Poolside vs Zed — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Zed starts at $10/mo. Poolside uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- Poolside (Per Usage) — Poolside bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
- Zed (Per Seat) — Zed bills on a fixed plan from $10/mo, so the listed price is what you pay regardless of volume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
Autonomous AI coding startup building custom foundation models trained specifically for software engineering. Enterprise-only, all pricing custom-quoted. Reported deals target Fortune 500 engineering orgs at multi-million-dollar annual contracts. No self-serve or public tier. Raised $500M+ across seed and Series A, positioning as a direct competitor to Cognition (Devin) and GitHub Copilot Enterprise.
Open-source, high-performance code editor with AI features built in. Written in Rust with GPU-accelerated UI. Zed core is free and open source; Zed Pro adds premium AI models + higher usage limits at $20/user/mo. Business plan at $50/user/mo adds team features. Positioned as the fast-native alternative to Electron-based editors (Cursor, VS Code) for developers who care about performance.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Poolside monthly | Poolside annual | Zed monthly | Zed annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | — / Personal | — | — | Free | Free |
| Entry paid | — / Pro | — | — | $10 | $10 |
| Teams | — / Business | — | — | $30 | $30 |
| Enterprise | Enterprise / — | Custom | Custom | — | — |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Poolside is worth it if… Poolside is only worth engaging with if you're a Fortune 500 engineering org considering a strategic AI coding partnership — typical deal size is $1M+/year. The pitch is a foundation model trained end-to-end for code with your data pipeline embedded.
Zed is worth it if… developers who want a fast-native code editor that feels sub-16ms on every action, with AI features that don't slow it down. Free tier is a real editor (not a demo); Pro at $20/user/mo unlocks Claude Opus and other premium models.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — Poolside is per usage, Zed is per seat.
Choose Poolside over Zed if…
Choose Poolside if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, a free entry tier).
- You match the profile Poolside is built for: only worth engaging with if you're a Fortune 500 engineering org considering a strategic AI coding partnership — typical deal size is $1M+/year.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
Choose Zed if…
- You want fixed-price predictability (per seat, from $10/mo).
- You match the profile Zed is built for: developers who want a fast-native code editor that feels sub-16ms on every action, with AI features that don't slow it down.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Poolside | Zed | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | No | No |
| Entry price | Custom pricing | $10/mo |
| Enterprise available | Yes | No |
| Pricing model | Per Usage | Per Seat |
| Verification | Pricing under review | Checked September 28, 2026 |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 28, 2026. Verification cadence varies by tool; check each tool page.