Grok Build

 ClineGrok Build
Vendor Cline (OSS, Apache 2.0) xAI
Pricing Free extension + API tokens; Teams $20/user/mo for central billing; v3.2 auto-routing reduces typical API spend to $8-12/mo SuperHeavy intro $99/mo for first 6 months (then $299/mo); API at $0.20 / $1.50 per Mtok in/out
Default model Model-agnostic with v3.2 auto-routing (picks cheapest capable model per task) Grok 3.5 (Grok Build proprietary fine-tune); 256K context; 70.8% SWE-bench Verified
CLI surface
Eval status queued deferred

Comparison pending — neither side evaluated yet

Both Cline and Grok Build are currently unevaluated under IB-CODE-2026.2. This page will update as evaluations land.

Want this comparison sooner? Vendors can commission an evaluation to bump their tool up the queue (with full editorial independence on the verdict). Readers can email hello@indiebench.dev to vote for which comparison ships next.

About each tool

Cline

Cline is the high-adoption VS Code extension for agentic coding. Large user base, Apache 2.0, model-agnostic. v3.2 (March 2026) auto-routing cuts typical monthly API cost by selecting the cheapest capable model per task. Architectural note: Cline has no standalone CLI binary — evaluations under IB-C…

Grok Build

Grok Build launched May 14 2026 in early beta — xAI's entry in the agentic coding CLI category. The novel feature is multi-agent arena mode: up to 8 concurrent sub-agents working on parallel branches with a coordinator selecting the best result. Pricing is the steepest in this list for individual us…