Kilo Code

Kilo Code, now branded simply “Kilo”, is an MIT-licensed, open-source coding agent that runs in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs and the terminal, and lets you pick whichever model does the work. Our verdict: it is one of the strongest free options for developers who want agentic coding without being tied to one editor or one flat subscription. The trade-off is that the bill is yours to watch, because model usage is where the money goes.

One agent across your editor, terminal and cloud

Kilo ships as an extension for VS Code and forks such as Cursor and Windsurf, a JetBrains plugin, a CLI, cloud agents you can trigger from Slack or mobile, and a desktop app that is still in beta. It works in Code, Plan, Ask and Debug modes, and teams can define custom modes. A code reviewer and a security agent sit alongside them.

In April 2026 the VS Code extension was rebuilt on the same core as the CLI, which itself is a fork of OpenCode. The rebuild brought parallel subagents, an Agent Manager, inline review and side-by-side comparison across models. The last two weeks have been busy too: Kilo Desktop launched on October 6, a Kilo MCP server followed on October 13, and version 7.8.12 shipped on October 15.

Pricing: the tool is free, the models are not

The extensions cost nothing. You can stay at $0 by bringing your own API key, running a local model, or choosing the “Free” strategy in Kilo’s Auto router, which picks a model for you. If you route through the Kilo Gateway, the pricing page says you pay the provider’s rate with no markup, but there is a 5% processing fee whenever you buy credits, a detail easy to miss. Monthly credit bundles start at $19, Teams costs $15 per user per month, Enterprise is custom, and cloud agents are billed per second.

Arabic and right-to-left text

Unusually for a developer tool, the VS Code extension ships an almost complete Arabic translation of its interface. The repository also has an Arabic README and a translators’ glossary with an explicit rule to keep code, commands and file paths left-to-right inside Arabic text. The documentation site is English-only. We have not tested how well the panel renders right-to-left; if you try it, give it a prompt that mixes Arabic with file names and shell commands and see whether the ordering survives.

Things to check before you commit

Anaconda acquired Kilo in July 2026 and says pricing and the open-source repository are unchanged. The privacy policy states that data is stored in the US and that prompts go to whichever provider you select; we found no explicit statement on whether your data is used for training. The README warns that fully autonomous runs belong in trusted environments only, and some readers on Kilo’s blog reported bugs after the rebuild.

Who should use it

Kilo suits developers who want control over models and spend, JetBrains users looking for something closer to Claude Code, and teams that want an agent they can audit. If you would rather pay one predictable subscription, GitHub Copilot is simpler; if you already like Cline, Kilo will feel familiar but broader.

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