Amp vs Grok CLI (2026): Which Vibe Coding App Is Better?

Both are popular terminal coding agents. Here is how Amp and Grok CLI stack up on price, strengths and weaknesses, and which one we would pick.

Amp

Frontier coding agent for the terminal and editor, from the makers of Sourcegraph

8.2 /10

Pricing: Free plan, paid from $20/mo

Pros

Strong results on hard, multi-step tasks
Shared threads for team review
Subagents and AGENTS.md built in

Cons

Usage-based costs add up on large tasks
Fewer configuration knobs by design

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Grok CLI

Open-source terminal coding agent for xAI's Grok API with search, media generation and remote control

7.0 /10

Pricing: Open source

Pros

Fully open source (MIT) with a broad, well-documented feature set: sub-agents, MCP, lifecycle hooks, a microVM sandbox, and headless/CI-friendly modes
Backed by a real org (superagent-ai) with CI, changelog and clear troubleshooting docs

Cons

Main branch's tip commit is from May 2026, several months before this review, suggesting a slower recent cadence
Desktop automation and Telegram remote control widen the attack surface; sandboxing is Apple-Silicon-only, so Linux/Intel Mac runs are unsandboxed

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Amp vs Grok CLI at a glance

	Amp	Grok CLI
Editor score	8.2 / 10	7.0 / 10
Pricing model	Freemium	Open source
Starting price	$20/mo	Free
Reader upvotes	0	0
Best for	terminal, agent	grok, xai, terminal-agent
Agent Skills support	Yes	No
Subagents support	Yes	No
MCP support	Yes	No
AGENTS.md support	Yes	No
Plugins support	Yes	No
Hooks support	No	No
Rules support	No	No
Agent skills in this directory	47	0
Subagents & agents in this directory	9	4
MCP servers in this directory	72	0

Our pick

Amp edges it with a score of 8.2 versus 7.0. Amp is the better fit if you value: strong results on hard, multi-step tasks, shared threads for team review. Choose Grok CLI instead if you need: fully open source (mit) with a broad, well-documented feature set: sub-agents, mcp, lifecycle hooks, a microvm sandbox, and headless/ci-friendly modes, backed by a real org (superagent-ai) with ci, changelog and clear troubleshooting docs.