cream, explained simply.
Plain answers about what cream is, how the money works, what stays private, and how it sits alongside the tools you already use.
What is cream, in one paragraph?
cream is an agentic coding environment, a desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, plus a terminal CLI, where developers plan, write, and refine code with an AI agent. It comes on three plans: Skim is free, Half & Half is $14.99 a month, and Heavy is $29.99. Every plan carries a metered monthly usage budget, spent at real provider cost, and the budget, the share of the model roster you can pick from, and the monthly media allowances all grow as you go up. You can use Moo'dle, cream's house lane over the top open-weight models (Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, MiniMax), picked per task, or run your own locally installed Claude Code or Codex CLI under your own subscription. Ads are part of every plan, labeled, capped, and dismissible, and they never appear inside your code, your command output, or the AI's output. cream meters only token counts and timestamps, never your code, prompts, or output.
What cream is
The money
The ads
Privacy & agents
We love the tools you build with.
cream is not here to beat Claude Code, Codex, or any of the brilliant tools developers rely on. We are here to make modern AI coding affordable for more people, and to play nicely with everything you already love.
Sound familiar?
“I want to try AI coding, but the tokens are expensive.”
At launch, sign in and start on Skim, the free plan, with a metered monthly usage budget. When you want more room, Half & Half is $14.99 a month and Heavy is $29.99, each with a bigger budget than the one below it.
“I love Claude Code and don't want to switch.”
You don't. cream shells out to your locally installed Claude Code under your own subscription, same workflow, shared workspace. And when a task doesn't need frontier rates, hand it to Moo'dle, included in the plan.
“I need strong models without juggling five subscriptions.”
Every plan covers Moo'dle for the everyday work plus the model roster you can pick from by hand, all out of the same monthly budget. Half & Half unlocks more of that roster than Skim, and Heavy unlocks the lot. Your own Claude Code or Codex plugs in alongside.
“I can’t have a tool reading my proprietary code.”
cream never reads your code. Its servers meter token counts and timestamps only, conversations stay local in an encrypted SQLCipher database keyed to your OS keychain, and model routing denies data collection.
The words we use, defined.
- Agentic coding
- A workflow where an AI agent plans, writes, and refines code across multiple steps, not just autocomplete, but doing the task.
- Moo'dle
- cream's house coding lane: the top open-weight models (Kimi, GLM, DeepSeek, MiniMax), picked per task and routed server-side. Included on Skim, Half & Half, and Heavy.
- Moo'lah
- The in-app name for your plan's usage budget: one pool, two words for it. Moo'lah is included with your plan, topped up with money, and spendable only inside cream on models, agent runs, and media. It is never cash, and there is no payout.
- Points
- An in-app score, separate from moo'lah. Sponsor placements and completed rewarded views add points, which unlock achievements in the app. Points have no cash value, cannot be spent, and there is no payout.
- Rewarded video
- An opt-in video the developer chooses to play from the rewards drawer. Adds points on a completed view. Never in your code, your command output, or the AI's answers.
- Usage budget
- Your month's pool of real-cost usage, metered as you go, and the same pool the app calls moo'lah. Each plan up the ladder carries a bigger one, and on Half & Half and Heavy a $4.99 top-up adds more.
- Token metering
- Counting how many tokens flow in and out, the privacy-safe way cream bills usage without reading your code.
- creamStudio
- cream's separate media app, Moo'sic for music, Moo'vies for video, Imoo'ges for images, sold as an add-on to the coding app.
- Sponsor card
- A labeled, frequency-capped, dismissible ad placement in cream's chrome. Sponsor cards run on every plan, and none of them can appear inside your code, your command output, or the AI's answers.
- The plans
- Skim (free), Half & Half ($14.99/mo), and Heavy ($29.99/mo). Moving up raises your monthly usage budget, unlocks more of the model roster, and raises your monthly image, video, and music allowances.
Answered?
cream opens at launch, and the list goes first. Skim is free, Half & Half is $14.99 a month, Heavy is $29.99.
Join the launch listStill stuck? support@cream.dev