Kiro

Kiro is Amazon Web Services' spec-driven AI coding tool (IDE, CLI and web), which turns a prompt into requirements, a design and a task list before writing code; it is free with 50 credits a month, and paid plans run from $20 to $200 a month as of Nov 6, 2026.

0:43 Kiro is an agentic coding tool from Amazon Web Services that plans before it codes: from a prompt it writes a spec (requirements, a design and a task list) and then works through the tasks. It comes as an IDE, the Kiro CLI and Kiro Web, and is free with 50 credits a month, with Pro at $20, Pro+ at $40, Pro Max at $100 and Power at $200 a month, as of Nov 6, 2026. AWS made it generally available on Nov 17, 2025.

Kiro suits teams that want a written plan they can review before an agent touches the code, and companies already on AWS sign-in and billing. If you would rather prompt and iterate without a spec, Cursor or Claude Code is the more direct tool, and Google Antigravity is free for individuals with Gemini models.

The words Meet Kiro, an agent for structured AI coding, over Kiro's panels for specs, agent hooks and MCP servers Amazon Web Services

Quick facts

Maker	Amazon Web Services
Launched	Generally available Nov 17, 2025
Get it	kiro.dev: IDE, Kiro CLI, Kiro Web
Price	Free (50 credits); Pro $20 a month (as of Nov 6, 2026)
Models	Auto by default; Claude Opus 5.5, GPT-5.6, Sonnet, Haiku, DeepSeek, GLM, Qwen and others (Kiro)
Platforms	macOS, Windows, Linux; web
Best for	Spec-first work you want to review before coding
Open source	No

Plans and prices

Plan	Price	Credits a month
Free	$0	50 (open-weight models and Claude Sonnet 4.5)
Pro	$20 a user	1,000
Pro+	$40 a user	2,000
Pro Max	$100 a user	5,000
Power	$200 a user	10,000
Teams (credit pooling)	$20 a seat	500 a seat, pooled across 2 or more seats

Source: Kiro pricing, read Nov 6, 2026. Extra credits cost $0.04 each on paid plans, sold in packs from $5 (125 credits); they last 12 months, while plan credits do not roll over. The first upgrade from Free makes the rest of that month free and adds 500 trial credits. Credits are metered to two decimal places, and a model costs more or less than Auto per task (Sonnet 4.6 uses about 1.3 times Auto's credits, Kiro's own example). AWS GovCloud costs about 20% more and has no free tier.

Features

Specs. A spec is three files: requirements.md (user stories and acceptance criteria, or bugfix.md for a bug), design.md (the architecture) and tasks.md (the steps), written in that order and reviewable at each step (Kiro docs). This is what sets Kiro apart from most rivals, which go straight from prompt to code.

1:13 Hooks and steering. Hooks run a shell command or an agent prompt when an event fires, such as a file save or a tool call (Kiro docs); steering files hold standing instructions for the project (Kiro docs).

Powers and MCP. Powers package tools and knowledge for a task at no extra charge, and MCP connects outside tools and data (Kiro).

Kiro CLI, Web and Crew. The CLI reached version 3.0 on Nov 3, 2026, making its V3 harness the default and retiring the Classic interface. Kiro Web runs work in the browser, with session recaps and scheduled runs, on the same credits as the IDE, and Crew runs agents continuously.

Checks against the spec. At general availability Kiro added property-based tests that measure generated code against the spec and checkpoints to rewind an agent's changes (SiliconANGLE, Nov 17, 2025).

Models

Auto, Kiro's default, mixes frontier and specialized models. You can also pick GPT-5.6, Claude Opus 5, Opus 4.8, Sonnet 5, Sonnet 4.6, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5, DeepSeek 3.2, MiniMax M2.5, GLM-5 or Qwen3 Coder Next (Kiro pricing). The changelog added Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-5.6 Sol on Oct 30, 2026, and Claude Haiku 5.5 and Kimi K3 on Nov 4, 2026.

Kiro vs the alternatives

Cursor: a faster prompt-and-edit loop without a mandatory plan; pick it if you iterate by feel.
Claude Code: Anthropic's terminal agent with its own plan mode; pick it if you want Claude directly from its maker.
GitHub Copilot: the default if your company standardizes on GitHub and Visual Studio Code.
Google Antigravity: free for individuals, built around Gemini models and parallel agents.
Devin: Cognition's autonomous engineer for handing off whole tasks.

See Best AI Coding Agent for the comparison.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kiro free? Yes, Kiro has a free plan with 50 credits a month that covers open-weight models and Claude Sonnet 4.5, as of Nov 6, 2026. Paid plans start at $20 a month for 1,000 credits.

How much does Kiro cost? Kiro costs $0 (Free), $20 (Pro), $40 (Pro+), $100 (Pro Max) or $200 (Power) a user a month, with extra credits at $0.04 each, as of Nov 6, 2026.

Who makes Kiro? Kiro is made by Amazon Web Services; it reached general availability on Nov 17, 2025.

What is spec-driven development in Kiro? Kiro first writes a requirements file, a design file and a task list from your prompt, lets you review each, and then implements the tasks.

Does Kiro use Claude? Yes, Kiro offers Claude models including Opus 5.5 and Sonnet, alongside GPT-5.6, open-weight models and its default Auto mode.