Amazon Q Developer: Pricing, Features and Alternatives in 2025

Amazon Q Developer is Amazon’s new AI-powered coding assistant and the direct to successor AWS CodeWhisperer. It adds autonomous agents, conversational AI for AWS resource usage, and console error diagnostics. As a result, pricing now reflects these expanded features, starting at $19/user/month.

‍

In this article, we’ll cover: 

• How Amazon Q Developer pricing works
• What’s free vs. paid (and what you get with each)
• How it stacks up to GitHub Copilot and others
• Where Superblocks fits into the picture

We’ll start by looking at how Q developer expanded CodeWhisperer’s features.

What is Amazon Q Developer?

Amazon Q Developer is a generative AI–powered coding assistant designed to support software developers throughout the entire development lifecycle. It originated as a rebrand and expansion of AWS CodeWhisperer in April 2024. 

‍

All of CodeWhisperer’s core features, like coding suggestions, reference tracking for open-source snippets, and security scans are still here, but Q developer expands the scope:

• Autonomous agents: Q Developer can carry out multi-step tasks like implementing a new feature, refactoring code, or upgrading dependencies. It analyzes your repo, creates a new branch, proposes changes, and explains what it did.
• AWS cloud integration: Q can answer account-level questions (“List my Lambda functions”) and generate CLI commands. It won’t run anything automatically, but it’ll handle the boilerplate.
• Enterprise compliance: Q Developer is eligible for use in regulated environments (SOC, ISO, HIPAA, and PCI use cases). It depends on your organization’s AWS configurations and compliance measures.
• IDE support: It integrates with Visual Studio Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Eclipse.
• Code transformations: It supports version and framework upgrades like migrating from Java 8 to Java 17, with minimal manual input.
• Project-wide context: It understands relationships across files, not just isolated snippets.
• Test generation: The platform can generate unit tests and full test suites based on existing code.
• Conversational AI: It includes a chat interface for asking technical questions, debugging, or getting code explanations in plain language.

Amazon Q developer pricing overview

Amazon Q Developer comes in Free and Pro tiers. There is still a perpetual free tier for individuals, similar to CodeWhisperer’s individual tier. Pricing is billed monthly per user. There’s no separate Enterprise edition. Companies simply subscribe their developers to Pro and manage them via IAM Identity Center.

‍

Here’s how the plans break down:

Free tier

Price: $0

‍

Usage: 50 agentic requests per month

‍

Code transformations: Up to 1,000 lines/month

‍

Access points: Available in IDE or CLI

Pro tier

Price: $19/user/month

‍

Usage: 1,000 agentic requests/month

‍

Code transformations: 4,000 lines/month per user (extra lines cost $0.003 each)

‍

Security features:

• IP indemnity for generated code
• SSO integration via AWS IAM Identity Center
• Centralized user and policy management
• Access to private customization for internal libraries
• Analytics dashboards
• Automatic opt-out from training or data usage
  
  

Amazon Q pricing breakdown

All tiers support core features like code suggestions, chat-based assistance, and security scanning. The main difference is how much you can use and how tightly you can integrate it with your org’s infrastructure.

‍

Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

Amazon Q Developer vs. CodeWhisperer

CodeWhisperer was primarily a code completion tool. It suggested code snippets as you typed, similar to GitHub Copilot's basic functionality.

‍

Despite being free for individuals, CodeWhisperer struggled to gain traction against GitHub Copilot. AWS rebranded CodeWhisperer as part of Amazon Q Developer, folding it into the new Amazon Q family of AI assistants, which also includes Q Business for non-dev use cases.

‍

Q Developer inherited CodeWhisperer’s capabilities. If you previously used CodeWhisperer in VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, etc., that functionality is now provided by the Q Developer plugin.

‍

Amazon Q Developer expanded into a comprehensive AI development platform with a chat interface, agentic coding, and code transformation.

What changed for existing users?

The transition was intentionally low-friction. You could migrate your existing setup to Q Developer directly from the AWS Console or IDE plugin. Free users stayed on a free plan. AWS moved professional users into Q Developer Pro. It also automatically updated AWS Toolkit plugins to use Q.

‍

You may have had to update your IAM permissions slightly since Q Developer introduced new actions, such as the chat and agent features.

When to upgrade to a paid plan

If you start on the Free tier, how do you know it’s time to move to Amazon Q Developer Pro?

‍

Here are some common tipping points for upgrading:

• You’re hitting usage limits frequently: If you regularly run into monthly caps like exhausting your 50 chat interactions or agent tasks by mid-month, that’s a clear signal you’re relying on Q enough to justify the $19/month.
• You need team management and policy controls: If you're working in a team, managing separate Builder IDs quickly becomes painful. Pro lets you group users under AWS IAM Identity Center, manage access centrally, and enforce org-wide policies.
• You’re handling legal, security, and compliance risk: Q Developer Pro includes IP indemnity, so Amazon will defend your team if someone claims the AI-generated code infringes on a license. It also automatically opts you out of data retention and model training.
• You’re using it for AWS-specific workflows: The Free plan gives you 25 AWS account queries per month, which is fine for occasional use. But if Q Developer is becoming part of your team’s cloud troubleshooting workflow, you’ll want Pro’s higher limits.

How does Amazon Q compare to other AI coding tools?

Amazon Q Developer enters a competitive field of AI coding assistants that includes GitHub Copilot, Tabnine, and Sourcegraph Cody.

‍

Let’s compare them on a few key factors:

Pricing

Q Developer offers a free tier with monthly limits. Neither Copilot nor Tabnine provides a comparable long-term option. Copilot’s free access is minimal, and Tabnine only offers a 30-day free trial.

‍

For paid plans:

• Q Developer Pro is $19/user.
• GitHub Copilot is cheaper for individual devs at $10/month (Copilot Pro), but costs the same $19/user for business use. 
• Tabnine offers a $9/month “Dev” plan for individuals and a $39/user/month Enterprise plan.
• Sourcegraph Cody pricing is tied to Sourcegraph licenses.

IDE and platform support

Q Developer integrates with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, and Visual Studio. It also lives in the AWS Console as a chat widget for cloud questions. Copilot, Tabnine, and Cody also support the widely used IDEs.

Language support

All these assistants support pretty much all popular ones from JavaScript and Python to Rust, Go, and Swift. In practice, language coverage is not a deciding factor. All these tools can assist in most languages. Suggestion quality and platform fit matter more.

Unique capabilities and strengths

Each assistant brings something different to the table:

• Amazon Q: Agentic coding (e.g., auto-generating features, refactors), cloud-aware chat, AWS CLI command generation, built-in security scans, and license-aware completions. It’s especially appealing if you’re already building on AWS.
• GitHub Copilot: Deep GitHub integration, polished suggestions, and Copilot Chat for in-editor Q&A. Copilot X and Labs are experimenting with autonomous workflows, but they're still limited and may count against your GitHub Actions minutes.
• Tabnine: Prioritizes privacy. Offers local/on-prem deployment, fine-tuned models trained on your code, and tight integration with internal tools. Great for orgs with strict data policies.
• Cody: Leans heavily into large-scale code understanding. Taps into Sourcegraph’s code graph and lets you switch between LLMs (or run local ones via Ollama). Strong choice for navigating massive codebases or customizing model behavior.

Team management and security

Enterprise-grade controls vary:

• Q Developer Pro includes SSO via IAM Identity Center, usage analytics, policy controls, and automatic data opt-out for Pro users. It also includes IP indemnity.
• Copilot Business offers centralized seat management and data privacy guarantees, but no indemnification.
• Tabnine Enterprise provides full self-hosting, IP indemnity, and license-based content filtering.
• Cody Enterprise supports self-hosting and private LLM access, which avoids sending code to external services.

Amazon Q vs. Copilot vs. Tabnine vs. Cody

Here’s a quick summary of how these four tools compare:

How Superblocks compares to Amazon Q Developer

Where Amazon Q Developer is an assistant within your existing dev tools, Superblocks provides the dev tools themselves. 

‍

It includes features for building and deploying internal apps, managing user access, connecting to databases and APIs, setting up SSO authentication for the app’s end-users, audit logs, etc., all from one environment.

‍

Superblocks uses Clark, its proprietary AI agent, to generate secure internal apps from natural language prompts. Clark enforces your design systems, access rules, and compliance policies by default. It eliminates the risks of ungoverned shadow AI builds.

‍

You can refine the apps Clark generates using the WYSIWYG visual editor or customize with raw code in your IDE. The development model processes or integrates multiple types of inputs (e.g. text, code, logs, images).

‍

Engineers might use Q Developer for day-to-day coding in their services and infrastructure, while offloading internal app development to Superblocks.

Is Amazon Q Developer worth it for enterprises?

Amazon Q Developer is worth it for enterprises if you're already invested in AWS. It’s tightly coupled with the AWS ecosystem, tuned for AWS SDKs, and capable of answering resource-specific questions about your cloud environment. The more AWS-centric your stack, the more useful Q becomes.

‍

If you’re cloud-agnostic or planning to move off AWS, a platform-neutral tool may be a better fit.

‍

It’s also worth noting that Q Developer is a third-party managed service. If your organization requires full isolation or doesn’t allow code to leave a private network, you’ll likely need a self-hosted option like Tabnine Enterprise or your own LLM deployment.

Build AI-powered internal software with Superblocks

Amazon Q Developer makes the most sense for teams building on AWS. It’s well-suited for developers who want AI assistance that understands their cloud environment

‍

If you’re building internal tooling, Superblocks is worth a look. Our AI agent, Clark, doesn’t just assist with code. It enforces governance through AI guardrails that prevent risky output. Every app it builds inherits org-wide security, access, and design policies automatically, freeing up engineers from repetitive work entirely.

‍

This is possible thanks to our wide set of features:

• Multiple ways to build: Generate code with AI and refine visually or with raw code.
• Centralized governance: Provides a unified administrative interface for IT, security, and engineering teams to monitor RBAC, application activity, and security events.
• Governed AI generation: AI-created applications automatically inherit organizational security policies and access controls.
• Hybrid deployment: Deploy the on-premises agent within your VPC to keep all your data and code executions within your network. Keep managing your app, workflows, and permissions through Superblocks Cloud.
• Integrations with systems you rely on: Provides 60+ native integrations for databases, AI tools, cloud storage, and SaaS apps. 
• Automatic deployments: Integrates directly with CI/CD tools like GitHub Actions, CircleCI, and Jenkins, so you can deploy updates just like any other codebase.
• Auditability and traceability: Superblocks logs every action and code change. You can use these detailed audit trails to support compliance reviews, incident investigations, and model validation.
• Data access restrictions: AI agents only access data that users are authorized to see. Superblocks doesn’t share customer data with external LLM providers, nor do providers use it for model training.
• Exportable code: Own your applications fully. Superblocks lets you export all your apps as standard React apps so you can host and maintain them independently.

If you’d like to see how these features can help your business build secure tooling, book a demo.

Frequently asked questions 

Is Amazon Q Developer the same as CodeWhisperer?

Amazon Q Developer is not the same as CodeWhisperer. It includes everything CodeWhisperer did, like real-time code suggestions and security scans, but adds chat, autonomous agents, cloud integration, and more.

How much does Amazon Q Developer cost in 2025?

Amazon Q Developer paid plans start at $19/user/month and support 1,000 agentic requests/month and 4,000 lines of code/month.

What’s the difference between Amazon Q and Copilot?

Amazon Q is AWS-native while Copilot focuses more on general-purpose code completion, with deeper GitHub and VS Code integration.

Can I use Amazon Q Developer on my local IDE?

Yes, you can use Q Developer in your local IDE. It works with VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio, and Eclipse.

Is Amazon Q secure enough for regulated industries?

For many teams, Amazon Q is secure enough for regulated industries. Q Developer is compliant with SOC, ISO, HIPAA, and PCI. The Pro plan includes data isolation (no training on your inputs), IP indemnity, and SSO support via IAM Identity Center.

Does the free plan include security tools?

Yes. Free-tier users get up to 50 agentic requests per month (across chat, code transformation, and vulnerability scans). It also supports real-time detection of hardcoded secrets during autocomplete.

What’s the difference between Q Developer and Q Business?

Q Developer is for software engineers, while Q Business is for business users. Q Developer lives in your IDE and helps write, explain, and refactor code. Q Business is for knowledge workers, like Slack or web-based chat that answers questions about your company’s docs and systems.

Does Superblocks offer a free tier for AI coding?

No, Superblocks doesn’t have a free tier. Pricing is tailored to teams and requires a sales conversation.

Which is better for teams: Copilot or Amazon Q?

If your team is already using AWS and wants centralized control, Amazon Q Developer Pro is the better fit. It integrates with IAM Identity Center for SSO, includes policy controls (like blocking certain license types), offers usage analytics, and comes with IP indemnity.

‍

Copilot Business also supports SSO and team management through GitHub Enterprise, but it doesn’t offer IP indemnity.

What are the alternatives to Amazon Q Developer?

Top alternatives to Amazon Q Developer include:

• GitHub Copilot: General-purpose, tightly integrated with GitHub
• Tabnine: Customizable and self-hostable for privacy-focused teams
• Cody by Sourcegraph: Works well for large monorepos and code search
• Superblocks: Ideal if you’re building AI-powered internal apps