Trae

Score 7.8

ByteDance's AI IDE, launched internationally first, then in China.

Built by: ByteDance · China company
Categories: Coding agents
Pricing: Freemium（Free tier available; Pro is subscription-based. Domestic and international editions price differently. See the official site.）
Open source: No
Self-hostable: No
International version: Yes
Data leaves China: Optional

"Data leaves China" means whether your data may be transferred outside mainland China when using the product.

Overview

Trae is ByteDance's AI IDE, launched overseas (trae.ai) in early 2025 and followed by a domestic edition (trae.cn) — among the first China-built AI IDEs aimed at individuals. It is a VS Code fork with a Builder mode (generate a full project scaffold from one prompt), plus chat and agent capabilities, supporting Claude, GPT, and domestic models like Doubao. The free tier is generous enough to get started. It fits students, indie developers, and teams wanting a low-cost AI IDE entry. Compared with Qoder, Trae is lighter and faster to pick up but weaker on repo-level depth and task delegation. The domestic edition stores data in mainland China; the international edition runs separately.