Kiro Freemium

What it is

Kiro is an agentic development environment built around spec-driven development. Instead of jumping straight from a prompt to code, Kiro can turn a request into requirements, a design and a task list, then work through the tasks. The same agent now runs on several surfaces: a desktop IDE with integrated chat, a terminal CLI with a headless mode for CI, a web app for multi-repository work, a mobile app for monitoring tasks and reviewing pull requests, and Crew, an autonomous personal agent with scheduling and memory. Project configuration in the .kiro/ folder is shared across all of them.

Key features

• Specs that structure a feature into requirements, design and tasks before implementation
• Steering files that keep the agent aligned with project standards
• Agent hooks that run automations on events such as file changes or task completion
• Checkpoints and rewind to undo changes or branch a conversation
• Permission controls over what the agent can access
• Headless CLI mode for pipelines

Skills, subagents and MCP

Kiro connects to MCP servers for external tools and APIs. It supports skills and "powers", reusable instruction packages that extend the agent. Steering accepts the AGENTS.md standard: you can place AGENTS.md in the workspace root or in ~/.kiro/steering/, and files in subdirectories are discovered automatically. Hooks are a first-class feature for automating documentation, tests and other follow-up work.

Pricing

Kiro uses monthly credits that do not roll over. At the time of writing (September 2026): Free with 50 credits; Pro at $20 per user per month with 1,000 credits; Pro+ at $40 with 2,000; Pro Max at $100 with 5,000; and Power at $200 with 10,000. Extra credits cost $0.04 each. Eligible university students at partner institutions can get 1,000 credits per month free for a year, verified through SheerID. Enterprise plans are available through sales.

Who it is for

Developers and teams building larger features who benefit from writing things down first, and anyone who wants the same agent configuration across IDE, terminal and web.

Verdict

Kiro's specs, steering and hooks are a genuinely different way to keep an agent on track for multi-step features, and AGENTS.md and MCP support make it easy to bring existing setups across. The spec workflow can feel heavy for small fixes, and credit-based pricing needs watching on large tasks.