Devin vs Kilo AI
A detailed comparison to help you choose between Devin and Kilo AI.
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Verdict: Kilo AI wins
Kilo AI scores 4.2/5, edging out Devin at 3.9/5. Developers and engineering teams who want an open-source coding agent they can inspect and extend, with the freedom to switch between 500+ hosted models, their own API keys, or local models without changing tools.
Devin The first AI software engineer | Kilo AI Kilo.ai - AI coding agent | |
|---|---|---|
| Rating | 3.9 (1 review) | 4.2 (1 review) |
| Pricing Model | paid | paid |
| Starting Price | From $500/mo | Pricing varies |
| Best For | Engineering teams with a well-groomed backlog who want to delegate complete, precisely-specified tasks to an autonomous agent and keep humans on review. | Developers and engineering teams who want an open-source coding agent they can inspect and extend, with the freedom to switch between 500+ hosted models, their own API keys, or local models without changing tools. |
| Free Tier | ||
| API Access | ||
| Team Features | ||
| Open Source | ||
| Tags | team features | — |
| Visit Devin → |
Devin
Pros
- + On well-specified tickets (flaky-test fix, CRUD endpoint with tests) it returned clean, convention-matching PRs I merged with light review — real time savings at $20/month
- + Sandboxed execution with test iteration is the difference from chat-based assistants: it validates its own work before opening the PR
- + Devin Review's free public-PR review at devinreview.com works without an account and is a useful standalone surface
- + Broad workflow integration — Slack, Teams, Linear, Jira, GitHub/GitLab/Bitbucket, MCP — plus automations for recurring tasks
- + Transparent plan ladder now ($0/$20/$200, Teams $80 minimum + $40/full seat) instead of the flat $500 launch price
Cons
- - Output quality tracks spec quality almost linearly: a vague refactor ticket produced an over-scoped PR I had to close and rewrite
- - Credit drift is real — automation runs and sandbox troubleshooting consume quota invisibly, and out-of-quota usage bills at API pricing
- - It implements bad tickets without pushback; review is mandatory for security-sensitive or migration work
- - Enterprise controls (VPC, SSO, dedicated support) are sales-gated, and the product surface is reshaping around the Windsurf acquisition
Kilo AI
Pros
- + Model inference is billed at the providers' exact list prices with zero markup; the only surcharge is a 5% fee on card credit purchases (kilo.ai/pricing, checked October 2026)
- + Agent, extension, and CLI are MIT-licensed and fully readable on GitHub — 27,380 stars, 3,178 forks, TypeScript, built in the open (api.github.com/repos/Kilo-Org/kilocode)
- + Covers every surface I want: VS Code (1.66M Marketplace installs), JetBrains, CLI, cloud agents billed per second, PR code review, plus a beta desktop app and iOS companion
- + Request inspector shows context-window consumption and the full outgoing prompt per request — in my 12-file refactor session this made context degradation debuggable instead of mysterious
- + Bring-your-own-keys and local models (Ollama, LM Studio) mean the free platform plan is genuinely usable without paying Kilo anything for inference
Cons
- - Costs split across four ledgers — platform plan, inference, optional Kilo Pass subscription, and per-second cloud compute — which makes month-end reconciliation harder than competitors' single invoice
- - VS Code Marketplace rating is 3.89/5 from 217 reviews despite 1.66M installs, and the repo carries 534 open issues; the polish level trails the feature breadth
- - Release cadence borders on churn: multiple builds of 7.8.17 were pushed on a single day (23 October 2026), and the orchestrator agent is already deprecated
- - No built-in review agent inside the editor or CLI — code review is a separate cloud product at $0.33/hour (kilo.ai/docs)
- - Marketing contradicts itself on Auto Model ('smart model routing' versus 'Kilo does not have an auto model') and on developer counts (3M in Anaconda's release versus 5M+ on kilo.ai/cloud)
Frequently Asked Questions
Which is better, Devin or Kilo AI?▼
Kilo AI scores higher at 4.2/5 vs 3.9/5 for Devin, making it the better-rated option in our comparison.
What is the difference between Devin and Kilo AI?▼
Devin: Devin is an autonomous coding agent from Cognition that plans work, writes and runs code and opens pull requests, working as a cloud agent alongside an engineering team. Kilo AI: Kilo is an open-source AI coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains, the terminal and the cloud, with access to a wide range of models and your own API keys.
Is Devin or Kilo AI more affordable?▼
Devin starts at €500/mo, Kilo AI starts at €0/mo. Check the comparison table above for current pricing.
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