Pricing
Is Kilo Code Free? The Extension Is, the Models Mostly Aren't
Is Kilo Code free? What the open-source extension gives you at no cost, which models and autocomplete are free, and where Kilo credits or API keys cost money.
8 min read
Plans, Kilo Pass, the 5% processing fee and cloud compute rates checked Nov 3, 2026 on kilo.ai/pricing. Free models, autocomplete billing and credit expiry checked Nov 3, 2026 in Kilo’s docs. License checked Nov 3, 2026 on GitHub. US prices. Every source is listed at the bottom. No affiliate links on this page (how we work).
Here’s the finding first: Kilo Code the software is free, and so is a rotating set of models, but autocomplete and background tasks bill credits by default. Kilo’s docs say it plainly: agent chats, autocomplete and background tasks each consume “credits by default.” So “free” is a setting you have to choose, not the factory state. Install it, pick a free model, switch off or re-route autocomplete, and set the background model to a free one. Then it really costs $0.
Is Kilo Code free? The short answer
Yes for the tool. Kilo’s own FAQ, as of Nov 3, 2026: “Yes. Kilo Code’s VS Code extension, JetBrains plugin, and CLI are open source and free to use. AI inference and cloud compute are separate usage costs, and Teams or Enterprise add optional organization features” (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026). The repo is MIT-licensed (GitHub, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Partly for the models. Kilo’s general FAQ: “Models are hosted by providers and most charge for access. There are some models available for free” (general FAQ, verified Nov 3, 2026). You also don’t need a subscription to start: Kilo says you can code with “free models, local models (Ollama, LM Studio), or your own API keys” (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Free vs paid
| Item | Free? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Extension | Yes | VS Code, JetBrains, CLI; MIT |
| Free models | Yes | Rotating list, may be rate limited |
| Autocomplete | No, by default | Codestral bills Kilo credits |
| Background tasks | No, by default | Auto Small uses credits |
| Kilo credits | Paid | Provider rates + 5% fee |
| Your own key | Kilo $0 | Provider bills you |
| Local models | Yes | Ollama or LM Studio |
| Cloud agents | Paid | From $0.33/hour |
| Teams | Paid | $15/user/month |
Free tier: “Usage is billed separately”; “Open source VS Code, JetBrains & CLI extensions”; Teams “$15/user/month” with a “14-day Enterprise trial”; Kilo Gateway “Pay exact provider rates with no markup”; “Credit purchase processing fee 5%”; Code Review compute $0.33/hour, Cloud Agent containers $0.60–$1.20/hour, billed per second (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026). Autocomplete and background-task defaults from Using Kilo for Free (verified Nov 3, 2026).
Kilo also lists “Commercial use of 40K+ Anaconda Core packages” on the free plan, and the pricing page footer says “Kilo has been acquired by Anaconda” (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026). Kilo doesn’t give the deal date on that page.
Free models and limits
The easy route is Auto Free (kilo-auto/free), which Kilo says “automatically routes your requests to the best available free models.” In the model picker, type free to filter; in the CLI, use /models and type free (Using Kilo for Free, verified Nov 3, 2026). The Auto Model doc adds that Free routes to free models on OpenRouter, and “Quality will be lower than paid tiers, and the models may change over time” (Auto Model, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Limits: Kilo doesn’t publish a free request count. The docs say “Some free models may be rate limited by the upstream provider. If you hit a rate limit, try switching to a different free model.” And the list moves: “The set of free models is constantly changing based on provider pricing decisions” (general FAQ, verified Nov 3, 2026). So no model names in this post. They’d be stale before you finish your coffee.
"Auto Free may route your requests to providers that log prompts and outputs and use them to improve their services. Do not submit personal or confidential data when using Auto Free." Free models paid for with your prompts is an old trade, and Kilo at least prints the warning. But it's in a callout in the docs, and the free option is the first thing a new user reaches for. That warning belongs in the model picker.
Autocomplete is the trap. It’s “enabled by default,” and the default model, Codestral, is “billed through your Kilo account” (Autocomplete docs, verified Nov 3, 2026). Kilo’s billing FAQ adds that it “stays active in the background whenever the feature is enabled… even if you aren’t currently using the Kilo Chat” (credits FAQ, verified Nov 3, 2026). Your options: snooze it from the status bar, turn it off under Kilo Settings → Autocomplete, or add your own Mistral key. On the Mistral route, Kilo warns “BYOK does not guarantee free autocomplete”; your Mistral plan decides. If you run out of Kilo credits, autocomplete stops and the main agent keeps working.
Background tasks (session titles, context summaries) default to Auto Small, which “consumes credits.” Set the small model to a free one in VS Code under Settings → Models, or small_model in ~/.config/kilo/config.json for the CLI (Using Kilo for Free, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Kilo’s adding-credits doc mentions “any initial free Kilo Credits” for new accounts, but the amount isn’t published (Adding credits, verified Nov 3, 2026). There’s no student offer on the pricing page or in the docs as of Nov 3, 2026.
Kilo credits, Kilo Pass and the 5% fee
Once you leave the free lane, there are three ways to pay for models:
- Kilo Gateway credits, pay as you go. “$1 of purchased credits funds $1 of usage,” at provider rates with no markup (Adding credits, verified Nov 3, 2026).
- Kilo Pass, from $19 a month with “Up to 50% bonus credits.” The pricing calculator lists Starter at $19 (up to $26.60 a month in credits), Pro at $49 (up to $68.60) and Expert at $199 (up to $278.60) (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026).
- Your own key (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Azure, AWS Bedrock and more) or a local model, where Kilo charges $0 and your provider bills you.
The fee: 5% on one-off top-ups, automatic top-ups and Kilo Pass. “For example, a $20 credit purchase costs $21. The processing fee is non-refundable, including when the associated credit purchase is refunded.” Seats paid by invoice, wire or ACH skip it (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026).
And paid credits expire “one calendar year after purchase,” including auto top-ups. Kilo Pass allotments expire a year after each allotment is issued (Adding credits, verified Nov 3, 2026).
I get why a “no markup” gateway needs some margin somewhere. Charging 5% on the way in, keeping it when you refund, and expiring the credit after a year is three bites from one sandwich, though. Pick one.
Teams is $15 per user per month, but “No Kilo credits are included with a Teams or Enterprise purchase” (Teams billing, verified Nov 3, 2026). The seat buys admin, analytics and shared BYOK, not model usage. Enterprise is custom; price not published.
Cloud agents draw from the same balance and need at least $5 in it to start a container, which Kilo says is “not a launch fee.” BYOK doesn’t cover cloud compute (kilo.ai/pricing, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Is Kilo Code free forever?
The extension: Kilo’s pricing page and FAQ call the extensions, plugin and CLI free and open source, and the repo carries an MIT license as of Nov 3, 2026. Kilo doesn’t promise “forever” anywhere we found. What you can count on is the license on the code already published.
The free models: no. Kilo says outright that free availability “shifts over time as providers change promotional periods” (Auto Model, verified Nov 3, 2026).
Lineage, since people ask: Kilo’s CLI docs say “The Kilo CLI is a fork of OpenCode” (CLI docs, verified Nov 3, 2026). Kilo’s docs don’t describe the editor extension’s lineage, so we won’t either.
Here’s what I’d do
If you want $0, I’d set it up like this on day one: model on Auto Free (with nothing confidential in the prompts), small model set to a free one, and autocomplete off unless you already have a Mistral plan you’re happy to spend. That’s the genuinely free version, and it’s the one Kilo’s docs describe.
If free models keep rate-limiting you, bring your own key before buying Kilo credits. You skip the 5% fee and the one-year expiry. Buy Kilo Pass only if you’d spend at least $19 a month on Kilo Gateway anyway, since the bonus credits only help if you use them before they expire. Teams makes sense only when you need admin, and remember it adds $15 per head without a cent of model usage.
Comparing free agents? See Is Cline free?, Is OpenCode free?, Cline vs Claude Code, Cursor alternatives and AI coding tools compared. We haven’t tested Kilo’s free models or rate limits; everything here is from Kilo’s own pages.
FAQ
Is Kilo Code free? Yes, the Kilo Code extension, JetBrains plugin and CLI are free and open source, but most models cost money unless you pick a free model, a local model or your own key.
Is Kilo Code autocomplete free? No, not by default, since autocomplete uses Codestral billed to Kilo credits, though you can turn it off or route it to your own Mistral account.
Is Kilo Code free forever? The open-source tool is MIT-licensed as of Nov 3, 2026, but Kilo says its list of free models changes over time and makes no forever promise.
Does Kilo Code charge a fee on credits? Yes, Kilo adds a 5% non-refundable processing fee to credit top-ups and Kilo Pass, so a $20 purchase costs $21.
Do Kilo credits expire? Yes, paid Kilo credits expire one calendar year after purchase, per Kilo’s docs checked Nov 3, 2026.
Sources
- Kilo pricing (free plan, Teams $15/user/month, 14-day Enterprise trial, Kilo Gateway, Kilo Pass tiers, 5% fee, cloud compute rates, $5 cloud balance, FAQ, Anaconda acquisition note): https://kilo.ai/pricing (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Using Kilo for Free (credits by default, Auto Free, data-handling warning, rate limits, autocomplete costs, background tasks): https://kilo.ai/docs/getting-started/using-kilo-for-free (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Autocomplete (enabled by default, Codestral billed through Kilo, snooze, cost in status bar): https://kilo.ai/docs/code-with-ai/features/autocomplete (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Credits and Billing FAQ (Codestral runs in background, how to disable): https://kilo.ai/docs/getting-started/faq/credits-and-billing (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, General FAQ (extension free and open source, free model set changes): https://kilo.ai/docs/getting-started/faq/general (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Adding Credits ($1 per $1 usage, 5% fee, one-year expiry, initial free credits): https://kilo.ai/docs/getting-started/adding-credits (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Auto Model (Free tier routing, lower quality, models change): https://kilo.ai/docs/code-with-ai/agents/auto-model (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, Teams billing (no credits included with seats): https://kilo.ai/docs/collaborate/teams/billing (verified 2026-11-03)
- Kilo docs, CLI (fork of OpenCode): https://kilo.ai/docs/code-with-ai/platforms/cli (verified 2026-11-03)
- GitHub, Kilo-Org/kilocode (MIT license): https://github.com/Kilo-Org/kilocode (verified 2026-11-03)