Zed
zed-industries/zedReviewed by AI
What it does
Zed is a code editor you download and install like any other program. It is written in Rust for speed, supports many languages, a terminal, a debugger, Git, extensions and themes, lets several people edit the same project together, and has a built-in AI panel that can work with Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Mistral, DeepSeek, GitHub Copilot or a local model through Ollama or LM Studio. Installers are published for Windows, macOS and Linux (about 55-92 MB). There is no web version yet.
How easy it is to install
A · download and open · Windows
- Windows A
- macOS A
- Linux A
A on all three: every release has a ready file to download and open — Zed-x86_64.exe for Windows, Zed-x86_64.dmg for macOS and zed-linux-x86_64.tar.gz for Linux — and the README also points to package managers for each system. Nothing else has to be installed to start editing.
Numbers on GitHub
- Stars
- 92,466on Oct 31, 2026
- Downloads
- 37,459,858467,905 this week
- Growth
- +220stars in 5 days
Stars over time
Facts
- Runs on
- Windows, macOS, Linux
- You need to install
- Nothing extra
- To build from source
- Docker, Rust
- Disk space
- 62 MB–185 MB · from the installer
- Accounts or keys
- Anthropic, OpenAI, Google AI, GitHub Copilot
- Cost
- Freemium · The editor is open source and free; the AI features need either your own API key or a paid plan from Zed Industries, Inc., the for-profit company that develops it.
- License
- NOASSERTION (Other)
- Can replace
- Sublime Text, Cursor, IDEs
- Last update
- Nov 1, 2026
Risk signals (5)
- Attentiontelemetry built in
The workspace in Cargo.toml includes the crates `telemetry`, `telemetry_events`, `hang_telemetry` and `crashes`, so the program sends usage and crash data; the README does not say what is collected or how to turn it off.
AI review
- Attentionsends your code to ai services
Crates such as `anthropic`, `open_ai`, `google_ai`, `mistral`, `deepseek`, `copilot_chat`, `cloud_llm_client` and `edit_prediction` are part of the editor: when you use the AI panel or edit prediction, the file you are working on is sent to the chosen provider.
AI review
- Infolicense not detected by github
GitHub reports no single license (NOASSERTION). The repository carries both LICENSE-GPL and LICENSE-APACHE, and README.md states: "Zed source code is licensed primarily under GPL-3.0-or-later, with Apache-2.0 components where marked." GPL-3.0 is a copyleft license, so changes you distribute must be shared under the same terms.
AI review
- Infoautomatic updates
Cargo.toml lists the crates `auto_update`, `auto_update_helper` and `auto_update_ui`, so the installed program can download and install new versions by itself.
AI review
- Infopre release published alongside stable
The newest release is v1.27.0-pre (2026-10-28), a preview channel published next to the stable v1.26.2 of the same date.
AI review
Evidence is shown in its original language.
What Radar could not check
- Whether it runs smoothly on your graphics card, especially on Linux
- What the telemetry crates actually send and whether a setting turns them off
- How much the AI features cost in practice with your own key or a Zed plan
- Whether the published installers were built from this source code