Amp Freemium

What it is

Amp is a coding agent and development environment from the team behind Sourcegraph, built around the latest frontier models. It runs as a terminal CLI, as a web app at ampcode.com, and as native macOS and iOS apps. Threads run either locally or on Orbs, cloud machines Amp creates per thread with your code, tools and plugins already set up. Every thread is saved and can be shared, so teammates can see exactly how a change was made.

The CLI installs with curl -fsSL https://ampcode.com/install.sh | bash and starts with amp. From the CLI you can connect to an open editor (VS Code, Cursor, Windsurf, Zed, or Neovim with the Amp plugin) with the ide connect command, so the agent sees your current file and selection.

Key features

• Multiple modes that pair tasks with suitable models, including faster models for quick work
• Orbs for running threads in the cloud, selectable with the --executor flag
• Shared threads, workspaces and multiplayer collaboration
• Option to connect a ChatGPT subscription or bring your own API keys
• An SDK for building on Amp programmatically

Skills, subagents and MCP

Amp reads AGENTS.md for project guidance. It supports Agent Skills in the SKILL.md format and looks for them in several places, including .agents/skills/ and .claude/skills/ in the project and ~/.config/amp/skills/, so skills written for other tools often work unchanged. A skill can bring its own MCP servers through a sibling mcp.json file or its frontmatter. Plugins and MCP are covered in the customisation docs, and agent-to-agent features are documented as well.

Pricing

At the time of writing (September 2026), Amp has a free Hobby tier with all product features and pay-as-you-go Orb time, an Individual plan at $20 per month, team features at no extra charge, and custom Enterprise pricing. Bringing your own API keys removes Amp's token fees. Check the pricing page for current details, as Amp changes its model often.

Who it is for

Developers who want frontier models with little configuration, and teams that value shared threads and cloud execution.

Verdict

Amp is opinionated and fast-moving, with good support for skills, AGENTS.md and MCP. The flip side is fewer knobs by design and frequent product changes, so check the manual before relying on any one workflow.