Amp Review 2026: Pricing, Features, Pros & Cons
Amp is a coding agent that assumes the work happens somewhere other than your laptop. Every thread gets an orb — a machine with your code and tools already set up — and the pitch is that you send a prompt, close the lid, and come back to a shipped change. Here is what that costs and where it breaks in 2026.
Quick Verdict
Best for: Developers who want parallel background agents running in cloud machines rather than an assistant living inside their editor — especially anyone already paying for ChatGPT, since linked subscriptions carry no per-token fee inside Amp.
What Is Amp?
Amp (ampcode.com) describes itself as a coding agent and a development environment. You can run it against code on your own machine, but the design centre is remote: each thread gets an orb, a machine Amp provisions with your repository, tools and plugins already installed. That single decision is what separates Amp from an in-editor assistant — the agent is not waiting on your session to stay open.
The second design decision is model plurality. Amp routes across GPT-5.6, Claude Fable 5 and smaller fast models depending on what each is best at, and exposes an explicit effort control called the Dial with modes from low through ultra. Megawatt subscribers get low and medium (plus high with a linked ChatGPT subscription); Gigawatt gets everything including ultra.
Around that sit the things that make it a team product: workspaces, shared threads, multiplayer, a Slack integration, agent-to-agent delegation, event-driven automations, a plugin API with skills and AGENTS.md support, and an enterprise layer with SSO, MCP registry allowlists and minimal data retention. There is a CLI with execute mode, streaming JSON and remote control for scripted use.
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Amp Pros & Cons
✓ Pros
- •Orbs are the standout feature: Amp spins up a machine per thread with your code, tools and plugins already installed, so you can send a prompt, close the laptop, and the agent keeps working
- •Generous included usage — Megawatt at $20/month includes 750 hours of orbs plus at least $20 of agent usage, and Gigawatt at $200/month includes 1,000 hours of xxlarge orbs plus at least $200 of usage
- •Bring your own AI subscription: link a ChatGPT or X Premium+/SuperGrok subscription and Amp charges no per-token fee on top, so the tokens your other subscription already pays for are usable inside the agent
- •Multi-model by design — Amp routes across GPT-5.6, Claude Fable 5 and fast models per task rather than pinning you to one vendor
- •The Dial is an explicit quality/cost control: low and medium modes on Megawatt, all modes including high and ultra on Gigawatt, so you choose how hard the agent thinks per task
- •Unlimited public and private repositories on both subscription tiers, with no per-repo pricing games
- •Real multiplayer: shared threads, workspaces, a Slack integration and agent-to-agent handoffs, which makes it usable as a team surface instead of a solo tool
- •Unconstrained pay-as-you-go tier with API pricing for tokens and orbs, plus bring-your-own inference keys, for workloads a monthly plan cannot express
✗ Cons
- •Two tiers with a 10x gap between them — the jump from $20 Megawatt to $200 Gigawatt is steep with nothing in between, so heavy-but-not-enormous users overpay or run out
- •Included usage is expressed as a dollar amount of agent usage, not requests or tokens, so predicting whether $20 covers your month takes a month of measuring
- •Ultra and high modes are gated to Gigawatt (high is available on Megawatt only if you link a ChatGPT subscription), which puts the best reasoning behind the $200 tier
- •Running out mid-month means buying add-on credits — the subscription does not throttle gracefully, it replenishes at period end
- •There is no free plan at all, only paid subscriptions or usage billing, so evaluating Amp costs money from day one
- •Team billing is still rough: a workspace can pay for a subscription, but there is no way to automatically start one for every member
- •Each human is capped at two subscriptions and quotas cannot be resold, which is fine for most but blocks agency-style resale models
- •Orb-heavy workflows are a different mental model from an in-editor agent, and the learning curve is real for developers used to Cursor-style inline editing
Amp Pricing 2026
Megawatt
- •All product features
- •750 hours of orbs
- •$20 included agent usage
- •Unlimited public/private repos
- •Low & medium modes (high with linked ChatGPT sub)
Individual developers running agents daily
Gigawatt
- •Everything in Megawatt
- •1,000 hours of xxlarge orbs
- •$200 included agent usage
- •All modes including high and ultra
- •Use linked ChatGPT / SuperGrok subs
Heavy parallel-agent workloads
Unconstrained / Enterprise
- •API pricing for model tokens and orbs
- •Bring your own inference keys
- •All agent modes
- •SSO, directory sync, admin controls
- •Minimal data retention
Teams whose usage does not fit a monthly plan
Pricing transcribed from ampcode.com/pricing in August 2026. Students and teachers can subscribe at $10/month via the education discount. Each person may hold at most two subscriptions, and quotas cannot be resold.
Amp vs Claude Code vs Cursor
| Feature | Amp | Claude Code | Cursor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud machines per thread | ✅ Orbs, 750–1,000 hrs included | ✅ Remote sessions | ✅ Background agents |
| Use your own ChatGPT sub | ✅ No per-token fee | ❌ Not supported | ❌ Not supported |
| Multi-vendor models | ✅ GPT-5.6, Claude Fable 5, fast models | ❌ Anthropic only | ✅ Multiple vendors |
| Explicit effort control | ✅ The Dial (low → ultra) | ⚠️ Thinking budget | ⚠️ Model choice |
| Free plan | ❌ None | ❌ None | ✅ Limited free |
| Entry price | $20/mo Megawatt | $20/mo Pro | $20/mo Pro |
| Top individual tier | $200/mo Gigawatt | $200/mo Max | $200/mo Ultra |
| Education discount | ✅ $10/mo | ❌ None published | ✅ Student plan |
Amp Key Features in Depth
Orbs: a machine per thread
Orbs are the reason to use Amp. Each thread gets a provisioned machine with your code, tools and plugins already in place, so a long task keeps running whether or not your laptop is open. They come in sizes with different hourly costs — Megawatt includes 750 hours, Gigawatt 1,000 hours of the xxlarge size — and there is documented handling for secrets, file attachments, portals and shipping changes back out. If you are used to a single interactive agent, the shift to five orbs working in parallel is the actual product.
The Dial and multi-model routing
Amp does not ask you to pick a model per message; it asks how hard you want it to think. The Dial exposes modes from low through ultra, and Amp selects among GPT-5.6, Claude Fable 5 and faster models for the job. Megawatt gets low and medium, and unlocks high if you link a ChatGPT subscription; Gigawatt gets everything. You can also build your own dial configuration, which is the escape hatch for teams that want deterministic routing rules.
Linked subscriptions change the economics
Amp subscribers pay no per-token fee for usage that flows through a linked ChatGPT or X Premium+/SuperGrok subscription — you get as many tokens as that third-party plan allows. For a developer already paying $20 or $200 a month to OpenAI, this means the marginal cost of running Amp is closer to the orb hours than to the inference. It is the single biggest reason Amp's $20 tier stretches further than the sticker suggests.
Multiplayer, automations and the CLI
Threads are shareable, workspaces are first-class, and agents can delegate to other agents. Event-driven orbs let a push or an issue kick off work with no human in the loop, and the Slack integration plus Puck give the agent a presence where the team already talks. The CLI adds execute mode, keybindings, streaming JSON output, runners and remote control, which is what you need to fold Amp into an existing CI pipeline rather than running it by hand.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Amp cost in 2026?
Amp has two subscriptions. Megawatt is $20/month and includes 750 hours of orbs, at least $20 of included agent usage, unlimited public and private repositories, and low and medium modes (high mode too, if you link a ChatGPT subscription). Gigawatt is $200/month and adds 1,000 hours of xxlarge orbs, at least $200 of included agent usage and all modes including high and ultra. There is also an Unconstrained option that bills at API rates for model tokens and orbs, and an enterprise plan with SSO, directory sync, admin controls and minimal data retention. Students and teachers can subscribe for $10/month with the education discount.
What is an orb in Amp?
An orb is a machine Amp creates for a thread, pre-loaded with your code, tools and plugins. It is what makes Amp asynchronous rather than interactive: you send a prompt, close your laptop, and the agent continues working in the orb rather than in your editor session. Orbs come in sizes with different costs, support secrets handling and file attachments, and Megawatt includes 750 hours of them per month while Gigawatt includes 1,000 hours of the xxlarge size.
Can I use my ChatGPT subscription with Amp?
Yes, and this is one of Amp's more unusual economics. Link a ChatGPT subscription (or an X Premium+/SuperGrok subscription) and Amp charges no per-token fee for usage that flows through it — you can use as many tokens as that third-party subscription allows. On Megawatt, linking a ChatGPT subscription is also what unlocks high mode. If you already pay for ChatGPT Plus or Pro, this materially changes the effective price of running Amp.
What happens when I use up my included Amp usage?
You add paid credits to keep working until the subscription's included usage replenishes at the end of the monthly period. Amp states that each plan includes at least the subscription price in agent usage, and that depending on usage patterns you may get more. There is no automatic overage billing on the subscription tiers — you top up deliberately, or you move to the Unconstrained usage-billed option.
Amp vs Claude Code — which is better?
Claude Code is the tighter single-vendor tool: Anthropic models, a mature CLI, and a workflow most developers pick up in an afternoon. Amp is the better fit if you want cloud-resident asynchronous agents as the default unit of work, multi-vendor model routing including GPT-5.6, and the ability to route usage through a ChatGPT subscription you already pay for. Both start at $20/month and both top out at $200/month for individuals. Choose Amp for parallel background work, Claude Code for interactive depth.
Does Amp have a free tier?
No. Amp offers paid subscriptions (Megawatt and Gigawatt), usage-based billing on the Unconstrained option, and an education discount at $10/month for students and teachers who declare their status. Evaluating it costs money, which is the main practical objection compared with Cursor or Kiro, both of which have some form of free entry point. You can cancel any time in user settings and keep access for the rest of the paid period.
Is Amp suitable for teams?
Increasingly yes, with caveats. Amp supports workspaces, shared threads, multiplayer collaboration, a Slack integration and agent-to-agent handoffs, and workspace admins can start subscriptions for individual members. The gap is automation: there is no way yet to automatically start a subscription for every member of a workspace, so onboarding a large team is still a manual pass. Enterprise adds SSO, directory sync, admin controls, MCP registry allowlists, thread visibility rules and minimal data retention.
Final Verdict
Amp is the clearest expression of the asynchronous-agent thesis on the market: orbs make background work the default rather than a feature, and the included allowances — 750 orb hours and $20 of agent usage at the $20 tier — are unusually generous for a category that normally meters you into a corner. If you already pay for ChatGPT, the no-per-token-fee link makes the effective price better still.
The honest objections are the absence of a free plan, a 10x gap between the only two subscription tiers, and usage allowances denominated in dollars rather than in anything you can forecast before you start. If you want an assistant inside your editor, Cursor or Claude Code will feel more natural. If you want five agents working while you sleep, Amp is built for exactly that and priced to encourage it.
Compare Amp vs Every Other AI Coding Agent
See how Amp stacks up against Cursor, Kiro, GitHub Copilot and the rest of the agentic coding category.
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