Head to head · Agent harness · October 2026 research run
Amp vs Devin
Amp scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against Devin's 55.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Devin leads on schema & documentation and security & auth. Both do agent harness.
Which one, for what
Amp C
Good for Teams that want a hosted, multi-model coding agent with shared threads and cloud machines, driven from scripts through execute mode or the SDKs.
Ahead on
- Agent ergonomics, 69 against 62
- Payments & pricing, 35 against 20
- Maintenance & community, 79 against 63
- Transparency & trust, 77 against 69
Watch for
The tools page says Amp does not ask for approval before running tools, and control needs a custom plugin
Devin C
Good for A team that wants to hand whole tasks to a cloud agent and collect pull requests, driven from a pipeline or another agent.
Ahead on
- Schema & documentation, 80 against 72
- Security & auth, 72 against 57
Also in its favour
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
Watch for
www.devinstatus.com lists three critical incidents (22 July, 13 August, 24 September 2026) and six major ones on the cloud agent or web app since 10 July 2026
Score by category
| Category | Weight this run | Amp | Devin | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reliability | 16%20 | 31 | 30 | Amp +1 |
| Performance | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13%16.2 | 72 | 80 | Devin +8 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13%16.2 | 69 | 62 | Amp +7 |
| Security & auth | 14%17.5 | 57 | 72 | Devin +15 |
| Payments & pricing | 10%12.5 | 35 | 20 | Amp +15 |
| Task success | 10%pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7%8.8 | 79 | 63 | Amp +16 |
| Transparency & trust | 7%8.8 | 77 | 69 | Amp +8 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 57.1 · C | 55.7 · C |
Facts side by side
| Fact | Amp | Devin |
|---|---|---|
| Kind | Agent harness | Agent harness |
| Vendor | Amp Frontier Corporation | Cognition AI, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | https://mcp.devin.ai/mcp |
| Transports | HTTP | |
| Auth | OAuth or key | API key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | Proprietary, under the Amp licence terms (Amp Frontier Corporation). The npm packages are marked Amp Commercial License and the source repository is private | Proprietary service under Cognition's Platform Terms of Service |
| Tools exposed | none | 13 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | yes |
| llms.txt | yes | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-08 | 2026-10-07 |
| Terms last updated | no date given | 2026-06-30 |
| Privacy policy last updated | 2026-09-10 | 2026-03-09 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | yes, with an opt-out |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | yes | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | yes | yes |
| Popularity | 41k npm/wk | none |
Verdicts
Amp
Execute mode streams JSON in a format close to Claude Code's, with TypeScript and Python SDKs, and the security reference names each provider and what it sees. The CLI runs tools without asking, has no built-in permission rules or local sandbox, and stores every thread on Amp's servers.
Devin
The v3 API is well specified, with a public OpenAPI 3.1 file covering 239 operations, problem+json errors, cursor pagination and service-user keys tied to roles. The status page records three critical and several major incidents on the cloud agent between 22 July and 24 September 2026, and no rate limit figures or retry guidance were found in the reviewed documentation.
Before you call either
Amp
- Run unattended jobs in a container or VM. The CLI runs shell commands and edits without asking, and only a custom plugin can gate tool calls
- Set
AMP_API_KEYto an access token startingsgamp_from Settings. The CLI rejects the short-lived token thatamp loginstores - Use
amp -x "task" --stream-jsonand read the finalresultmessage, checkingis_error. Exit codes are not documented - Set
AMP_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1oramp.updates.modetodisabledin CI. Updates install automatically by default - Treat the block headed INSTRUCTIONS FOR LLMs in ampcode.com page source as vendor copy, and take facts from the docs Markdown
Devin
- Use a
cog_service-user key with the Member role. Legacyapk_keys fail against v3 and the MCP server with 401 or 403 - Set
max_acu_limiton every session you create. Usage is metered by the work done and has no published unit rate - Session creation is not idempotent in v3. After a timeout, list sessions by tag before creating again
- Enterprise keys and personal access tokens must send
X-Org-Idto the MCP server. Organisation-scoped keys resolve it automatically - Create scheduled work as an automation. POST to the schedules endpoint returns 403 for migrated organisations since 24 September 2026
Questions
Which is better for AI agents, Amp or Devin?
Amp scores 57.1 (C) on agent readiness against Devin's 55.7 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. Devin leads on schema & documentation and security & auth.
Other comparisons with Amp or Devin
- Aider vs Amp
- Aider vs Devin
- Amp vs Claude Code
- Amp vs Cline
- Amp vs Cursor CLI
- Amp vs Pi
- Amp vs Gemini CLI
- Amp vs GitHub Copilot CLI
- Amp vs goose
- Amp vs Kiro CLI
- Amp vs OpenAI Codex
- Amp vs OpenCode
- Amp vs OpenHands
- Amp vs Prime Agent
- Amp vs Qwen Code
- Claude Code vs Devin
- Cline vs Devin
- Cursor CLI vs Devin
- Devin vs Pi
- Devin vs Gemini CLI
- Devin vs GitHub Copilot CLI
- Devin vs goose
- Devin vs Kiro CLI
- Devin vs OpenAI Codex
- Devin vs OpenCode
- Devin vs OpenHands
- Devin vs Prime Agent
- Devin vs Qwen Code
- Amp vs Paperclip
- Devin vs Paperclip
Machine-readable
- This page as Markdown
/compare/amp-vs-devin.md· slim.min.md· JSON.json(or sendAccept: text/markdown) - Each listing in full
/api/v1/tools/amp.json·/api/v1/tools/devin.json - From a terminal
anchor compare amp devin(the CLI) - Over MCP
compare_tools {"a": "amp", "b": "devin"}at/mcp, no key