Amazon Q Developer Review 2026: A Well-Liked Assistant With a Printed Expiry Date
Amazon Q Developer is AWS’s coding assistant: inline completions, chat, an agent that edits files and runs commands with your approval, security scanning, and Java and .NET upgrade tooling. In 2026 the headline changed. On April 30, AWS announced that the IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach end of support on April 30, 2027; new Free Tier and Pro sign-ups were blocked on May 15; and AWS points everyone to Kiro. The console and chat-app assistants continue. This review separates what is ending from what isn’t, with prices, marketplace numbers and real user reviews checked on October 3, 2026.
| Status | IDE plugins sunset Apr 30, 2027 |
| Free tier | 50 agentic requests / month (closed to new) |
| Pro price | $19 / user / month (closed to new) |
| VS Code Marketplace | 3.96/5 (54 ratings), 1.86M installs |
| JetBrains raw votes | 30 one-star of 54 |
Don’t start a new project on Amazon Q Developer. Do understand exactly what is ending, because part of it isn’t.
“Amazon Q Developer is the rare product review where the most important fact is on the vendor’s own front page: on April 30, 2027, AWS will discontinue support for the IDE plugins, and new Free Tier and Pro sign-ups were blocked on May 15, 2026. The review you were probably looking for — ‘is Q good for AWS work?’ — now has a shorter shelf life than any subscription you could buy. What is still true: the tool earned real affection from people who used it, the free tier was unusually generous for agentic work, and the part of Q that lives inside the AWS console and Slack/Teams is explicitly not being retired.”
I’m writing this as a verified editorial review: official AWS announcements, docs, the pricing page, both marketplaces’ live APIs and real user reviews, all checked on October 3, 2026. I did not run a hands-on test of Q’s coding quality, and I’m not going to pretend otherwise.
Here is how I’d sort readers. If you already use Q in VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio or Eclipse, you have a twelve-month runway, not an emergency. If you were about to adopt it, you can’t anyway on new accounts, and AWS is pointing you at Kiro, which has its own JAVIS review. If your interest is the AWS Console assistant, that surface continues unchanged per AWS. The rest of this page is the detail behind each of those three sentences.
One brand, four very different surfaces — and only some of them have an end date.
Amazon Q Developer is AWS’s generative-AI assistant for building, extending and operating AWS applications. AWS’s own documentation describes it as built on Amazon Bedrock and lists what it does inside an IDE: chat about code, inline completions, generate new code, scan for security vulnerabilities, and make upgrades such as language updates, debugging and optimization. It reached the market under that name on April 30, 2024, when Amazon CodeWhisperer’s features were folded into it (AWS documents the rename on its own service-rename page).
The reason this review is more complicated than most is that “Q Developer” stopped being one product somewhere in 2025. The command-line agent was rebranded Kiro CLI in November 2025 (per the official Kiro team’s own explainer post). The IDE plugins got their end-of-support date on April 30, 2026. The console and chat-app experiences did not.
One practical wrinkle for JetBrains users: Kiro’s own migration guide says JetBrains users must use Kiro CLI with Agent Client Protocol integration, and that Visual Studio and Eclipse users have no native Kiro plugin, only the Kiro IDE or CLI. Anyone on those editors is not getting a like-for-like swap.
Millions of installs, a modest number of marketplace ratings, and a very short announced future.
Live gallery API, Oct 3, 2026; v2.8.0 published Oct 1, 2026. Cumulative installs, not active users.
Live JetBrains listing (plugin 24267), Oct 3, 2026. Cumulative downloads; JetBrains and VS Code count differently.
aws/aws-toolkit-vscode, Apache-2.0, last push Oct 1, 2026. The CLI repo shows 1,982 stars, last push Aug 24, 2026.
IDE plugins and paid subscriptions, per AWS’s own docs and blog.
| Date | Event | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 30, 2024 | CodeWhisperer becomes part of Amazon Q Developer | AWS docs, service-rename page |
| Aug 1, 2024 | AWS reports Java-upgrade savings: “4,500 years of development work”, $260M annual savings (AWS’s own, self-reported estimates) | AWS DevOps blog |
| Jul 23, 2025 | Security bulletin AWS-2025-015: tampered VS Code extension v1.84.0 (CVE-2025-8217), fixed in v1.85.0 | AWS security bulletin |
| Nov 2025 | Q Developer CLI rebranded Kiro CLI | Kiro team post on dev.to, Nov 27, 2025 |
| Apr 30, 2026 | End-of-support announcement published | AWS DevOps blog |
| May 15, 2026 | New Free Tier and Pro sign-ups blocked (existing subscriptions could add users until this date) | AWS DevOps blog |
| May 29, 2026 | Opus 4.6 removed from Q Developer Pro; newer Opus available only in Kiro | AWS DevOps blog, corroborated by independent write-ups |
| Oct 3, 2026 | This review: v2.8.0 still shipping on the VS Code Marketplace | Marketplace API |
| Apr 30, 2027 | IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach end of support | AWS docs |
Warm on the free tier, cool on agent behavior — and since spring, annoyed about being pushed to Kiro.
“It was nice while it lasted. Now we’re being forced to install Kiro and export our work from VS Code to Kiro.” — 3★, v2.1.0, May 3, 2026. Another: “limits model selection in order to coax people into installing Kiro,” with “web view errors” and constant re-authentication — 1★, v2.0.0, Apr 8, 2026.
“I have been using claude code for a few of weeks now and only recently started using Amazon Q. I have to say that having 50 free tier requests per month regardless of the amount of work AI needs to do is tremendously helpful.” — 5★, v1.106.0, Dec 20, 2025. Also: “Great tool - access to Claude 4 Sonnet and I’ve never hit any usage limits, even on the free version.” — 5★, Sep 4, 2025.
On agent behavior: “far too many times where I pose a question, only to have it make sweeping changes at its’ discretion, only to need to undo all of the changes” — 2★, Dec 12, 2025. On trust: “merging malicious code into the release build makes this extension extremely unreliable” — 1★, Jul 30, 2025, a reference to the real v1.84.0 incident AWS documented.
$0 or $19 per user a month — for subscriptions that can no longer be newly opened.
The AWS pricing page (aws.amazon.com/q/developer/pricing) still lists two tiers, checked live on October 3, 2026. It doesn’t mention Kiro or the sunset; that context comes from AWS’s blog and docs. Treat the prices below as what existing customers pay, not what a new customer can buy.
Free
50 agentic requests a month, 1,000 lines of Java code transformation a month, IDE plugins and CLI. No admin dashboard and no IP indemnity.
Pro
Higher agentic limits (unspecified on the page), 4,000 lines of code transformation per user per month pooled at account level (overage $0.003 per line), admin dashboard, IAM Identity Center, IP indemnity, no data collection for service improvement.
Kiro Pro
1,000 credits a month; Free is $0 with 50 credits; Pro+ $40, Pro Max $100, Power $200; extra credits $0.04 each (kiro.dev/pricing, Oct 3, 2026).
| If you are... | What the verified pricing means | What I would do |
|---|---|---|
| A solo user on the Free tier | 50 agentic requests a month is the cap; no new Free accounts | Use it until it stops being useful; test Kiro Free (50 credits) before April 2027 |
| A team on Pro at $19 per user | Pro still bills monthly and cancels mid-month at full-month charge, per the pricing page | Plan the exit; don’t add seats (additions closed May 15, 2026) |
| A Java-upgrade user relying on transformation | The 4,000 LOC pool and $0.003 per-line overage are going away with the plugins | Look at AWS Transform (usage-based), which AWS names as the replacement |
| A .NET-porting user | AWS said the .NET replacement was free through June 10, 2026 | Check AWS Transform terms now that the free window has passed |
Pricing verified Oct 3, 2026 at aws.amazon.com/q/developer/pricing and kiro.dev/pricing. No sign-up link is offered here because new sign-ups are closed.
Where Amazon Q Developer fits right now.
You can’t open a new Free or Pro subscription. Start with Kiro — read our Kiro review.
Keep using it through the window, and trial Kiro on the side. VS Code users can import extensions, themes, keybindings and settings per Kiro’s guide.
There’s no native Kiro plugin for Visual Studio or Eclipse, and JetBrains goes through Kiro CLI over ACP. Compare GitHub Copilot too.
AWS says those are unaffected. Nothing to migrate.
The Q CLI is now Kiro CLI; or see our Claude Code setup guide.
The best thing Q did was ask before it acted — and let you undo what it did.
AWS’s May 5, 2025 post introduced the IDE agent with four slash-commands: /dev for reading and writing files and scaffolding, /test for running bash and AWS CLI commands, /review for diff-based review with granular undo, and /doc for README and documentation updates. The screenshots in that post show the pattern that I think defined Q’s feel: the agent proposes a shell command, you press Run or Reject; it edits several files, each with an Undo button and an “Undo all changes” at the bottom.
Where Q was strongest by design is AWS itself: AWS says the model behind Q is augmented with AWS content so answers about architecture, resources, best practices and documentation are more complete and referenced, and the console integration can help diagnose errors in services such as S3, EC2, Lambda and ECS. That, plus a free agent, is why the best reviews read the way they do.
| Slash command | What AWS says it does | Control you get |
|---|---|---|
| /dev | Reads and writes files, scaffolds projects | Per-file diff, Undo per file |
| /test | Runs bash and AWS CLI commands | Shell commands pause for Run / Reject |
| /review | Presents changes as diffs | Granular undo, Undo all changes |
| /doc | Generates and updates README files | Shown as a README diff you can undo |
- Approval-by-default for shell commands and per-file undo are visible in AWS’s own screenshots.
- Free-tier agentic access is the most repeated positive in recent Marketplace reviews.
- Security scanning covers Java, Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, C#, CloudFormation, CDK and Terraform, per the FAQ.
- All of the above is the pre-sunset feature set; AWS says the newest models and features are Kiro-only.
- Reviewers describe the agent editing far more than they asked.
- AWS’s “top scores on SWE-Bench” and “highest code acceptance rate” page claims are unqualified vendor marketing; I could not verify them.
Prompt, approve, inspect the diff, undo what you don’t want.
Here is the loop in AWS’s own worked example: ask for a new CDK app in TypeScript, approve npx aws-cdk init, then ask for a Lambda function triggered by S3 uploads and watch it change the stack file, create a lambda directory, add an index.js and update the README — each with a diff you can reject.
See it in AWS’s own words
Official video from the AWS Developers YouTube channel (channel ID UCT-nPlVzJI-ccQXlxjSvJmw; channel name “AWS Developers”). It was published May 21, 2024, so it predates the agentic experience — it shows installing the extension and basic chat and completions, which is the part of Q that is still the same.
The terminal agent is now Kiro CLI, and the Java/.NET upgrade agents are leaving with the plugins.
AWS’s March 6, 2025 post introduced the enhanced Q Developer CLI with an agent that can scaffold a Vite and React app, run commands, and write to DynamoDB with an AWS CLI lookup in the loop. That agent kept going under a new name: the official Kiro team explained in November 2025 that Kiro CLI is built on top of the Q Developer CLI’s agentic capabilities, adding social login, a Haiku model and an Auto agent. The open-source aws/amazon-q-developer-cli repo (Apache-2.0) still exists, with its last push on August 24, 2026.
Code transformation is the second automation story. AWS’s own August 2024 post credits Java upgrades with the “4,500 years” and $260M estimates quoted above. The end-of-support blog says Java language upgrades and .NET porting end with the plugins, and names AWS Transform custom (usage-based pricing) and AWS Transform for Windows modernization as replacements. If this was why you used Q, that is the line to read twice.
MCP in the agent, GitHub and GitLab on the platform, chat apps on the side.
AWS’s product page lists IDE downloads for JetBrains, VS Code, Visual Studio, Eclipse and the command line, plus availability in the AWS Console, Microsoft Teams, Slack, GitLab and GitHub. Marketplace reviewers confirm MCP support and custom-code “Customizations” (retrieval over your private repositories). Per AWS, the successor also carries MCP.
| Surface | Status as of Oct 3, 2026 | Source |
|---|---|---|
| VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse plugins | Shipping (VS Code v2.8.0, Oct 1, 2026); end of support Apr 30, 2027 | Marketplace API, AWS docs |
| Console, docs site, marketing site, mobile app | Unaffected per AWS | AWS end-of-support blog |
| Slack and Microsoft Teams (Chat Apps) | Unaffected per AWS | AWS end-of-support blog |
| Kiro (IDE + CLI) | Named successor; MCP, steering files, hooks, powers, subagents | AWS blog, Kiro migration guide |
For how a mature MCP setup looks on the Claude side, see our Claude MCP & Connectors guide.
No public developer API — the economics are the plan price and the transformation pool.
I found no public Q Developer API for building on top of the assistant; the programmable surfaces are the plugins, the CLI and AWS-side IAM policies for console and chat apps. What does have a meter is Java transformation: Pro pools 4,000 lines per user per month at the account level and bills $0.003 per line above that. The Free tier is capped at 1,000 lines of Java transformation and 50 agentic requests per month.
| Meter | Free | Pro ($19/user/mo) |
|---|---|---|
| Agentic requests | 50 per month | Higher; exact number not stated on the pricing page |
| Java transformation | 1,000 LOC per month | 4,000 LOC per user per month, pooled; $0.003 per extra LOC |
| Admin dashboard, Identity Center | No | Yes |
| IP indemnity | No | Yes |
| Content used to improve models | May be, unless you opt out | Not used (AWS FAQ) |
Real controls on the Pro side — and one genuine supply-chain incident worth knowing.
AWS documents shared-responsibility security for Q Developer: data protection, IAM, compliance validation, VPC endpoints and data perimeters. Pro keeps your content out of service improvement and model training; the Free tier may use it unless you opt out. Q’s reference tracker flags suggestions similar to public code with a repository URL and license, or filters them out, and the security scanner looks for issues such as exposed credentials and log injection.
The incident: on July 23, 2025, AWS published bulletin AWS-2025-015 saying a GitHub token with excessive permissions was used to inject malicious code into the VS Code extension’s repository, which shipped in v1.84.0. AWS said a syntax error stopped it from running, pulled 1.84.0, released 1.85.0 and assigned CVE-2025-8217. I don’t read this as a reason to avoid AWS tooling — I read it as a reason to pin versions and audit extensions anywhere.
Existing AWS-heavy users on a migration clock; almost nobody else.
| Your situation | Fit | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| AWS developer already using Q in VS Code | Fine through Apr 2027 | Keep using; trial Kiro for migration |
| JetBrains, Visual Studio or Eclipse user | Awkward — no like-for-like Kiro plugin | Test Kiro CLI over ACP or look at Copilot |
| Team on Pro with Identity Center | Works, but can’t add seats | Pick a successor before the 2027 date |
| Java or .NET modernization project | Check AWS Transform | Don’t plan around the Q plugin features |
| New user wanting a free agent | Closed to new sign-ups | Kiro Free (50 credits) or open-source agents |
| AWS Console or Slack/Teams assistant user | Unchanged per AWS | Nothing to do |
Five real, current limitations.
IDE plugins and paid subscriptions end Apr 30, 2027; new sign-ups closed May 15, 2026; AWS says new models and features are on Kiro.
Per Kiro’s migration guide, Visual Studio and Eclipse have no native Kiro plugin and JetBrains users go through Kiro CLI with ACP.
Marketplace reviewers report sweeping edits they had to undo, repeated re-authentication, and web-view errors in 2.0.0.
v1.84.0 contained injected code (AWS-2025-015). It didn’t execute, per AWS, but it did ship in an official release.
“Top scores on SWE-Bench” and “35% productivity increase” (one customer) on the product page are vendor claims I couldn’t verify.
Free-tier content may be used to improve models unless you opt out; only Pro excludes it by default.
Map your reason for leaving to a tool.
| If you mostly need... | Compare with... |
|---|---|
| The official AWS successor with specs, hooks and steering | Kiro — see our Kiro review |
| The mainstream IDE-agnostic default | GitHub Copilot — see our GitHub Copilot review |
| A purpose-built AI editor | Cursor — see our Cursor review |
| A bring-your-own-model VS Code agent | Cline — see our Cline review |
| A terminal agent | Claude Code — see our setup guide and Claude review |
| A private, on-prem assistant for regulated code | Tabnine — tabnine.com (official site; it now redirects to its new owner, Tricentis) |
| A fast native editor with a bring-your-own-agent model | Zed — zed.dev (official site) |
No affiliate relationship shapes this review.
JAVIS has no affiliate arrangement with AWS. Every link here goes to AWS’s own pages. Because new subscriptions are closed, this article deliberately has no “buy” button. This is a VERIFIED EDITORIAL REVIEW: I read and cross-checked sources; I did not run a controlled hands-on test.
AWS’s own end-of-support documentation.
AWS end-of-support noticeOfficial Amazon Q Developer page.
aws.amazon.com/q/developerWhere to go from here, by intent.
If you’re deciding what to run next quarter, these are the six JAVIS reviews I’d read alongside this one.
Questions people are actually searching right now
Is Amazon Q Developer being discontinued?
Partly. AWS says Q Developer IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach end of support on April 30, 2027. The AWS Console, docs site, marketing site, Console Mobile App and the Slack/Teams chat apps are not affected.
Can I still sign up for the Free Tier?
Per AWS’s April 30, 2026 announcement, new Free Tier and Pro subscriptions were blocked from May 15, 2026. The pricing page still lists the tiers, so check before assuming.
What does Q Developer cost?
Free is $0 with 50 agentic requests and 1,000 lines of Java transformation per month. Pro is $19 per user per month with 4,000 lines of transformation pooled per account. Verified on the AWS pricing page, Oct 3, 2026.
What replaces it?
AWS names Kiro, an IDE and CLI built for spec-driven development, with MCP, hooks, steering files, subagents and powers. Kiro’s Free plan is $0 with 50 credits; Pro is $20 for 1,000 credits.
Is the Q Developer CLI still around?
It became Kiro CLI in November 2025, per the Kiro team. The open-source repo is still public.
Was Amazon Q ever compromised?
AWS documented a tampered VS Code extension, v1.84.0, in bulletin AWS-2025-015 (CVE-2025-8217). Per AWS the payload had a syntax error and didn’t execute; 1.85.0 removed it.
What about Java upgrades and .NET porting?
AWS says they end with the plugins and points to AWS Transform; usage-based pricing applies to the Java option.
Where this came from, and when it was checked.
End of support, dates, affected/unaffected surfaces, replacement services: aws.amazon.com/blogs/devops/amazon-q-developer-end-of-support-announcement (Apr 30, 2026) and docs.aws.amazon.com .../q-developer-ide-end-of-support.html, official, checked Oct 3, 2026.
Pricing: aws.amazon.com/q/developer/pricing (official) and kiro.dev/pricing, checked Oct 3, 2026.
Marketplace data and reviews: Microsoft Marketplace listing and reviews (AmazonWebServices.amazon-q-vscode) and plugins.jetbrains.com (plugin 24267), live, Oct 3, 2026. JetBrains raw votes: 9/2/5/8/30 for 5/4/3/2/1 stars (54 votes).
GitHub: data for aws/aws-toolkit-vscode, aws/amazon-q-developer-cli, Amazon-Q-Developer/amazon-q-jetbrains, Oct 3, 2026.
Security bulletin: aws.amazon.com/security/security-bulletins/AWS-2025-015 (Jul 23, 2025; updated Jul 25, 2025).
Features and agent behavior: AWS DevOps blog posts of Mar 6, 2025 (CLI) and May 5, 2025 (IDE agentic experience); Q Developer docs and FAQ.
Kiro relationship: kiro.dev/docs/upgrade-guides/migrating-from-q-developer and the kirodotdev post of Nov 27, 2025 (dev.to).
Independent commentary: Ready, Set, Cloud newsletter (May 4, 2026) and Dan Guisinger’s migration write-up (May 11, 2026); G2 not verifiable.
Official video: AWS Developers channel, video i0zQpJPfSdU (published May 21, 2024).
Fit score method: JAVIS editorial composite of five 20-point criteria — AWS depth 16, general-purpose coding 11, price and value 14, continuity and roadmap 3, controls and trust 12 = 56. It is an opinion, not a benchmark.
