# Amp review (2026): is the free plan enough? > Coding agent that runs in cloud machines it calls orbs Checked Nov 12, 2026 ยท graded Nov 12, 2026 by ToolGPA. Amp is a coding agent and development environment from Amp Frontier Corporation. Agents run in cloud computers the vendor calls orbs, or on your own runners, and keep working after you close your laptop. There are desktop and phone apps for following threads, and you can use model subscriptions or API keys you already have. - **Category:** AI Agents - **Made by:** Amp Frontier Corporation - **Website:** https://ampcode.com - **Runs on:** Web, macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, Android - **Who should skip it:** Tight if you stay on Individual: orb minutes are capped at 45,000 a month. - **Facts last checked:** Nov 12, 2026 ## Pricing As of Nov 12, 2026, Amp has a free plan, and paid plans start at $20 per month (Megawatt tier). - **Pricing model:** Free plan - **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. - **Free trial:** None listed. | Plan | Price | What you get | | --- | --- | --- | | 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. | | Enterprise | Custom | Pooled credits with no paid seats, SCIM, audit logs, IP allowlisting, spend limits and custom orb pricing. | Read from https://ampcode.com/pricing on Nov 12, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Amp before buying. ## Ways to pay less - **Megawatt for $10 a month for students and teachers** (Education): Students and teachers can get the Megawatt tier at $10 per month through the Education Discount. Source: https://ampcode.com/pricing ## Key features - **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. ## Good for - Developers who want agents running while their laptop is closed - Teams that want to reuse the Claude or ChatGPT subscriptions they already pay for - Companies that need self-hosted runners and SSO ## Worth knowing - 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. ## ToolGPA grades **GPA: 2.4 out of 4**, graded Nov 12, 2026. Amp is a coding agent that runs in cloud or self-hosted orbs, on web, Mac, Windows, Linux and phones. Hobby has no monthly fee, with pay-as-you-go orbs and your own model keys. Individual is $20 a month for 45,000 orb minutes, and the Mac app needs Apple silicon and macOS 26. - **Value for money: C.** Individual 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. - **Free plan and trial: B.** Hobby 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. - **Features: C.** Cloud and self-hosted orbs, your own models, automations and team workspaces, but SCIM, audit logs and IP allowlisting are Enterprise. - **Ease of use: C.** No store rating on record. It is a coding agent with orbs, models and automations to set up. - **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web, Mac, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android apps, with four integrations named; no API is on record. These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Amp's own pages on 12 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews. ## Where it stands among AI agents - Amp's GPA of 2.4 is higher than 61 of the 101 other AI agents we grade, and level with 8. - It stands best on free plan and trial (B, above 82 of 101) and worst on features (C, above 1). - Its paid plans start at $20 a month, against a middle price of $22.13 for the category: 20 of the 65 others that charge start lower. - On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 13 tools score higher and cost less. The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/ai-agents ## Keep it, or make your own? **Keep it.** To replace Amp you would be making an AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. That is not a weekend's work, with an AI app builder or without one. It costs $240 a year. - You could not: An AI agent, with the models and the safeguards behind it. - You could not: Connections to other products, each kept working as those products change. - You could not: Apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android that stay in step with each other. - You could not: Several people working in it at the same moment. - You could not: What a company asks for before it lets staff use something: single sign-on and roles and permissions. A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it. ## Works with Slack, ChatGPT, Claude, Google Cloud **Tags:** AI agents, AI features, Workflow automation, Real-time collaboration ## Alternatives - [Factory](https://toolgpa.com/tools/factory): Coding agents called Droids for desktop, terminal and web. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amp-vs-factory) - [Jules](https://toolgpa.com/tools/jules): Google's asynchronous coding agent that opens pull requests. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amp-vs-jules) - [Devin](https://toolgpa.com/tools/devin): Autonomous software engineer that runs in the cloud or locally. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amp-vs-devin) - [OpenHands](https://toolgpa.com/tools/openhands): Open-source platform for AI coding agents and automations. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amp-vs-openhands) - [goose](https://toolgpa.com/tools/goose): Open-source AI agent with a desktop app, CLI and API. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/amp-vs-goose) ## Sources The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 12, 2026: - https://ampcode.com - https://ampcode.com/pricing - https://ampcode.com/download - https://ampcode.com/manual - https://ampcode.com/about - https://ampcode.com/terms Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/amp Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).