Kiro Review 2026: Pricing, Features and Verdict

What it is

Kiro is an agentic coding product from AWS. It comes in five forms that share one subscription and the same project context:

• Kiro IDE, built on Code OSS, so you can import VS Code settings, themes and Open VSX compatible extensions.
• Kiro CLI for terminal work, custom agents and deployment pipelines, with cloud sessions that survive disconnects.
• Kiro Web, which runs tasks in isolated cloud sandboxes, coordinates changes across GitHub and GitLab repos and opens pull requests (paid plans).
• Mobile, to steer work from a phone.
• Kiro Crew, a free, open source workspace that runs on your machine and keeps working across sessions.

You do not need an AWS account. Sign in with GitHub, Google, AWS Builder ID or IAM Identity Center.

Pricing explained

Plan	Price per user per month	Credits per month	Extra credits
Free	$0	50	Not available
Pro	$20	1,000	$0.04 each
Pro+	$40	2,000	$0.04 each
Pro Max	$100	5,000	$0.04 each
Power	$200	10,000	$0.04 each
Enterprise	Custom	Custom	$0.04 overage, off by default

As listed on kiro.dev/pricing in October 2026, before tax. Paid plans are sold for teams up to 500; larger organizations go to Enterprise.

What the numbers mean. Every paid tier works out to $0.02 a credit inside the plan, half the add on price. So upgrading a tier is cheaper than buying packs if you regularly run out: a Pro user who needs 2,000 credits pays $20 plus 1,000 times $0.04, or $60, versus $40 for Pro+.

How fast credits go. Kiro says simple prompts can use less than 1 credit and spec tasks typically use more, metered to 0.01. Model choice changes the rate: its example puts Claude Sonnet 4.6 at 1.3 times the credits of Auto for the same task. Plan credits reset monthly and do not roll over; add on packs ($5 for 125 credits up to $100) roll over and expire after 12 months.

Sign up bonus. The first upgrade through social login or Builder ID earns a $20 credit toward the subscription, prorated by the days left in the month, because Kiro bills on the 1st.

Other rules. GovCloud pricing is about 20% higher with no free tier. Each developer needs their own subscription. Using your subscription through third party harnesses that route requests outside Kiro's interfaces is not permitted.

Compare per seat and per credit prices across tools in the Price Index.

Key features

Spec mode

Kiro's signature feature. You describe what you want, and Kiro writes requirements, a system design and an implementation task list before touching code. You refine the spec, then Kiro executes the tasks. The spec stays in the repo as documentation of the decisions made. A default mode and an autonomous mode exist for quicker work.

Steering files

Project rules, conventions and context live in steering files in the .kiro/ folder and carry across the IDE, CLI and Web, so every surface follows the same standards.

Hooks

Agent hooks run automatically on events such as saving a file, for example to update tests or docs. Hook runs consume credits like any other prompt.

Auto and model choice

By default prompts go to Auto, which mixes frontier models with specialized models and caching to balance quality, latency and cost. You can also pick a model: OpenAI's GPT 5.6 Sol, Terra and Luna; Anthropic's Claude Opus 5, Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 4.6, Sonnet 4.5 and Haiku 4.5; and open weight models such as DeepSeek 3.2, MiniMax M2.5, GLM 5 and Qwen3 Coder Next.

Kiro Web and automations

Delegate from the browser to cloud sandboxes that keep running when you close the laptop, work across several repos in one session, and schedule recurring cloud automations. No separate compute charge; it uses the same credits.

Powers, MCP and ACP

Kiro powers are free add ons for all users, MCP servers are configured per project, and the subscription works in ACP compatible IDEs.

What users say

Kiro does not yet have a public rating pool we can use. Its Trustpilot profile has 7 reviews, all one star, below our 10 review minimum; they mention failed tasks on the free tier, payment rejections, account suspensions and slow support. The profile is unclaimed and Trustpilot notes the reviews may not be representative. Treat that as an early warning on billing and support, not a verdict on the product.

Privacy and security

Kiro's data protection docs are specific, which is a point in its favor:

• Free tier: content may be used for service improvement, including model training, unless you opt out. Inputs may be kept up to 60 days for abuse detection.
• Individual paid subscribers (social login or Builder ID): content may be used for service improvement unless you opt out.
• Enterprise users: content is not used for service improvement, and telemetry is off by default. Prompt logging, if an admin enables it, goes to an S3 bucket in your own AWS account, and admins can encrypt data with customer managed KMS keys.
• Amazon Q Developer Pro subscribers using Kiro through that subscription are excluded from service improvement.
• Free and individual content is stored in US East (N. Virginia). Some models use global cross region inference.

If you are a solo developer with client code, turn the data sharing setting off on day one.

Who it is for

• Teams that want a plan before code, where spec mode's written requirements and task lists help reviews and handoffs.
• Budget planners, because each plan states its credits and overage is a flat $0.04.
• AWS customers who want IAM Identity Center sign in, KMS encryption and AWS billing.
• Amazon Q Developer users moving off the IDE plugins before April 30, 2027.

Who should skip it

• Developers who want an unmetered flat fee. Credits per task vary; heavy agent users may prefer Claude Code Max or Codex Pro, which meter by time window.
• Solo users who will not change default privacy settings.
• JetBrains loyalists; Kiro is its own Code OSS editor, though ACP support helps.
• Anyone who needs mature public reviews before buying.

Alternatives

• GitHub Copilot: $10 with 1,500 published credits a month and IDE choice.
• Windsurf, now Devin Desktop: $20 editor with frontier model quota.
• Cursor: full editor with Bugbot; third party models at API list price.
• Cline: open source, pay per token.

Verdict

Kiro earns its place near the top of the agent IDEs on two things competitors lack: published credit counts with a flat $0.04 overage, and spec driven development that produces a reviewable plan before any code. Its model menu covers Claude, GPT 5.6 and cheap open weight models, and one plan spans IDE, CLI, Web and mobile. It is held back by unpredictable credits per task, opt out data use on individual plans and almost no public reviews yet. For teams that like structure, it is the agent IDE to trial first.