Amp vs goose (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 12, 2026, goose grades higher than Amp: 2.8 against 2.4 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 2, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 · graded Oct 10, 2026 and Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA
Amp grades higher on platforms. goose grades higher on value for money and the free plan. They get the same grade on features and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Amp
Coding agent that runs in cloud machines it calls orbs
Which one is for you
Pick Amp if
- Fits if you want a coding agent on your own machine with your own model key
- Works for a team that wants shared threads and billing
Look elsewhere if
- Tight if you stay on Individual: orb minutes are capped at 45,000 a month
- Not for you if your Mac is older: the app needs Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later
- Watch out: the Gigawatt tier appears on the pricing page without a readable price
- Skip it if you need SCIM, audit logs or IP allowlisting without Enterprise, whose price is not published
Pick goose if
- Fits if you're a developer who wants a local agent for coding and terminal work
- Works for people who already pay for Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini and want to reuse that subscription
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you want something hosted, as it only runs on your own machine
- Not for you if you want an agent on your phone, since it comes as desktop apps and a CLI only
- Not for you if setting up a model provider sounds like a chore, because that's step one
- Watch out: hosted models are billed by your provider, not every provider has a free tier, and the docs recommend Claude 4
- Too light for jobs that must run on a schedule or a trigger, as none are on record
How we grade them
| 2.4GPAAmpFair | 2.8GPAgooseGood | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CIndividual is $20 a month, just over the $19 where the cheaper quarter of AI agent tools ends; the free tier needs your own model keys. | AIt costs nothing: Apache 2.0, no paid plan, no hosted tier. What you may pay for is the model, billed by whichever provider you connect, unless you run a local one or reuse a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription you already have. |
| Free plan and trial | BHobby has no monthly fee: self-hosted orbs are free, but you bring your own model subscription or key, and Amp-hosted orbs are pay as you go. | AThe whole thing is free with nothing held back: the desktop app, the CLI and the API. It can even download a model from Hugging Face and run it in-process, so you can use it without an API key at all. |
| Features | CCloud and self-hosted orbs, your own models, automations and team workspaces, but SCIM, audit logs and IP allowlisting are Enterprise. | CIt does the local-agent job fully, and built-in local inference is something rivals don't have: 70-plus MCP extensions, recipes shared as YAML, subagents, a sandbox mode, prompt injection detection. It's a smaller job than this category's, with no hosted version and no scheduled or triggered runs on record. |
| Ease of use | CNo store rating on record. It is a coding agent with orbs, models and automations to set up. | CIt's an app you install, and then it does nothing until you've connected a provider, signed in with a subscription or downloaded a local model. Recipes are YAML, there's a CLI alongside, and the docs recommend Claude 4 models, since it leans on tool calling. No rating on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android apps, with four integrations named; no API is on record. | CComputers only: Mac, Windows and Linux, as a desktop app and a CLI, with no web version and no phone app. Beyond that, it has the 70-plus MCP extensions and an API to build it into other things. |
| Best for | a coding agent with cloud and self-hosted orbs | a free agent that runs on your own machine |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: Amp and goose. How we grade
Price against what you get
Amp starts at $20 a month and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. goose has no paid plan and scores 2.0.
Amp scores higher, and starts $20 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other AI agents on the chart, 13 score higher than Amp for less, and none scores higher than goose for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- goose is open source, according to its own site.
At a glance
| Amp | goose | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free |
| Starts at | $20 per month (Megawatt tier) | Free |
| Free plan | Hobby: no monthly fee, pay as you go for Amp-hosted orbs, unlimited self-hosted orbs, and your own model subscription or key. | Goose is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 license, with no paid plan. Model usage is billed by the provider you connect, unless you run a local model or use a provider's free tier. |
| Free trial | None listed | None listed |
| Web | ||
| macOS | ||
| Windows | ||
| Linux | ||
| iOS | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | Amp Frontier Corporation | Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF) |
| Price read from | ampcode.com | goose-docs.ai |
| Checked | Nov 12, 2026 | Nov 2, 2026 |
Worth knowing
Amp
- Orb minutes on the Individual tier are capped at 45,000 a month; when they run out you upgrade or buy more credits.
- The Gigawatt tier appears on the pricing page but its price is not shown in the page text, so it is not listed here.
- The Mac app requires Apple silicon and macOS 26 or later, per the download page.
- Enterprise pricing is not published, and SCIM, audit logs and IP allowlisting are Enterprise-only.
goose
- goose is free, but hosted models are billed by the provider you connect, and the docs note that not every provider has a free tier.
- It runs on your own machine: there are desktop apps for macOS, Linux and Windows and a CLI, and the site lists no hosted cloud version.
- The docs say goose relies heavily on tool calling and currently works best with Claude 4 models.
- The project left Block for the Agentic AI Foundation in April 2026; its repository moved from block/goose to aaif-goose/goose.
Key features
Amp
- Cloud orbs
- An orb is a cloud computer where an agent works remotely. Minutes are counted only while it runs and stop when it pauses while idle.
- Self-hosted orbs
- Orbs can run on your own infrastructure for free on Hobby, Individual and Teams, and they do not use orb minutes.
- Bring your own models
- You can use ChatGPT, Claude and other subscriptions or your own API keys with no Amp token fees; your provider's own limits and charges apply.
- Automations that wake threads
- In the vendor's demo video, a thread uses automations to wake itself on a schedule and check production logs.
- Team workspaces
- Workspaces share threads, portals, plugins and skills, with multiplayer, permissions and SAML/OIDC SSO.
- Apps on desktop and phone
- The download page lists apps for Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android for following agents away from your desk.
goose
- Desktop app, CLI and API
- The same agent runs in a native desktop app, a terminal CLI and an API for embedding. The desktop app and CLI share provider, model and extension settings.
- MCP extensions
- More than 70 documented extensions connect goose to databases, APIs, browsers, GitHub, Google Drive and other tools through the Model Context Protocol, and you can build your own.
- Providers and existing subscriptions
- Works with 15+ providers, including Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Ollama, OpenRouter, Azure and Bedrock, or with a Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscription you already have, through ACP.
- Built-in local inference
- The desktop app can download a GGUF model from Hugging Face and run it in-process with llama.cpp, with no API key and no separate model server.
- Recipes
- Workflows are saved as portable YAML recipes holding instructions, extensions, parameters and subrecipes, then shared with a team or run in CI.
- Subagents and safety controls
- Subagents handle parallel tasks outside the main conversation. Safeguards include prompt injection detection, tool permission controls, a sandbox mode and an adversary reviewer.
Plans
Amp
Hobby$0
No monthly fee; Amp-hosted orbs are pay-as-you-go, self-hosted orbs are free, with no Amp token fees on your own keys.
Individual (Megawatt)$20
per month
45,000 minutes of orb time on Amp-hosted orbs, plus Amp credits for inference. A Gigawatt tier also exists; its price was not readable.
Teams$0
no extra charge for a workspace
Shared threads, portals and billing with SSO; each member stays on Hobby or a paid tier, and SSO needs one paid member.
EnterpriseCustom
Pooled credits with no paid seats, SCIM, audit logs, IP allowlisting, spend limits and custom orb pricing.
goose
goose (Apache 2.0)Free
The full desktop app, CLI and API. You bring a model provider, an existing AI subscription or a local model.
Ways to pay less
Amp
- Education
Megawatt for $10 a month for students and teachers
Students and teachers can get the Megawatt tier at $10 per month through the Education Discount.
goose
No public discounts listed.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, Amp or goose?
As of Nov 12, 2026, goose is cheaper to start with: it is free, against $20 a month for Amp. Amp starts at $20 per month (Megawatt tier), and goose is free.
Which has a free plan, Amp or goose?
As of Nov 12, 2026, both Amp and goose have a free plan.
Which platforms do Amp and goose run on?
As of Nov 12, 2026, only Amp lists a web app and iOS and Android apps. Both list macOS, Windows and Linux apps. A platform missing from a listing is one its maker's pages did not mention.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.