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Source-backed analysis12

Review basis

Research-based review: the AppDuo Editorial Team compiled it from official pages, documentation, app stores, press and user feedback, without hands-on testing. Every claim links to a source with the date it was checked.

12 reference sources

Information updated Nov 11, 2026

How we review
Kilo Code logo

Kilo Code Review

Open-source coding agent with at-cost model pricing and bring-your-own-key

Editorial Team6.9/10Write the first review

By Official AppDuo editorial team · Fact-checked

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Web
  • iOS
Freemium · $19.00/mo
Visit Kilo Code
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Decide at a glance

Our verdict

A fit for developers who want an open-source agent in VS Code, JetBrains or the terminal and want to choose their own models. The trade-offs are poor public billing feedback, no stated refund policy and a data incident via vendor Metabase in August 2026.

Best for: Developers who want to pick their own models or use their own API keys instead of being locked to one provider

Skip it if: Buyers who need predictable flat costs, since most spend is usage-based

Pros

  • Open source under the MIT licence; the GitHub repo has about 27,900 stars
  • 500+ models, with the vendor stating no markup on model prices
  • Works in VS Code, JetBrains, the CLI, Slack, the browser (cloud agents), an iOS app and a desktop beta

Cons

  • August 2026 incident at vendor Metabase exposed some users' names and emails, and possibly prompts, billing addresses and location
  • Trustpilot shows 2.4/5 from 19 reviews, mostly billing and refund complaints (small sample, unclaimed profile)
All pros and cons · Who is it for?

More pros

  • VS Code extension UI in about 20 languages (English, Japanese, Chinese, German, Thai, …); the iOS app lists 80+

More cons

  • Privacy policy is silent on model training and on data collected by the IDE extensions
  • Model and cloud compute are billed separately by usage, so total spend is hard to predict

Best for

  • Teams that want one agent across VS Code, JetBrains, CLI and Slack

Skip it if

  • Buyers who need a written refund policy and explicit data-training commitments

Experience & key features

Kilo Code is an open-source AI coding agent from Kilo Code, Inc., which Anaconda acquired in July 2026. Per its website it runs in VS Code (and Open VSX editors such as Cursor and Windsurf), JetBrains, the terminal, Slack, the browser via cloud agents, a mobile app and a Kilo Desktop beta. The code is MIT-licensed on GitHub.

You pick an agent per task (coding, planning, debugging, Q&A) or build your own. With Auto Model you choose the Efficient, Frontier or Free tier and Kilo routes to a model within it. It works with your own API keys, local models or Kilo Gateway with 500+ models. The website claims more than 5 million users, a vendor-reported figure.

The extension is free and model usage is billed separately. Kilo Pass has three tiers at $19, $49 and $199 per month with bonus credits that grow the longer you subscribe (up to 50%, per the pricing page); the Gateway charges provider rates plus a 5% fee on credit purchases. Teams is $15/user/month, and cloud agents and code review are billed by compute time. Because cost follows token usage and run time, real spend is hard to predict.

Against Cline, Cursor or GitHub Copilot, Kilo stands out for open source, model freedom and the number of places it runs. In return, public billing feedback is poor, and the 2026 data incident is worth weighing before using it on sensitive code or data.

Screenshots

Official Kilo Code social image from kilo.ai
Official Kilo Code social image from kilo.ai
Kilo Code App Store image: cloud agents home screen
Kilo Code App Store image: cloud agents home screen
Kilo Code App Store image: steering agents
Kilo Code App Store image: steering agents

Plans & pricing

Prices last verified Nov 11, 2026

Free & Open Source

Personal

Free

Free VS Code and JetBrains extensions and CLI; model usage is billed separately (pay as you go, your own key, local models or the Auto Free tier).

Kilo Pass Starter

Personal

$19/mo

$19/month, up to $26.60 in credits per month (including bonus credits).

Kilo Pass Pro

Personal

$49/mo

$49/month, up to $68.60 in credits per month.

Kilo Pass Expert

Personal

$199/mo

$199/month, up to $278.60 in credits per month.

Teams

Business

$15/mo/user

$15/user/month; adds usage analytics, shared agents, centralized billing and priority support. Starts with a 14-day Enterprise trial, after which you pick Teams or Enterprise.

Enterprise

Business

Contact sales

Custom pricing; adds SSO/OIDC/SCIM, audit logs and an SLA.

Kilo Gateway

API

Free

No monthly fee; usage at provider rates with no markup. Credit purchases carry a 5% processing fee.

Free plan limits
The open-source extensions are free, and the Auto Free tier needs no credit top-up. The pricing page gives no specific limits for free models. Cloud compute is billed per second: Code Review $0.33/hour, Cloud Agent $0.60–$1.20/hour.
Free trial
14-day free trial · no credit card
Cancellation & refunds

The pricing page does not state a refund policy. Some Trustpilot reviewers say refund requests were declined under the terms of service; these are individual accounts and not verified.

Privacy

Kilo's privacy policy says it keeps your information while your account is active; deleting the account (via [email protected] or in the mobile app) removes prompts, conversation history and account metadata from Kilo's systems. Data already sent to model providers follows their policies. The policy does not say whether user data is used for model training and does not cover the IDE extensions or CLI (only the mobile app offers a consent toggle for data sharing). Services are hosted in the US; processors include Stripe, Orb, OpenRouter, Sentry, AppsFlyer and Google Analytics. In August 2026 Kilo had a data incident via vendor Metabase.

Official pricing page

Kilo Code alternatives

GitHub Copilot logo7.5/10

GitHub Copilot

An AI coding assistant that runs in most major IDEs and ties into GitHub

Freemium
Claude Code logo7.4/10

Claude Code

Anthropic's coding agent across terminal, IDE, web and CI

Paid
All alternatives

Controversies & incidents

Issues documented by the press, regulators, courts or the vendor itself. Every item is sourced; unproven claims are labelled as allegations. Last researched: Nov 11, 2026

  • High impactConfirmedSecurity ·

    Data incident via vendor Metabase affected some Kilo users

    Per a notice on Anaconda's blog, an unknown party accessed Kilo customer records held in Metabase for about 4 hours on 2 August 2026.

    Read the full account

    Per the notice, Metabase informed Kilo on 6 August 2026. Accessed data included some users' names, email addresses and other data; a 9 August update said prompts and user data such as billing address and location may also have been exposed, in whole or in part. For a small subset of Slackbot users, Slack access tokens were exposed. Kilo says the incident did not expose customer payment information but cannot confirm whether exposed data was used. Only Kilo Code users were affected. Kilo invalidated the affected Slackbot tokens and notified affected users (completed 14 August).

    Vendor response

    Kilo advises users to watch for phishing, audit and rotate credentials, monitor for spam and review their session history; users can request account and data deletion at kilo.ai/support.

    Sources:Anaconda: Metabase incident impacting Kilo Code customer data

  • Low impactConfirmedSecurity ·

    Injection flaw CVE-2025-11445 in Kilo Code up to 4.86.0

    INCIBE lists an injection flaw in ClineProvider, scored 2.1 (low) on CVSS v4.0 and 6.3 (medium) on v3.1.

    Read the full account

    Per INCIBE, the flaw is in the ClineProvider function of the Prompt Handler, can be exploited remotely and has public exploit code. Severity differs across scoring versions. INCIBE references pull request #2244 in the Kilo-Org/kilocode repository as the patch but names no fixed version.

    Sources:INCIBE-CERT: CVE-2025-11445

Frequently asked questions

Is Kilo Code free?

The VS Code and JetBrains extensions and CLI are free and open source, but model usage is billed separately unless you use the Auto Free tier or local models. The pricing page also lists Teams at $15/user/month and Kilo Pass from $19/month.

Can I use my own API key with Kilo Code?

Yes. The website states support for your own keys, local models and open-weight models.

Who owns Kilo Code?

Anaconda announced the acquisition on 15 July 2026 without disclosing terms, and says existing products, plans and support are unchanged.

Does Kilo Code support Vietnamese?

Partly. The iOS app's App Store listing includes Vietnamese among 80+ languages. The VS Code extension has about 20 interface languages, but its GitHub source has no Vietnamese locale. Prompting in Vietnamese works to the extent the chosen model handles it.

Review evidence & sources12

Scores

Ease of use
7.2
Why this score

Installs as an IDE extension or via npm, with coding, planning and debugging agents. The extension UI covers about 20 languages and the iOS app 80+. Some Trustpilot reviewers report looping and lost context.

Features
8.2
Why this score

Many surfaces (IDE, CLI, Slack, cloud, iOS), 500+ models, MCP support, cloud agents, code review and custom agents.

Value for money
6.8
Why this score

Free extension and at-cost model billing, but costs vary with usage, credit purchases carry a 5% fee, the pricing page states no refund policy and many Trustpilot reviews complain about charges.

Performance
6.8
Why this score

Quality depends on the chosen model. Some public reviews mention rate-limit errors and slow tasks; we found no reliable independent benchmarks.

Support
6.5
Why this score

Docs, Discord, GitHub issues and priority support on Teams. Trustpilot reviews are mixed: one praises responsiveness, several report no reply on payment problems.

Privacy & security
6.0
Why this score

Open source, with local models and your own keys as options. However, Kilo confirmed the August 2026 Metabase incident that exposed some users' data, and the policy is silent on model training and IDE data collection.

What users say

Sources

Specs & compatibility
Developer
Kilo Code, Inc. (acquired by Anaconda)
Headquarters
United States
Launched
2025
Category
Development

Capabilities

  • AI features
  • Open source
  • Public API
  • Integrations
  • Self-hostable
  • Mobile app

Platforms

  • macOS
  • Windows
  • Linux
  • Web
  • iOS

Interface languages

  • English
  • Japanese
  • Chinese
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Korean
  • German
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Thai
  • Vietnamese
  • Indonesian

Integrations

  • VS Code
  • JetBrains
  • Cursor
  • Windsurf
  • Slack
  • MCP
  • OpenRouter

Support

  • Help center
  • Community forum
  • Email

Change history

  1. Update.Kilo was notified of a security incident at vendor Metabase that occurred on 2 August 2026.
  2. Company.Anaconda announced it had acquired Kilo Code and said current users keep their plans and support.
  3. Update.INCIBE-CERT published CVE-2025-11445, affecting Kilo Code up to version 4.86.0.
Full change history (4)
  1. Launch.The Kilo-Org/kilocode repository was created on GitHub.
About the author

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