— Coding Tool

Amazon Q Developer

Last updated 2026-07-25 · Reviewed by ToolForge Editorial

AWS's AI coding companion — code suggestions, security scans, and AWS guidance inside your IDE.

★ 4.3/5 · 500K+ developers · Since 2022 · Free tier

Free Individual tier

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The cloud-native AI coder with a free tier that actually lasts

Amazon Q Developer (formerly CodeWhisperer) is AWS's AI coding assistant. It provides real-time code suggestions, references open-source code with license attribution, scans for security vulnerabilities, and offers AWS-specific guidance. The individual tier is genuinely free with no time limit — a rarity in 2026.

Who it's for: AWS-centric teams, Java and Python developers, and anyone who wants a free Copilot alternative with security scanning built in.

Key features

code Real-time suggestions

Inline completions across 15+ languages, tuned for cloud-native code.

shield Security scanning

Detects vulnerabilities in your code as you write — CVE-level.

cloud AWS guidance

Ask about AWS services and get code samples that actually work.

book Reference tracker

Flags when suggestions resemble open-source code, with license info.

The honest take

✓ What works

Genuinely free individual tier, no time limit
Built-in security scanning is genuinely useful
Strong for AWS and cloud-native codebases
Reference tracking avoids license headaches

✗ What doesn't

Weakest on frontend and creative code
AWS-centric — less helpful outside the AWS ecosystem
Suggestion quality trails Copilot and Cursor
Setup can be fiddly with AWS Builder ID

Verdict

Worth installing for the free security scanning alone. If you work in AWS, it is a no-brainer. For general-purpose coding, Copilot or Cursor still lead on quality.

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