Zed
High-performance multiplayer code editor written in Rust with built-in AI chat and inline edits.
Zed is a high-performance multiplayer code editor written in Rust with built-in AI chat and inline edits. Zed is written in Rust and optimized for low-latency input and rendering.
About Zed
Zed is a high-performance code editor written in Rust, with a built-in AI assistant for chat and inline edits and real-time multiplayer collaboration baked in.
Its edge is speed and openness: the Rust core is tuned for low-latency input and rendering, the editor is open source and free, and collaboration is built in rather than bolted on.
It's for developers who want a fast, native, hackable editor and don't mind a leaner ecosystem. Three things to watch: there's no stable native Windows build yet (macOS and Linux only), the extension library is smaller than VS Code's, and some AI features need a Zed Pro subscription or your own API key.
Among AI editors it trades the VS Code lineage of Cursor and Windsurf for raw performance and an open-source core.
Sources: zed.dev, this listing
What it does well
- Zed is written in Rust and optimized for low-latency input and rendering.
- Zed includes built-in real-time multiplayer collaboration for editing code with other developers.
- Zed has a built-in AI assistant that supports chat and inline code transformations.
- Zed is open source and free to use, with an optional paid tier for additional AI features.
Where it falls short
- Zed does not yet offer a stable native Windows build, limiting it to macOS and Linux users.
- Zed's extension ecosystem is smaller than that of editors like VS Code.
- Some AI features require a Zed Pro subscription or your own API keys.
Tagged
- Bring Your Own Key
- Supports Claude
- Supports GPT
- Supports Gemini
- Git Integration
- Terminal Execution
- Free
- Freemium
- Open Source
Compared with similar things
Picked by shared tags inside the AI Code Editors.
- 01Free →Aider
Open-source CLI coding agent that pair-programs in your terminal and commits to git automatically.
- 02Freemium →n8n
Open-source workflow automation with native LLM nodes — self-host on your own infrastructure.
- 03Freemium →LangChain
Most-used framework for building LLM applications with retrieval, agents, and chains.
- 04Freemium →CrewAI
Open-source framework for orchestrating role-playing multi-agent teams in Python.
- 05Freemium →OpenHands
Open-source autonomous coding agent platform, formerly OpenDevin, by All Hands AI.
- 06Freemium →OpenRouter
Unified API gateway for 200+ LLMs across providers with usage-based billing on a single account.
Related reading
- Claude Code Memory
Claude Code has built-in memory — a CLAUDE.md file it reads each session — but it only holds short, hand-written notes. To make it understand a large codebase or docs set, you add a second brain: turn the repo into a knowledge graph, fold that into an Obsidian vault, and let the agent query the map instead of re-reading every file.
Read guide → - How to Do Your Own SEO with Claude Code
Claude Code can do most of your SEO — build a crawlable static site, write and optimize pages, fix the technical layer, even bottle the whole workflow into a reusable skill. What it can't do is invent authority or pick keywords, and if you let it generate 10,000 pages you'll get de-indexed, not ranked. Here's the honest, hands-on version for a maker whose site shipped last week.
Read guide → - The Best Vibe Coding Tools
The best vibe-coding tools aren't another AI model — they're the open-source Claude Code repos you stack on top of it. The right ones turn the agent from a fancy autocomplete into a disciplined senior engineer: it plans before it codes, designs properly, maps your codebase, and gets scanned for security. Here are eight worth installing.
Read guide →
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</a>Frequently asked questions
- What is Zed?
- Zed is a high-performance multiplayer code editor written in Rust with built-in AI chat and inline edits.
- Is Zed free?
- Zed offers a free tier and paid plans with higher limits or premium features.
- What platforms does Zed support?
- Zed runs on mac, linux.
- What category does Zed belong to?
- Zed is in the AI Code Editors category — Desktop IDEs built around AI — Cursor, Windsurf, and forks that ship inline edits, multi-file refactors, and agent modes by default.
- What are the downsides of Zed?
- Zed does not yet offer a stable native Windows build, limiting it to macOS and Linux users. Zed's extension ecosystem is smaller than that of editors like VS Code. Some AI features require a Zed Pro subscription or your own API keys.