Research & Development
Artificial Intelligence

Opinions

AI for Developers

Pricing Claude Code vs Kiro vs Antigravity

In 2026, the cost of these tools for a senior developer depends heavily on the "credits" or "tokens" consumed. Professional usage for a 40-hour week typically exceeds basic free tiers, requiring Pro or Power/Max subscriptions to avoid throttling.

Claude Code (Anthropic)

A high-speed, terminal-centric "agentic coding tool" that acts as a thin wrapper around Claude models. It excels at deep codebase comprehension, navigating complex monorepos, and automating Git/GitHub workflows directly from the command line.

Known for its massive 200,000-token context window, making it the "Codebase Whisperer" for large-scale enterprise projects.

Monthly Cost:
Project Fit:

Kiro (AWS)

A "spec-driven development" (SDD) IDE and CLI. It focuses on turning natural language prompts into detailed technical specifications, system designs, and documentation before writing any code.

It is highly opinionated about structure; it enforces discipline by requiring a design plan, making it a "force multiplier" for engineering rigor.

Kiro uses a unique "credit" system that distinguishes between "vibe requests" (general chat) and "spec requests" (heavy architectural planning).

Monthly Cost:
Project Fit:

Antigravity (Google)

Antigravity is Google's agent-first platform that manages multiple AI agents in parallel.

An "agent-first" development platform and "Mission Control" for managing multiple autonomous agents simultaneously. It can operate across the editor, terminal, and a native browser, allowing agents to self-verify UI changes and record video proof of their work.

Its Agent Manager allows for "multitasking on steroids," where a user can dispatch multiple agents to work on separate bugs or features in parallel across different workspaces.

Monthly Cost:
Project Fit:

Cost Summary for 40-Hour/Week Development

Tool Monthly Cost (Pro Level) Best Use Case
Claude Code $100 – $200 (Max Tier) Deep feature work on massive, existing codebases
Kiro $200+ (Power Tier + Overages) New builds requiring strict architectural specs
Antigravity $0 (Preview) / $40 (Est. Pro) High-speed prototyping and multi-tasking