Freebuff vs Amp: free models included vs bring your own subscription
Amp Free closed to new users in February. Today, Amp is free only if you bring your own ChatGPT or Claude subscription or API keys. Freebuff includes the models, every day.
In short
- Our verdict: Freebuff. We make Freebuff, so weigh that, but every claim below links to a source you can check.
- Amp Free is closed. Its $10-a-day grant stopped taking new users in February 2026, and Amp has been pausing or cutting it for existing ones since.
- "Free" Amp means you pay for the models. Amp is free to use with "your ChatGPT, Claude & other subs" or your own API keys. Otherwise, you buy credits at the provider’s price.
- It has a reputation for cost. Even fans call it "expensive".
- Freebuff includes the models. Unlimited messages in every hour-long session, a published daily allowance with no monthly cap, and no subscription or API key to bring.
Amp, which spun out of Sourcegraph in 2025, has a strong reputation for quality, and it has moved fast: it dropped its editor extensions, rebuilt its CLI and launched apps for every platform. But its free daily grant is closed to new users, and its free plan now assumes you already pay someone else for the models. If you want a coding agent where the models are included for free, Freebuff is the better choice.
At a glance
| Feature | Freebuff | Amp |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Models included, a full day every day | Free with your own subscriptions or API keys |
| Free model usage | Up to 30 hours a day in the US | Amp Free ($10/day) closed to new users |
| How usage is counted | Hour-long sessions with unlimited messages | Your provider’s bill, or Amp credits at API prices |
| Monthly cap | None: the allowance refills every day | Whatever you pay for |
| Paid plans | Not needed for a full day | $20/mo (Megawatt) for hosted VMs and discounts, plus usage |
| Editor extensions | Works beside any editor | Removed in March 2026 |
What Amp costs
In September 2026, Amp became free "when you bring your own compute and model subscriptions/keys". Its pricing page lists "Use your ChatGPT, Claude & other subs" and "Bring your own keys (BYOK)". Without them, you buy credits, which Amp says it sells without a markup on API prices. Megawatt is $20 a month for time on Amp’s hosted machines and usage discounts.
Amp Free, the ad-supported grant of $10 a day, closed to new users on February 10, 2026. In March, Amp dropped the ads and paused the grant for "some less-active users", and in May it said it was "pausing or reducing further Amp Free’s daily allowance for more users".
What Freebuff gives you for free
- The models are included. No ChatGPT or Claude subscription, no API key, no credits. Install and sign in.
- Unlimited messages in every session. A session lasts an hour, and the agent can read, edit, test and retry as many times as it needs inside it.
- A published daily allowance with no monthly cap. Up to 30 hours a day in the US, and 21 in countries such as Canada, the UK and Germany. That is 10 hours a day of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash, refilled every day. Right now, Solar Mini 4 and Solar Pro 4 do not use it at all.
- It runs where you work. The CLI sits next to the editor you already use, and there is a desktop app for Mac, Windows and Linux, the web workspace, and apps for iOS and Android.
What Amp users are saying
Amp has no meaningful Trustpilot presence, but developers on Hacker News have been consistent:
- "Expensive". In December 2025, one developer said Amp was "so expensive I’m having a hard time even being able to judge it fairly". Another called cost "the biggest downside of Amp".
- The free grant is gone for newcomers. April 2026: "Amp Free provides $10 free credits every day. Unfortunately, new applications have now been closed."
- Features removed. Amp’s editor extensions were set to "self-destruct on March 5", and a user missed its handoff feature after a rebuild removed it.
- Sign-up friction. In August 2026, a user complained that sign-up "requires a phone number, which it tells you at the END of the registration". Amp later turned SMS verification off.
What Freebuff users are saying
Overall really appreciate the app, i ditched my claude subscription for it and till now seems worth it
I’ve fixed more bugs in one day than my other tools fixed in two weeks!
Where Amp is strong
Amp has a strong reputation for results, charges no markup on credits, runs agents on hosted or self-hosted machines, and has apps for desktop, iOS and Android, plus Slack. If you already pay for ChatGPT or Claude, using that subscription in Amp is a reasonable deal.
Our verdict
Pick Freebuff. Amp’s free daily grant is closed to new users, and its free plan only works if you already pay for the models somewhere else. Freebuff includes the models, with unlimited messages in every session and a published allowance that refills every day.
Try Freebuff for free
No card, no API key. `npm install -g freebuff`