Agentic harness comparison
Amazon Q Developer vs Kiro
Compared on where each one runs, which editors it supports, how autonomous it is, and how it bills — the four things that actually decide Amazon Q Developer vs Kiro. Rankings reflect fit and trade-offs, not a single universal winner; partner links, when present, do not replace that methodology.
Details last verified October 2, 2026
AWS
Amazon Q Developer
IDE extension, CLI, AWS Console, and chat · Hybrid
AWS
Kiro
IDE, CLI, Web and ACP integrations · Agentic
| Specification | Amazon Q Developer | Kiro |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | ||
| Vendor | AWS | AWS |
| Runs in | ||
| Runs in | IDE extension, CLI, AWS Console, and chat | IDE, CLI, Web and ACP integrations |
| Editor support | ||
| Editor support | VS Code, JetBrains, Eclipse, Visual Studio, AWS Console, Legacy CLI / chat experiences (check surface) | Kiro IDE, CLI / headless, Web, ACP-compatible clients |
| Autonomy | ||
| Autonomy | Hybrid | Agentic |
| Pricing model | ||
| Pricing model | Per seat | Hybrid |
| Requires changing editor | ||
| Requires changing editor | Winner: No | Yes |
Dates refer to the linked source’s publication or capture unless it explicitly states when the benchmark was measured. Values we could not confirm are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.
Amazon Q Developer
Amazon Q Developer spans coding assistance and AWS experiences. New Free IDE-plugin accounts and paid subscriptions stopped May 15, 2026; the IDE plugins/subscriptions end support April 30, 2027, while AWS Console and specified first-party experiences continue.
Best for
- Existing Amazon Q Pro customers adding seats
- Java / .NET transformation before the 2027-04-30 end date
- Planning a migration to Kiro
Watch out
New Free IDE-plugin accounts and new paid subscriptions stopped May 15, 2026; existing Pro subscriptions can add seats. IDE plugins, subscriptions and their Java/.NET transformations reach end of support April 30, 2027; this is not retirement of the whole AWS Console service. Pricing still lists 50 Free agentic requests/month and Pro $19/user/month with unspecified higher limits, IP indemnity and automatic data-collection opt-out. Java upgrade allowances are Free 1,000 LOC/month and Pro 4,000 LOC/user/month pooled at payer-account level, then automatic $0.003/LOC; do not apply those numbers to .NET. Cancellation removes access immediately while the full current month's fee remains due. Opus 4.6 left Q Developer Pro May 29; newer coding models are directed to Kiro. Current IDE marketplace listings do not reopen new-account eligibility. Authentication, admin controls and privacy depend on the specific service route.
Kiro
AWS Kiro provides spec-driven coding workflows across an IDE, CLI, managed Web and ACP clients, and is the migration path for Amazon Q Developer IDE users. Permissions and cloud execution differ by surface.
Best for
- Spec-first / traceable delivery
- AWS-aligned engineering orgs
- Teams migrating off Amazon Q Developer
Watch out
Monthly credits: Free 50; Pro $20/1,000; Pro+ $40/2,000; Pro Max $100/5,000; Power $200/10,000. Included credits do not roll over. Individual add-ons cost $0.04/credit, are prepaid and expire after 12 months; enterprise admins can instead enable automatic overages, disabled by default. GovCloud is approximately 20% higher and has no Free tier. Auto is the recommended router; model multipliers, country eligibility and context tiers differ. GPT-5.6 Sol/Terra/Luna over 272K tokens use double multipliers and US inference irrespective of commercial profile region; Fable 5.1 is an admin-enabled Enterprise preview in US East. Free/individual content can be used for training by default with opt-out and is stored in N. Virginia; enterprise improvement exclusion does not mean no storage/logging. Free abuse inputs may be retained up to 60 days, and experimental models can process outside the profile geography. IDE/CLI permission rules differ from Web sandbox execution, which has no per-action prompts. Subscriptions do not authorize arbitrary third-party harness routing.
Common questions
Amazon Q Developer vs Kiro
Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.
Do I have to change editor to use Amazon Q Developer or Kiro?
How are Amazon Q Developer and Kiro priced?
Is Amazon Q Developer or Kiro better for large refactors?
Should I run Amazon Q Developer and Kiro together?
Will my project rules transfer between Amazon Q Developer and Kiro?
Do coding agents replace code review?
Should we harden MCP before rolling out a coding agent?
Next step
Which one fits
Autonomy and editor constraints decide this far more reliably than a benchmark score.
If most of your week is small, frequent edits, an assistive workflow beats delegation and an agentic harness sits idle while billing. If you regularly hand over work spanning many files, the reverse is true.
Where one tool requires changing editor and the other does not, that difference usually outweighs any capability gap across a team — rollouts fail on adoption, not capability.