Cursor vs Kiro
Cursor and Kiro side by side: what each one is, what it costs to start, and whether you can try it free. Everything below comes from the vendors' own sites and other public sources, not from hands-on testing.
At a glance
| Cursor | Kiro | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Code & Dev Tools | Code & Dev Tools |
| Starting price | Free; paid plans from $8/mo (checked October 2026) | Free; paid plans from $20/mo (checked October 2026) |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes |
| Profile | Read profile | Read profile |
Prices are in US dollars unless shown otherwise. Confirm the current price on the vendor's site before you buy.
Key differences
Both list a free tier, so you can try each before paying.
Cursor has the lower starting price ($8/mo against $20/mo for Kiro). The cheapest plan rarely has the same limits or features, so compare plans before choosing on price.
Both are in our Code & Dev Tools category.
About each tool
Cursor
AI code editor for Windows, macOS and Linux with Agent, Chat and Tab. Free plan with limited usage; paid plans from $8 a month with a weekly usage pool, up to $200 for Ultra.
Who it is for
Individual developers on the Free, Plus, Premium, Super or Ultra plans. Teams and Enterprise plans add shared billing, admin controls and SSO for organizations.
Strengths
- A Free plan includes Agent, Chat and Tab completions with Cursor's own models, with limited usage
- Paid plans have one weekly usage pool for Cursor models, shared across Agent, the command line and Cloud Agents, and the docs say it refreshes weekly
- With Privacy Mode on, Cursor says customer data will not be used for training by Cursor, and that it has zero-data-retention agreements with all its model providers
- The desktop app is offered for macOS (Apple Silicon, Intel, Universal), Windows (x64, ARM64) and Linux (x64, ARM64; .deb, RPM, AppImage)
- Teams and Enterprise list SAML and OIDC SSO, usage analytics and team-wide privacy settings, and Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs and invoice billing
Limitations
- Free usage is limited for Agent, Chat and Tab, and no numeric limits are published
- Plus ($8) does not include Auto, Cloud Agents, Automations, Bugbot or third-party models, which are listed from Premium ($30) up
- Third-party models are not covered by the weekly pool. They are billed at API list price from prepaid credit, and a monthly additional-usage limit caps extra spend
- With Privacy Mode off, Cursor may use and store codebase data, prompts, editor actions and code snippets to improve its AI features and train models
Kiro
AWS agentic coding tool with an IDE, CLI and web app, a spec-driven workflow and credit-based pricing. Free has 50 credits; paid plans start at $20 a month.
Who it is for
Developers and teams, including startups, students and enterprises, according to Kiro. Enterprise plans add SSO and centralized billing.
Strengths
- A free plan with 50 credits per month
- A spec workflow: requirements, design and a task list are written before code
- Supports MCP, AGENTS.md and the Agent Client Protocol
- The IDE is based on Code OSS and can import VS Code settings, themes and Open VSX plugins
- Sign in with GitHub, Google, AWS Builder ID or AWS IAM Identity Center; an AWS account is not required
Limitations
- Usage is credit-based (Free 50, Pro 1,000, Pro+ 2,000, Pro Max 5,000, Power 10,000 per month) and monthly credits do not roll over
- The free plan is limited to open-weight models and Claude Sonnet 4.5, with rate limits
- Add-on credits cost $0.04 each, expire 12 months after purchase and are not available on Free
- Subscriptions cannot be shared; each team member needs their own
- Some content from Free-tier and social-login users may be used for service improvement (an opt-out is offered)
