Amazon Kiro
Source: Dev.to
Overview
Amazon Kiro is the newest contender in the rapidly evolving world of AI‑powered development environments, positioning itself as a competitor to Windsurf and Cursor. Released by AWS, Kiro differentiates itself through spec‑driven development—a structured approach where AI agents help you plan, generate, and validate code through formal specifications rather than just freeform prompting.
Pricing
| Plan | Monthly Cost | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50 |
| Pro | $20 | 1,000 |
| Pro+ | $40 | 2,000 |
| Power | $200 | 10,000 |
Credits explained
“A credit is a unit of work in response to user prompts. Simple prompts can consume less than 1 credit. More complex prompts, such as executing a spec task, typically cost more than 1 credit. Additionally, different models consume credits at different rates, with a prompt executed via Sonnet 4 costing more credits than executing it with Auto. For example, a given task that consumes X credits to execute in Auto will cost you 1.3 X credits to execute via Sonnet 4. Credits are metered to the second decimal point, so the least number of credits a task can consume is 0.01 credits.”
The credit system adds a layer of abstraction that can make pricing feel opaque, especially when trying to map credits to token usage.
Features
Two Coding Modes
- AI‑assisted coding – Traditional autocomplete and suggestion workflow.
- Spec‑driven development – Ideal for agile teams with detailed user stories. Users can paste a story directly into Kiro, and the AI generates an implementation that adheres to the specification.
Powers
Kiro introduces Powers, which are modular toolsets that extend the IDE’s capabilities for specific domains.
Example: The Strands agent power helps Kiro understand how to build using the Strands SDK in AWS. This was used in a Presidio project as a starting point for a multi‑agent A2A solution in the FSI industry, demonstrating the “art of the possible” without weeks of manual development.
Custom Agents
Beyond the pre‑built Powers, developers can create their own agents tailored to internal or external systems. For guidance on building a custom agent, see the Kiro Strands Power documentation (link omitted).
Conclusion
Overall, Kiro is impressive. While it sometimes requires re‑prompting to achieve the desired output, it still saves far more time than building a proof‑of‑concept from scratch. Kiro has the potential to be a game‑changer for large enterprises, though it will need to overcome the deep integration many organizations have with GitHub Copilot and the broader GitHub ecosystem.