Amazon Q Developer

What it is

Amazon Q Developer is AWS's AI coding assistant. It replaced Amazon CodeWhisperer, whose old URL now redirects to the Q Developer page. It runs as plugins for VS Code, JetBrains IDEs, Visual Studio and Eclipse, as a command-line tool, and inside the AWS Management Console.

Status: being retired in favour of Kiro

On April 30, 2026, AWS announced that the Q Developer IDE plugins and paid subscriptions will reach end of support on April 30, 2027, and that it recommends Kiro, its spec-driven agentic IDE and CLI, as the replacement.

• Since May 15, 2026, nobody can create a new Q Developer Free Tier account or a new subscription. Existing Pro subscriptions can still add users.
• The plugins stay listed in the IDE marketplaces with a deprecation notice. AWS says critical bug fixes continue during the transition.
• AWS says the newest coding models are available only in Kiro. Existing Pro or Kiro subscribers keep access to the Q Developer plugins until the April 2027 cutoff.
• Java upgrades and .NET porting through the IDE plugins also end on April 30, 2027. AWS points those jobs to AWS Transform.
• Q Developer in the AWS Console, the AWS website and documentation, the Console Mobile App, and the Slack and Microsoft Teams integrations is not affected.

Key features (for existing users)

• Inline code suggestions, from snippets to whole functions, plus inline chat in the editor.
• Agentic requests that implement features, write tests and documentation, review and refactor code.
• CLI completions and translation from natural language to bash.
• Java upgrades (for example Java 8 to 17) and porting .NET apps from Windows to Linux.
• AWS-aware chat in the console for questions about resources, costs, architecture and troubleshooting.
• Reference tracking, and an option to suppress suggestions that match public code.

Who it's for

Teams that already have Q Developer and need a supported tool until 2027. New users should look at Kiro.

Pricing

As listed on the Q Developer pricing page in October 2026, open only to existing accounts:

• Free Tier: 50 agentic requests per month and 1,000 lines of code per month for Java upgrades.
• Pro: $19 per user per month. It raises the limits, pools 4,000 transformation lines per user at account level (extra lines cost $0.003 each), and adds admin dashboards, Identity Center support and IP indemnity.