[Digital Today reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Chinese AI company Z.ai officially launched Zcode, a free desktop coding tool dedicated to its flagship GLM-5.2 model, VentureBeat reported on Thursday. Zcode competes directly with Cursor, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot and Google Antigravity.
Z.ai said on social media platform X (Twitter) that "Zcode is the official development environment for GLM-5.2."
It supports macOS, Windows and Linux, and can also be used by directly connecting third-party models.
According to Z.ai, unlike existing IDEs that add a simple chat sidebar or autocomplete, Zcode has an agent that, once users describe a goal, draws up a plan, edits files and repeatedly reviews and revises. It also offers a function that remotely controls an agent running on messengers such as WeChat, Feishu and Telegram.
Zcode is free to download. Subscription plans range from a $16.20-a-month Light plan to a $144 Max plan. It is far lower than Anthropic's Claude Code or Cursor.
Chi-gyu Hwang
delight@d-today.co.kr