A decision for a beginner, not a spec sheet. Scores are our weights. Prices are the public plans, and anything marked verify on the tool page should be re-checked before you pay.
Pick Kiro if you want a web app or automation you will keep in a repo and review as a diff.
Pick OpenAI Codex if you already pay for ChatGPT and want the coding agent in that allowance.
An agentic IDE that turns a prompt into a spec, then into a diff.
Cheapest verified paid plan: Pro · $20/user/mo
A coding agent included with ChatGPT, not a separate app subscription.
Cheapest verified paid plan: Plus · $20/mo
Web app or SaaS
Mobile app
Game
Website or landing page
Automation or script
No code
I can follow a change
I already develop
Last verified 2026-10-19
Individual
Free
Verified50 credits a month. Claude Sonnet 4.5 and open-weight models such as Qwen3 Coder Next, DeepSeek 3.2, and MiniMax M2.1, with rate limits. No add-on credits. Kiro Web is not included.
The 50-credit free allowance is on the pricing page and the billing docs. The free tier is not offered on Kiro Enterprise or in AWS GovCloud.
Individual
$20/user/mo
Verified1,000 credits a month. Premium models, including Auto, Claude Sonnet 5, and Claude Opus 5, where those models are available. Add-on credits at $0.04. Kiro Web uses the same credits.
Price is on kiro.dev/pricing. The credit count is on the billing docs. Prices exclude tax. A first upgrade with social login or Builder ID gets a $20 credit toward the subscription, prorated for the partial month.
Individual
$40/user/mo
Verified2,000 credits a month, with the same paid-plan model access and add-on credits as Pro.
Price on the pricing page. Credit count on the billing docs.
Individual
$100/user/mo
Verified5,000 credits a month. The same feature set as Power, including specs, custom subagents, powers, and hooks.
The $100 price and the 5,000-credit count are on the pricing page's tier list, the billing docs, and Kiro's Pro Max announcement.
Individual
$200/user/mo
Verified10,000 credits a month, the largest self-serve pool, plus add-on credits at $0.04.
Price on the pricing page. Credit count on the billing docs. AWS GovCloud is approximately 20% higher and has no free tier. That regional markup is not a separate dollar row here.
Last verified 2026-10-19
Individual
Free
VerifiedLimited trial access to Codex and limited access to GPT-5.6. Codex pricing docs also list GPT-6 Luna at Standard speed in the desktop app, subject to rollout. No published prompt count.
Confirmed on the Codex pricing page as a limited trial. GPT-6 Luna on Free is listed as subject to rollout, so it is not treated as a guarantee.
Individual
Confirm on chatgpt.com/pricing
VerifyLimited Codex, above Free. Codex pricing docs at learn.chatgpt.com/docs/pricing list Go at $8/mo. chatgpt.com/pricing still did not print a dollar amount on 2026-10-19.
Left out of budget matching. The $8 figure is on a Codex pricing doc, and the live ChatGPT pricing page still does not show it.
Individual
$20/mo
VerifiedExpanded Codex for a few focused sessions a week. Codex app on macOS and Windows. Local and cloud usage share the allowance. Weekly limits may apply. GPT-6 Astra access is limited, with credits for more.
Plus is $20/mo on OpenAI's help center. Annual billing is not offered.
Individual
$100/mo
VerifiedHigher Codex allowance for longer daily sessions. GPT-6 Astra is included in the allowance. Ultrafast is not included.
From OpenAI's Pro tiers help article.
Individual
$200/mo
VerifiedMore included usage than Pro 100. Ultrafast is not included. New subscriptions may have a lower allowance than older Pro 200 accounts.
OpenAI says the monthly price remains $200.
Individual
$500/mo
VerifiedHighest included Pro usage. Ultrafast for GPT-6 Astra and GPT-6.1 Sol is included and draws the included allowance at 8× the Standard rate for that model.
Ultrafast is only on this Pro tier. The 8× rate is from OpenAI's Pro tiers help article.
Plan credits renew at the start of the next billing cycle. Paid subscriptions are processed on the 1st of each calendar month. Unused plan credits do not roll over. Add-on credits, which are paid plans only, last 12 months.
On Free, wait for the monthly reset. Add-on credits cannot be bought on this tier, and Kiro Web is not included.
Plan allowance, with weekly limits that may also apply. Local messages and cloud chats share it. OpenAI does not publish one universal reset clock.
Switch to a lower-cost model. OpenAI says that stretches the same allowance.
Kiro Pro and OpenAI Codex Plus are both listed at $20/user/mo.
Kiro is for a web app or automation you will keep in a repo and review as a diff, developers who want requirements and tasks written down before the agent edits, and a published monthly credit number, instead of an unpublished quota.
OpenAI Codex is for developers who already pay for ChatGPT and want the coding agent in that allowance, web apps and automations with local and cloud tasks, and a few focused coding sessions a week on Plus.
Kiro scores 2 out of 5 for someone who does not want to read code. OpenAI Codex scores 1 out of 5. Kiro has the higher no-code score. Specs are written in plain language, and you still end up reading a diff. If code on screen is a dealbreaker, use a browser builder. You are still in a coding agent. This is a poor pick if you never want to see a file.
Kiro: 50 credits a month on the perpetual free tier, with Claude Sonnet 4.5 and open-weight models, subject to rate limits. Add-on credits are not available. Kiro Web is not on this plan. OpenAI Codex: Free includes a limited Codex trial. OpenAI does not publish a fixed prompt count. It is enough to see the product, not to build through the month.