Key Takeaways
- Google Antigravity 2.0 launched at Google I/O on May 19, 2026, as a standalone desktop app plus CLI and SDK, powered by Gemini 3.5 Flash, which runs four times faster than competing frontier models on coding benchmarks.
- Kiro is AWS’s spec-driven agentic IDE that officially replaces Amazon Q Developer. New signups for Amazon Q Developer were blocked on May 15, 2026, with full end-of-support set for April 30, 2027.
- Amazon Q Developer Pro costs $19/user/month and remains available until April 30, 2027, making it a short-term option only. Enterprise teams on Q Developer face a forced migration to Kiro.
- Kiro uses three mandatory spec files (requirements.md, design.md, tasks.md) before any code generation, enforcing architectural planning that Antigravity and Q Developer do not require.
- Google Antigravity’s Ultra plan costs $100/month with 5x the AI limits of the $20/month Pro plan. An Ultra Max tier at $200/month offers roughly 20x Pro quotas.
- Kiro’s free tier includes 50 agentic requests per month with no AWS account required. The Pro plan at $20/month includes 225 vibe requests and 125 spec requests.
- Kiro natively understands AWS environments including IAM roles, S3 buckets, Lambda functions, and Bedrock models, giving AWS-native teams a significant advantage over other tools.
- Google Antigravity scored 92/100 versus Kiro’s 82/100 in a ten-dimension evaluation across agentic workflows and AI-native development capabilities.
- Kiro supports Claude Opus 4.7 as of May 2026, while Amazon Q Developer Pro is capped at an older model version, another reason AWS is pushing enterprise customers toward Kiro.
The enterprise coding agent market shifted dramatically in the first half of 2026. Google launched Antigravity 2.0 with a full desktop application and CLI at I/O 2026. AWS replaced Amazon Q Developer with Kiro, a spec-driven agentic IDE. And Amazon Q Developer itself is on a deprecation countdown. For engineering leaders evaluating which platform to standardize on, the choice is no longer about code completion accuracy.
These tools compete on entirely different philosophies. Google Antigravity is built around speed and parallel agent execution. Kiro is built around structured specification before any line of code gets written. Amazon Q Developer sits in legacy territory, still functional but heading toward end-of-life in under a year.
This article breaks down all three tools across pricing, architecture, enterprise readiness, and real-world fit so you can make an informed decision without wading through marketing copy.
Quick Comparison: Antigravity vs Kiro vs Amazon Q Developer
| Feature | Google Antigravity 2.0 | Kiro | Amazon Q Developer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launch | November 2025 (v2.0 May 2026) | 2025 (actively updated) | 2023 (EOL April 2027) |
| Architecture | Standalone desktop app + CLI + SDK | VS Code fork (standalone IDE) | VS Code / JetBrains extension |
| Underlying model | Gemini 3.5 Flash | Amazon Bedrock (Claude Opus 4.7) | Amazon Bedrock (older model) |
| Development approach | Agent-first, parallel execution | Spec-driven, plan before code | Prompt-and-suggest |
| Free tier | Yes (rate limited) | 50 agentic requests/month | Yes (limited) |
| Pro pricing | $20/month | $20/month | $19/user/month |
| Enterprise pricing | $100-$200/month (Ultra/Ultra Max) | Pay-as-you-go credits | Contact AWS |
| AWS integration | Limited | Native (IAM, S3, Lambda, Bedrock) | Deep (console + CLI) |
| Voice input | Yes (native) | No | No |
| MCP support | Yes | Yes | Limited |
| Future status | Active development | Active development | EOL April 30, 2027 |
What is Google Antigravity?
Google Antigravity is an agentic development environment that Google launched in November 2025 and significantly upgraded at I/O 2026 with version 2.0. Unlike traditional AI coding assistants that respond to individual prompts, Antigravity is built around orchestrating multiple AI agents simultaneously to handle complex development tasks in parallel.
The 2.0 release introduced a standalone desktop application, a Go-based CLI, and an Antigravity SDK. Enterprise teams on Google Cloud can access Antigravity through the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. The underlying model is Gemini 3.5 Flash, which Google claims outperforms Gemini 3.1 Pro on coding and agentic benchmarks while running four times faster than competing frontier models.
Antigravity supports custom subagent workflows, background task scheduling, native voice commands, and browser automation. Pricing runs from free (with rate limits that have been tightened since launch) to $20/month Pro, $100/month Ultra (5x Pro limits), and $200/month Ultra Max (roughly 20x Pro limits). Pay-as-you-go credits are also available at $25 for 2,500 AI credits for teams that need flexibility without a subscription commitment.
What is Kiro?
Kiro is AWS’s agentic IDE and the official successor to Amazon Q Developer. Built as a VS Code fork, Kiro introduces a “spec-driven development” model that fundamentally changes how AI-assisted coding works. Instead of responding to ad-hoc prompts, Kiro requires developers to first produce three structured specification files: requirements.md, design.md, and tasks.md. Only after these specs are defined does Kiro begin generating code.
This approach enforces architectural thinking before implementation. Each behavioral requirement in requirements.md follows a rigid WHEN/THE SYSTEM SHALL format derived from formal systems engineering notation, making Kiro’s output significantly more structured and auditable than typical AI coding tools. Agent Hooks allow Kiro to trigger automatic actions based on file events, such as running unit tests when a file is saved or initiating a security scan when a new file is created.
Kiro natively understands AWS environments, reading IAM roles, S3 buckets, Lambda functions, and Bedrock models without requiring developers to copy-paste ARNs into prompts. The Pro plan at $20/month includes 225 vibe requests and 125 spec requests. Additional requests are charged at $0.04 per vibe request and $0.20 per spec request.
What is Amazon Q Developer?
Amazon Q Developer is AWS’s original AI coding assistant, launched in 2023 as an IDE extension for VS Code and JetBrains. It includes a chat interface for AWS resource questions, inline code completion, autonomous code transformation agents, and enterprise security features including SOC, ISO, HIPAA, and PCI compliance support.
Q Developer’s agent capabilities cover automatic framework upgrades (such as migrating Java 8 codebases to Java 17), cross-file code transformations, automated test generation, and Jira-integrated feature development for enterprise Pro users. The Pro tier costs $19/user/month and includes approximately 40-50 hours of agent compute time monthly.
The critical constraint: Amazon Q Developer is being discontinued. New signups were blocked on May 15, 2026. IDE plugins and paid subscriptions reach full end-of-support on April 30, 2027. AWS is directing all current Q Developer users to migrate to Kiro. Including Q Developer in any long-term enterprise evaluation only makes sense if your team needs a bridge solution during migration planning.
Feature-by-Feature Breakdown
Development Philosophy and Workflow
Antigravity and Kiro represent genuinely different theories about how AI should assist developers. Antigravity bets on speed: you describe what you want, and multiple agents work in parallel to build it, with the IDE generating plans as execution proceeds. Kiro bets on rigor: you cannot skip the specification phase. The IDE structurally prevents you from jumping to code before you have defined requirements, architecture, and a task breakdown.
In practice, this distinction matters most for team size and project complexity. Individual developers and small teams often find Antigravity’s approach faster for rapid prototyping. Larger enterprise teams working on multi-module systems report that Kiro’s spec layer prevents agents from producing conflicting outputs. Independent evaluations noted that when Antigravity’s parallel agents touched shared authentication middleware, their outputs conflicted because no persistent specification layer governed the intended system state.
Amazon Q Developer uses the older prompt-and-suggest model. You ask, it answers. There is no orchestration layer and no spec management. For teams already accustomed to Q Developer’s approach, Kiro represents a meaningful workflow shift, not just a UI change.
Enterprise AWS Integration
Kiro has a structural advantage for AWS-native teams. It reads your actual AWS environment directly, including IAM roles, S3 bucket configurations, Lambda functions, and Bedrock model deployments. Agents can query CloudWatch logs, inspect DynamoDB tables, and interact with other AWS services through standard IAM permissions without requiring manual configuration inputs.
Amazon Q Developer also offers deep AWS integration, including a console chat widget for cloud resource questions and agents that can create and manage AWS infrastructure. However, since Q Developer is being deprecated, teams building on AWS should be evaluating Kiro, not investing further in Q Developer integration.
Google Antigravity’s AWS integration is limited compared to Kiro. Antigravity integrates natively with Google Cloud through the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform and is the better choice for teams already operating on GCP infrastructure.
Pricing and Cost at Scale
At the individual developer level, all three tools are broadly comparable in price: Antigravity Pro and Kiro Pro both cost $20/month, while Amazon Q Developer Pro costs $19/user/month. The differences become more significant at scale.
Google Antigravity’s Ultra tier at $100/month provides 5x the limits of the Pro plan, and Ultra Max at $200/month provides roughly 20x Pro limits. For high-volume enterprise usage, Antigravity’s subscription model offers predictable cost scaling. Kiro uses a credit-based overage system: $0.04 per vibe request and $0.20 per spec request beyond plan limits, which can become unpredictable for teams with variable workloads.
Amazon Q Developer’s pricing is straightforward but irrelevant for new evaluations given its deprecation timeline. Teams currently paying for Q Developer Pro should budget for a Kiro migration within the next 12 months.
Model Quality and Speed
Google Antigravity runs on Gemini 3.5 Flash, which Google positions as both faster and stronger on coding tasks than its predecessor. Kiro now supports Claude Opus 4.7 via Amazon Bedrock, an upgrade over what Amazon Q Developer Pro offers. This model difference is one reason AWS is steering enterprise customers to Kiro rather than keeping them on Q Developer.
In benchmark evaluations across ten dimensions of agentic and coding capability, Google Antigravity scored 92/100 compared to Kiro’s 82/100, with Antigravity leading specifically on agentic workflow execution and AI-native development velocity.
Language and Platform Support
Kiro supports over 20 programming languages including Python, TypeScript, Go, Rust, Java, Kotlin, PHP, Ruby, C#, SQL, and YAML. Amazon Q Developer supports a similar language set with particular strength in Java-based enterprise stacks, reflecting its AWS heritage.
Google Antigravity supports major web and backend languages and adds browser automation as a native capability, which neither Kiro nor Q Developer offers. Voice command support in Antigravity also has no equivalent in either AWS tool.
MCP and External Tool Integration
Both Antigravity and Kiro support Model Context Protocol (MCP), allowing agents to connect to external databases, REST APIs, and specialized tools. Kiro’s MCP integration includes the AWS MCP Server, which provides structured access to every AWS service through IAM authentication. Antigravity’s MCP support is more general-purpose and less AWS-specific.
Amazon Q Developer has limited MCP support, another sign that the platform did not keep pace with the broader agentic tooling ecosystem before AWS decided to move resources to Kiro.
Google Antigravity vs Kiro vs Amazon Q Developer: Who Should Use Which?
Choose Google Antigravity if your team builds on Google Cloud, prioritizes development speed over upfront planning, works on full-stack or browser-dependent projects, or wants voice-driven development workflows. Antigravity is also the better choice for teams that have already adopted Gemini across their toolchain and want tight model integration.
Choose Kiro if your infrastructure runs on AWS, your team works on complex multi-module systems where architectural planning prevents downstream conflicts, or your organization values auditable, spec-driven development processes. Kiro is also the only real forward-looking option for teams currently on Amazon Q Developer.
Avoid Amazon Q Developer for new projects. If you are currently using Q Developer, begin evaluating Kiro now. The April 2027 end-of-support date is close enough that starting a migration plan today is more efficient than waiting.
Verdict: Which One Should You Choose?
For most enterprise teams choosing a primary coding agent platform in 2026, the real decision is between Antigravity and Kiro, based on your cloud infrastructure and development culture.
Teams on Google Cloud or in mixed-cloud environments that value fast parallel agent execution should lean toward Google Antigravity 2.0. The desktop app, CLI, SDK combination gives flexibility, and the Gemini 3.5 Flash model delivers strong performance at every pricing tier.
Teams on AWS, especially those building complex backend systems that require coordination across multiple services, will find Kiro’s spec-driven approach and native AWS environment understanding worth the upfront workflow adjustment. The structured spec files add friction at first but pay off on larger projects where ad-hoc agent outputs tend to diverge.
Amazon Q Developer should not be the answer to this question in 2026. It was a capable tool, but its deprecation is confirmed and its model support already trails Kiro.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Amazon Q Developer being discontinued?
Yes. AWS blocked new signups for Amazon Q Developer on May 15, 2026. IDE plugins and paid subscriptions will reach full end-of-support on April 30, 2027. AWS is directing all Q Developer users to migrate to Kiro, which uses a spec-driven development model and supports more recent AI models via Amazon Bedrock.
What is the difference between Kiro and Amazon Q Developer?
Amazon Q Developer is an IDE extension (for VS Code and JetBrains) that works through a prompt-and-suggest model. Kiro is a standalone IDE built on VS Code that requires developers to define structured spec files before generating code. Kiro also supports Claude Opus 4.7, a newer model than what Q Developer Pro uses, and includes Agent Hooks for automated event-based workflows.
How much does Google Antigravity cost for enterprise teams?
Google Antigravity offers a free tier with rate limits, a Pro plan at $20/month, an Ultra plan at $100/month (5x Pro limits), and an Ultra Max plan at $200/month (roughly 20x Pro limits). Enterprise access through Google Cloud is available via the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Pay-as-you-go credits cost $25 for 2,500 AI credits.
How much does Kiro cost?
Kiro’s free tier includes 50 agentic requests per month with no AWS account required. The Pro plan costs $20/month and includes 225 vibe requests and 125 spec requests. Additional requests beyond plan limits are charged at $0.04 per vibe request and $0.20 per spec request. A Power tier at $200/month is available for higher-volume needs.
Does Kiro require an AWS account?
No. Kiro works without an AWS account, making it accessible to developers regardless of their infrastructure. However, to use Kiro’s native AWS environment capabilities (reading IAM roles, S3 buckets, Lambda functions, and Bedrock models), you do need an AWS account with appropriate IAM permissions.
What programming languages does Google Antigravity support?
Google Antigravity supports major web and backend programming languages including Python, JavaScript, TypeScript, Go, and others commonly used in full-stack development. It also supports browser automation natively, which is unique among the three tools compared in this article.
Which is better for teams already using AWS: Kiro or Google Antigravity?
Kiro is the stronger choice for AWS-native teams. It reads your actual AWS environment directly, understands IAM roles, S3 configurations, Lambda functions, and Bedrock deployments without manual setup. Google Antigravity integrates more naturally with Google Cloud infrastructure. For multi-cloud teams, both tools can be used, but Kiro provides more immediate value in AWS-heavy environments.
What is spec-driven development in Kiro?
Spec-driven development is Kiro’s core methodology. Before generating any code, Kiro requires developers to produce three structured files: requirements.md (functional needs), design.md (technical architecture), and tasks.md (implementation steps). Each behavioral requirement follows a formal WHEN/THE SYSTEM SHALL format. This prevents agents from making conflicting implementation decisions on large projects.
Can I use Google Antigravity without a Google Cloud account?
Yes. Google Antigravity is available as a standalone desktop app and does not require a Google Cloud account for individual use. Google Cloud integration is available for enterprise teams through the Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform, which offers additional compliance and organizational management features.
Which tool is best for rapid prototyping?
Google Antigravity is generally better for rapid prototyping. Its parallel multi-agent architecture lets you describe a goal and have multiple agents work simultaneously, with plans generated as execution proceeds. Kiro’s mandatory spec phase adds deliberate friction before code generation begins, which benefits complex enterprise projects but slows down quick iteration cycles.
