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Kilo Code

An open-source coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains and the terminal that charges model prices with no markup.

Instead of GitHub Copilot

M · ToolOpen sourceFreeBring your own model
kilo.ai
Screenshot of the Kilo Code website

Screenshot from kilo.ai, taken 2026-10-30, shown to help you recognise the tool. It belongs to its maker. Ask us to remove it.

Forks of forks make open source feel like a family tree at a wedding, and Kilo Code is a cousin twice over: the repository says its command line tool is a fork of OpenCode. It runs as a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin and a terminal tool, with a cloud agent in the browser, and the page says model usage is billed at the provider's rate with no markup.

Kilo Code scores a 5 on lock-in, a 4 on self-direction, longevity and delivery and a 3 on footprint and power.

The code is MIT licensed and a company, Kilo-Org, runs the project, so Power is a 3. The repository is busy, with more than 33,000 commits and 576 open issues on the day we looked, and it states no funding and no telemetry position, so we read its privacy file as unread. Local model support is not mentioned on the page.

    What stands out

  • Runs in VS Code, JetBrains and the terminal, and bills models at provider prices
  • MIT licensed, and its command line tool is a fork of OpenCode
  • A company runs it, and the page states no funding or telemetry position
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For comparison, we also reviewed GitHub Copilot (15/30) and OpenAI Codex (20/30) and Claude Code (17/30) as a benchmark.

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