How much does Agent Zero cost?

Free and open-source (self-hosted), so direct costs are limited to your own LLM API usage and compute. Optional support via GitHub Sponsors. The same team also offers Space Agent, a more polished workspace product, as a separate direction.

What are the best alternatives to Agent Zero?

Based on documented capability coverage across the Agentic Index 14 point taxonomy, the closest alternatives to Agent Zero among multi-agent platforms are Helio, Pokee AI, CrewAI, Akka. Each is graded on the same public evidence, and no vendor pays for placement.

Can Agent Zero be self hosted or run in a private VPC?

Full under the Agentic Index verification standard. Agent Zero publishes public evidence of self hosted or private VPC deployment, along with data residency options for controlling where agent data is processed and stored. Evidence basis: The framework runs on the customer's own hardware in a Docker container, installed through a desktop launcher, a CLI or headless install, or on a remote server, and can use local models through Ollama or LM Studio so nothing leaves the mach. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

Can you bring your own model or route between providers with Agent Zero?

Full under the Agentic Index verification standard. Agent Zero publishes public evidence of bring your own model and bring your own key (BYOK), and of routing tasks between models or providers rather than being locked to one. Evidence basis: The user picks models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter, GitHub Copilot, Hugging Face and local Ollama or LM Studio, sets model presets per project, and can sign in with an OpenAI Codex a. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

Does Agent Zero support MCP and tool calling?

Partial under the Agentic Index verification standard. Agent Zero publishes some public evidence of tool calling and API or SDK extensibility, but narrower than full Model Context Protocol (MCP) support as defined by the Agentic Index taxonomy. Evidence basis: Plugins, Skills, custom tools and code level extensions change the framework, and the A0 CLI drives it from the host. The current docs cover MCP only as a client and document no external API, MCP server or A2A endpoint an outside program ca. Graded from public evidence only against the Agentic Index 14 point capability taxonomy. No vendor pays for placement.

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Agent Zero

Q: Who is Agent Zero for?

Developers, AI researchers, Technical AI enthusiasts, Self-hosting teams

Also known as: A0, Agent Zero AI, agent0ai

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Multi-agent platformindependentVerified 2026-09-27

Entry priceFree and open sourceFull pricing detail

Open-source multi-agent framework that gives its agent a full Linux container with desktop and browser, subordinate agents, persistent memory, and scheduled tasks.

Agent Zero is an open-source agentic framework that gives an AI agent a full Linux system inside a single Docker container, rather than a fixed set of pre-built tools. The agent uses that environment as its workbench: writing and running code, driving a real XFCE desktop and a built-in browser, editing documents and spreadsheets alongside the user, and creating its own tools on the fly. Almost nothing is hard-coded; prompts, tools, and behavior all live in editable files, and any agent can spawn subordinate agents to break a task into focused sub-tasks. Memory persists across sessions, globally or per project, and scheduled tasks let the agent run recurring checks without being asked.

It is model-agnostic (OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and many other providers, plus local models via Ollama or LM Studio), extends through MCP tools, skills, and a 100+ community plugin hub, and runs self-hosted so teams keep full control over data and credentials. First released in 2024 by Jan Tomasek and developed by Agent Zero, s.r.o. of Brno, with releases every week or two and more than 19,000 GitHub stars, it targets developers, researchers, and technical teams who want a transparent, fully customizable alternative to closed agent products.

Vendor details

Canonical URL

https://www.agent-zero.ai

Subcategory

Open-source agent framework

Company status

independent

Use cases & customers

Primary use cases

Software engineering and code automationWeb browsing, research, and scrapingUI iteration and design lifting via browser annotationDocument, spreadsheet, and presentation coworkFinancial data analysis and chartingAPI integration and prototypingBuilding and running custom multi-agent workflows

Target customers

DevelopersAI researchersTechnical AI enthusiastsSelf-hosting teams

Deployment options

Self-hostedDocker containerLocal desktop (A0 Launcher)CLI / headless installRemote VPS / server

Integrations

Model-agnostic: works with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google models, local models via Ollama, and account-backed plans through OpenAI Codex OAuth. Extends through MCP servers it connects to as a client and a Plugin Hub of 100+ community plugins, plus a built-in browser and SearXNG private search.

In practice

You hit a task no pre-built tool covers. Agent Zero writes and runs the code it needs inside its own Linux container, building the tool on the fly instead of waiting for a vendor to add a feature.

A job is too big for one agent to hold in its head. Agent Zero spawns subordinate agents, each taking a focused sub-task, and coordinates them back into one result.

You can't send company data to someone else's servers. Agent Zero runs self-hosted in a Docker container you control, so prompts, tools, and credentials stay on your own infrastructure.

Sources & related URLs

Related / legacy domains

https://github.com/agent0ai/space-agent https://github.com/agent0ai https://www.youtube.com/@AgentZeroFW

Research sources

https://www.agent-zero.ai https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero https://github.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/releases https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/memory.md https://raw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/usage.md

Agentic Index coverage score

10.0 / 14 capabilities · 71%

Integrations & Tool Calling	Full
The agent connects to external tools through MCP servers by command or URL, installs capabilities from a Plugin Hub of 100+ community plugins with a security scan before install, writes and runs code to build tools it lacks, and reads credentials from named project secrets. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/mcp-setup.mdread 2026-09-27
Workflow Orchestration	Full
Every agent can create subordinate agents to break down work: the superior gives tasks and receives reports while each subordinate keeps its own focused context, and v2.10 added durable subordinate lifecycles; agent profiles set each agent's working style and tool policies. Sourcegithub.com/agent0ai/agent-zeroread 2026-09-27
Knowledge Grounding & RAG	Partial
The memory dashboard lists imported knowledge chunks beside remembered entries and the homepage describes agentic RAG, with a self hosted SearXNG search for research. The current guides do not document how customer documents are ingested, indexed or refreshed; projects store files the agent can work with rather than an index. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/memory.mdread 2026-09-27
Human Oversight & Guardrails	Partial
The user can pause and intervene in a running chat, Time Travel keeps snapshots of the workspace to inspect diffs and revert, agent profiles scope which tools and skills an agent may use (v2.9), and plugins are security scanned before install. No step where a person approves an action before it runs is documented. Sourcegithub.com/agent0ai/agent-zeroread 2026-09-27
Security, Identity & Governance	Not documented
There is no SSO, identity integration or role model for who in an organization can use an instance, and no attestation or trust page. Named project secrets, plugin security scans and per profile tool scoping are real controls on what the agent touches, and the agent runs on the customer's own machine. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/usage.mdread 2026-09-27
Observability & Auditability	Partial
The UI streams each agent's reasoning and tool use, prompts and tools sit in inspectable files, Time Travel shows workspace diffs per snapshot, and a context window indicator arrived in v2.11. No run trace export, audit log or metrics surface is documented. Sourcegithub.com/agent0ai/agent-zeroread 2026-09-27
Memory & State Persistence	Full
Memory keeps facts, solutions and preferences across sessions so future chats do not start from zero, scoped as global or per project so one client's memory does not leak into other work, organized into main, fragments, solutions and skills areas, and a dashboard lets the user search, edit and delete single entries. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/memory.mdread 2026-09-27
Deployment & Data Residency	Full
The framework runs on the customer's own hardware in a Docker container, installed through a desktop launcher, a CLI or headless install, or on a remote server, and can use local models through Ollama or LM Studio so nothing leaves the machine. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/readme.mdread 2026-09-27
Prebuilt Agents, Templates & Packs	Partial
A Plugin Hub offers 100+ community plugins with one click install, and Skills and agent profiles package reusable behavior. These are capabilities the customer assembles into its own agent rather than ready to use agents. Sourceagent-zero.airead 2026-09-27
Triggers & Channel Coverage	Full
Tasks let the agent run work later, repeatedly or on demand, in scheduled, planned and ad hoc types, and the README names recurring checks and monitoring tasks run with project scoped context and credentials, so the agent wakes on a schedule without a person starting it. Other work arrives through the web UI, desktop launcher and A0 CLI. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/guides/usage.mdread 2026-09-27
Model Flexibility & Routing	Full
The user picks models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini, Azure, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Groq, OpenRouter, GitHub Copilot, Hugging Face and local Ollama or LM Studio, sets model presets per project, and can sign in with an OpenAI Codex account. Sourceagent-zero.airead 2026-09-27
APIs, SDKs & MCP Extensibility	Partial
Plugins, Skills, custom tools and code level extensions change the framework, and the A0 CLI drives it from the host. The current docs cover MCP only as a client and document no external API, MCP server or A2A endpoint an outside program can call, and architecture detail is pointed to DeepWiki, a third party site. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/docs/developer/mcp-configuration.mdread 2026-09-27
Testing, Debugging & Optimization	Partial
Debugging aids ship, the visible reasoning stream, Time Travel diffs and revert, and a Context Doctor and context usage indicator in v2.11. No harness for scoring or comparing agent versions is documented; the agent testing its own code is work on the user's task, not evaluation of the agent. Sourcegithub.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/releasesread 2026-09-27
Browser & Computer Use	Full
The agent drives a full Linux XFCE desktop and its GUI applications and a native browser with DOM annotation for clicking, typing and capturing elements, rebuilt in v2.10 as an interactive shared viewport, alongside shell and LibreOffice document cowork. Sourceraw.githubusercontent.com/agent0ai/agent-zero/main/readme.mdread 2026-09-27

The Agentic Index coverage score grades every vendor Full, Partial or Not documented against the same 14 buyer facing capabilities, from public evidence only. Each capability links to how all vendors in the index score on it. How this evidence is graded

Recent platform changes

2026-09-23·MCP / tool calling / APIVerified

Agent Zero v2.13 replaces runtime=input with input_remote for remote execution, without a compatibility alias. It also adds Telegram and WhatsApp slash commands with project aware command catalogs and scoped integration settings, plus a configurable browser JavaScript evaluation timeout.

Bears on: MCP / tool calling / API

View source

2026-07-02·Agent capabilityVerified

Agent Zero v2.2 added in-chat model setup, unified provider onboarding, and explicit utility-model selection, set Claude Sonnet 5 as default, added safer streaming fallbacks, improved tool parsing, and shipped security dependency upgrades for LiteLLM and Starlette.

Bears on: Agent capability

View source

View all 2 changes for Agent Zero →Tracked since Jul 2026 · Verified from public vendor sources

Pricing

Free and open source

none (bring your own model costs)

Free tier

What is public

Agent Zero is a free open source framework run on the user's own machine or server; no paid plan is published. The site also links an LLM API (beta) page whose terms are not stated; ask the vendor whether it is paid.

Cost watchouts

Model provider usage is the running cost and scales with agent activity, especially with subordinate agents and long tasks; local models remove it at the cost of your own hardware.

Variable cost rationale

No product fee; model usage and compute are borne by the user and scale with activity.

Sales call required

No, self serve available

Free / trial

Free and open source

Missing data

The terms and price of the LLM API (beta) offering.

Agentic Index verified 2026-09-27

Official pricing page

Related vendors

Alternatives to Agent Zero

The closest documented capability profiles to Agent Zero among multi-agent platforms tracked by Agentic Index, ordered by similarity on the same 14 point evidence the rankings use. No vendor pays for placement.

Helio8.5 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & Governance
Pokee AI8.5 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & Governance
CrewAI13.0 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & GovernanceAgent Zero vs CrewAI →
Akka12.5 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & Governance
Rasa11.5 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & Governance
SimplAI12.5 / 14Adds documented Security, Identity & Governance

Similarity is computed from each vendor's Agentic Index coverage score evidence, axis by axis, not from the totals. How this evidence is graded

Compare Agent Zero with other vendors →Compare all multi-agent platforms →See where Agent Zero ranks →

Data confidence: high

Head to head

Agent Zero vs CrewAI Agent Zero vs SuperAGI Agent Zero vs AutoGPT