Common Questions

Kiro is an agentic AI with an [IDE](/docs/) and [CLI](/docs/cli/) that helps you go from prototype to production with spec-driven development. From simple to complex tasks, Kiro works alongside you to turn prompts into detailed specs, then into working code, docs, and tests—so what you build is exactly what you want and ready to share with your team. Kiro’s agents help you solve challenging problems and automate tasks like generating documentation and unit tests. With Kiro, you can build beyond prototypes while being in the driver’s seat every step of the way.

Developing with specs keeps the fun of vibe coding, but fixes some of its limitations: vibe coding can require too much guidance on complex tasks or when building on top of large codebases, and it can misinterpret context. When implementing a task with vibe coding, it’s difficult to keep track of all the decisions that were made along the way, and document them for your team. By using specs, Kiro works alongside you to define requirements, system design, and tasks to be implemented before writing any code. This approach explicitly documents the reasoning and implementation decisions, so Kiro can implement more complex tasks in fewer shots.

Kiro works as a standalone agentic [IDE](/docs/) or [CLI](/docs/cli). [Download](/downloads/) the installer for your operating system, and log in with GitHub, Google, AWS Builder ID, or AWS IAM Identity Center. You do not need an AWS account to use Kiro. For more, see [documentation](/docs).

Kiro supports a variety of programming languages that developers use in their day to day work. This list includes, but is not limited to Python, Java, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, Go, Rust, PHP, Ruby, Kotlin, C, C++, shell scripting, SQL, Scala, JSON, YAML, and HCL.

Kiro is based on Code OSS, so you can [import your VS Code settings, themes, and Open VSX compatible plugins](/docs/guides/migrating-from-vscode/) in the Kiro onboarding flow.

Yes, Kiro pricing in AWS GovCloud (US) regions is approximately 20% higher than standard commercial region pricing. All Kiro subscription tiers (Pro, Pro+, and Power) are subject to this regional pricing adjustment when accessed through AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

No, the free tier is not available in Kiro Enterprise and AWS GovCloud (US) regions. All Kiro subscription tiers (Pro, Pro+, and Power) are subject to this regional pricing adjustment when accessed through AWS GovCloud (US) regions.

Kiro offers flexible pricing tiers designed around how developers use Kiro. New users can start with the perpetual Kiro Free tier, which includes 50 credits. You can upgrade to paid tiers ranging from Pro ($20/month), Pro+ ($40/month), to Power ($200/month) for increased capacity. Paid tiers include flexible overages available at $0.04 per additional credit. Kiro prices shown do not include applicable taxes or duties (such as VAT or sales tax) unless explicitly noted. Note that if you have a Japanese billing address, Japanese Consumption Tax will apply to your Kiro usage. The amount of tax collected depends on many factors, including, but not limited to, your Tax Registration Number (“TRN” or Tax ID), and billing address. Kiro in GovCloud pricing is approximately 20% higher than commercial pricing and does not include the Free tier.

By default, your prompts are processed by Auto, an agent that uses a mix of different frontier models such as Sonnet 4.5, combined with specialized models that are experts in specific tasks, intent detection, caching, and other techniques to give you a better balance of quality, latency, and costs. You can also choose to have your prompts processed exclusively by Sonnet 4, Sonnet 4.5, Haiku 4.5, Opus 4.5, or Opus 4.6.

The first time you get access to Kiro, you will receive 500 bonus credits usable within 30 days, whatever plan you sign up for, including Kiro Free, as long as you’re using Kiro as an individual via social login or Builder ID (not AWS Identity Center).

A credit is a unit of work in response to user prompts. Simple prompts can consume less than 1 credit. More complex prompts, such as executing a spec task, typically cost more than 1 credit. Additionally, different models consume credits at different rates, with a prompt executed via Sonnet 4 costing more credits than executing it with Auto. For example, a given task that consumes X credits to execute in Auto, will cost you 1.3X credits to execute via Sonnet 4. Credits are metered to the second decimal point, so the least number of credits a task can consume is 0.01 credits.

Any prompt you ask Kiro to execute, whether in vibe mode or spec mode, as well as spec refinement, task execution, and agent hook execution, will consume credits.

You can see the monthly credit limits for your plan, the number of credits used, and credits remaining in your subscription dashboard accessible in the Kiro IDE. Credit usage is updated at least every 5 minutes.

Yes, on paid plans, you can enable overage to continue using Kiro past your monthly limits. Additional credits are $0.04 each, billed at month-end based on actual over-cap usage. For example, if you’re on the Pro tier and use 1,100 credits (100 over your limit), you’ll be charged an additional $4 on your next bill. Overage is disabled by default and must be enabled in Settings before it applies. Once you turn overages on, and for as long as you remain on a paid plan, overages stay on. Once you downgrade to the Kiro Free tier, overages will be disabled, and you need to turn them back on when you are back on a paid plan.

No, subscriptions and usage limits are calculated per individual user. For team usage, each developer needs their own subscription. Team billing and management features are coming soon.

Kiro subscriptions can be used with Kiro IDE, Kiro CLI, ACP compatible IDEs, and automation in software development (ex: reviews during CI/CD). Use with OpenClaw and similar tools that leverage third-party harnesses is prohibited.

Usage limits reset at the start of each billing month. Unused credits do not roll over to the next month.

We accept all major credit cards.

Currently, you can purchase a Kiro paid plan with a billing address in Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, and Yemen. More countries or regions will be added soon.

There’s no cost during the preview period for Kiro Pro, Pro+, and Power users. Usage is subject to weekly limits that reset each week. We’ll communicate pricing details before the preview period ends.

No, there is no additional charge for using Kiro powers. All Kiro users can access and use Kiro powers.

Yes, Kiro pricing in [AWS GovCloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-kiro.html) (US) Regions is approximately 20% higher than standard commercial region pricing. All Kiro subscription tiers (Pro, Pro+, and Power) are subject to this regional pricing adjustment when accessed through AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

The Free tier is not available in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions. Kiro in AWS GovCloud (US) requires a paid subscription plan (Pro, Pro+, or Power) and enterprise authentication via AWS IAM Identity Center.

Kiro subscriptions can be used with Kiro IDE, Kiro CLI, ACP compatible IDEs, and automation in software development (ex: reviews during CI/CD). Use with OpenClaw and similar tools that leverage third-party harnesses is prohibited.

Organizations can [get started with Kiro](/docs/enterprise/getting-started/) using their AWS IAM credentials.

Yes, we provide an output indemnity for paid Kiro subscribers. See Section 50.10 of the [Service Terms](https://aws.amazon.com/service-terms/) for more details.

We do not collect telemetry from Kiro Pro, Pro+, or Power users that access Kiro through AWS IAM Identity Center or external identity provider. However, enterprise admins can configure Kiro to collect user activity reports for the users in your organization.

The Kiro CLI and IDE are [available](/docs/enterprise/supported-regions/) in the US East (N. Virginia) and Europe (Frankfurt) AWS Regions when logging in via IAM Identity Center. Kiro is also available in [AWS GovCloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-kiro.html) (US) Regions to address regulated workloads.

We do not use content from Kiro Pro, Pro+, or Power users that access Kiro through AWS IAM Identity Center or external identity provider. If you have an Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription and access Kiro through your AWS account with the Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription, then Kiro will not use your content for service improvement. We may use certain content from Kiro Free Tier and Kiro individual subscribers (those that access Kiro through a social login provider or AWS Builder ID) for service improvement. You can opt out of content collection at any time using the opt-out mechanism described in our [documentation](/docs/privacy-and-security/data-protection/#opt-out-of-data-sharing). For more information, see [Service Improvement](/docs/privacy-and-security/data-protection/#service-improvement).

No. Amazon Q Developer Pro customers who use Kiro will retain their Q Developer Pro benefits by logging into Kiro with the same credentials used for Amazon Q Developer Pro. Kiro will not collect their content for service improvement.

Kiro in [AWS GovCloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-kiro.html) (US) Regions supports enterprise authentication via AWS IAM Identity Center, including integration with external identity providers such as Okta and Microsoft Entra ID. Individual login methods such as GitHub, Google, and AWS Builder ID are not available in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

The Kiro CLI and IDE are [available](/docs/enterprise/supported-regions/) in the US East (N. Virginia) and Europe (Frankfurt) AWS Regions when logging in via IAM Identity Center. Kiro is also available in [AWS GovCloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-kiro.html) (US) Regions to address regulated workloads.

Currently, you can purchase a Kiro paid plan with a billing address in Afghanistan, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Curacao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, East Timor, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hong Kong SAR, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kiribati, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Malta, Mauritania, Mexico, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Korea, South Sudan, Spain, Sri Lanka, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Vatican City State, Venezuela, and Yemen. More countries or regions will be added soon.

Kiro credits are supported in most countries globally where AWS billing is available. Startups in Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, France, Germany, Iran, Italy, Mexico, North Korea, Region of Crimea, Russia, Sudan, Syria, and Spain are not eligible for this program.

Kiro in [AWS GovCloud](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/govcloud-us/latest/UserGuide/govcloud-kiro.html) (US) Regions supports enterprise authentication via AWS IAM Identity Center, including integration with external identity providers such as Okta and Microsoft Entra ID. Individual login methods such as GitHub, Google, and AWS Builder ID are not available in AWS GovCloud (US) Regions.

We do not collect telemetry from Kiro Pro, Pro+, or Power users that access Kiro through AWS IAM Identity Center or external identity provider. However, enterprise admins can configure Kiro to collect user activity reports for the users in your organization.

We do not use content from Kiro Pro, Pro+, or Power users that access Kiro through AWS IAM Identity Center or external identity provider. If you have an Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription and access Kiro through your AWS account with the Amazon Q Developer Pro subscription, then Kiro will not use your content for service improvement. We may use certain content from Kiro Free Tier and Kiro individual subscribers (those that access Kiro through a social login provider or AWS Builder ID) for service improvement. You can opt out of content collection at any time using the opt-out mechanism described in our [documentation](/docs/privacy-and-security/data-protection/#opt-out-of-data-sharing). For more information, see [Service Improvement](/docs/privacy-and-security/data-protection/#service-improvement).