Nori vs Amp: Orbs and cloud agents compared (October 2026)

Which is better, Nori or Amp?

It depends, and the two are closer than most pairs. Amp Orbs, like Nori, let you use your ChatGPT, Claude, and other subscriptions or your own keys with no token fees. Choose Amp if you want Amp's own multi-model harness, per-minute Orbs that cost nothing while paused, and free runners on your own machines. Choose Nori if you want Jiro, Nori's own engineering teammate, or any harness (Amp included), Discord as well as Slack, org skillsets and memories, or Enterprise bring-your-own compute, identity provider, and memory provider.

What is Amp?

Amp is a coding agent with a CLI, a terminal UI, and macOS and iOS apps. Orbs are its cloud product: “Orbs are machines where agents can run without supervision” (Amp, June 30, 2026). Each new thread gets a fresh Orb containing your code, plugins, and tools. Orbs pause a few minutes after the agent finishes, a paused Orb costs nothing, and it resumes with its files and services intact when you send another prompt (Amp manual: Orbs). You can open a terminal in an Orb, browse its files, or run amp sync to mirror changes into your local checkout.

Amp is for developers and teams who want Amp’s agent running in the cloud while they close the laptop. Amp describes itself as multi-model, using GPT-5.6, Claude Fable 5.1, and fast models “for what each model is best at” (Amp manual). Orbs come in six sizes, from a1.tiny (1 CPU, 2 GB, $0.08 per hour) to a1.3xlarge (16 CPUs, 44 GB, $2.13 per hour), billed by the minute (What are Orbs).

What is Nori?

Nori ships Jiro, its own AI engineering teammate, and also runs any harness you prefer. Each session is a cloud machine where your team runs Jiro or the harness it prefers: Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, OpenCode, pi, or ACP agents including Amp, Droid, Goose, Copilot CLI, Qwen, Kimi, and Cline. You drive sessions from Slack, Discord, the web UI, or the CLI, and schedule them with cron and webhook automations. Nori never charges for tokens: you bring your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription, API keys, or an LLM gateway such as OpenRouter, Fireworks, or Cloudflare. Teams using Nori have merged 100,000+ PRs.

Meet Jiro

Jiro is Nori's own AI engineering teammate, the Nori counterpart to Amp’s own agent. It runs on Claude Code or Codex under the hood, on your own Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API key, so there are no token charges. It follows an opinionated engineering workflow: planning, test-driven development, review, and worktrees. You work with it in Slack or the browser, and on its first day it reads your repos, asks the team how you ship, and sets up the workspace. See jiro.bot.

Nori vs Amp: head-to-head comparison

Sources for every Amp row are listed at the end of this page.

Enterprise deployment: where does the control plane run?

The control plane is the part that orchestrates sessions, holds transcripts and org state, and runs the agent loop. Amp lets you bring your own runners for Orbs, but Amp hosts the control plane, and its pricing page documents no self-hosted option for it. Nori Enterprise deploys the full stack — control plane, agents, and data — into your own AWS VPC, Azure VNet, or on-prem environment. On hosted plans, Nori gives each organization a dedicated, single-tenant control plane and data store, and every session runs on its own isolated machine.

Where Amp and Nori agree

We want to be candid: on pricing philosophy Amp is the closest competitor to Nori. Amp’s pricing page says “No Amp token fees or limits” and lets you use your ChatGPT, Claude, and other subscriptions or your own keys (Amp pricing). Nori does the same. Neither company makes money when your agent burns more tokens, so both have incentives aligned with yours. If token pricing is your only criterion, the two are roughly even, and the decision comes down to the points below.

Where Amp wins

• Low entry price. Hobby is free with pay-as-you-go Orbs, and Individual is $20 a month with 45,000 Orb minutes. Nori’s paid plans start at $99 a month.
• Pay only while running. Orbs bill by the minute and paused Orbs cost nothing, which suits bursty individual use.
• Free runners. You can run Amp on your own machines at no charge, and runners can be shared with your workspace.
• A tuned harness. Amp picks models per task inside its own harness, and its Mac and iOS apps follow the same threads.

Where Nori wins

• Any harness. Amp runs Amp. Nori runs Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and ACP agents, including Amp itself.
• Discord as well as Slack. Nori sessions can be started and steered from either.
• Enterprise infrastructure. Nori Enterprise can run on your own compute, in your cloud or on-prem, with your own IdP (SAML, SCIM, OIDC), LLM gateway, token provider, and memory provider.
• Org skillsets and opinionated defaults. Every session starts with workflow skills for plans, test-driven development, worktrees, and review, plus your org’s skillsets and memories.
• Predictable team bill. A flat plan instead of per-minute compute charges.

When to choose Amp

Choose Amp if you like Amp’s agent, want to start cheaply, work mostly as an individual or a small team, and prefer paying per minute for cloud machines that sleep when idle. Its free runners also make it easy to use your own Mac.

When to choose Nori

Choose Nori if you want Jiro, a ready-to-work engineering teammate with a planning, TDD, and review workflow, if your team uses more than one harness, wants Discord control, needs shared org skillsets and memories, or requires enterprise deployment on your own compute with your own identity and memory providers. See Nori pricing.

How to switch from Amp to Nori

1. Start the free 30-day trial; it includes 5 runtimes and needs no card.
2. Connect the same Claude or ChatGPT subscription or API keys you use with Amp.
3. Keep Amp as your harness if you like it, since Nori runs Amp as an ACP agent, or try Claude Code or Codex alongside it.
4. Recreate scheduled and webhook-driven Orbs as Nori cron and webhook automations.
5. Install Nori in Slack or Discord and move team conventions into an org skillset.

For the full field, see our cloud coding agents comparison, or read Nori vs Factory and Nori vs Cursor.

Frequently asked questions

What are Amp Orbs?

Amp Orbs are cloud machines where Amp's agent runs without supervision. Each new thread gets a fresh Orb with your code, plugins, and tools; Orbs are billed by the minute and cost nothing while paused.

How much do Amp Orbs cost?

As of October 2026, Orbs cost $0.08 to $2.13 per hour depending on size, billed by the minute. Amp's Hobby plan is free with pay-as-you-go Orbs, Individual is $20 a month with 45,000 Orb minutes, Teams adds no extra charge, and Enterprise is custom.

Does Amp charge for tokens?

No. Amp's pricing page says there are no Amp token fees or limits, and you can use your ChatGPT, Claude, and other subscriptions or bring your own keys. Nori also never charges for tokens.

Can I run Amp inside Nori?

Yes. Nori runs Amp as an ACP agent, alongside Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Cursor, and other harnesses, so you can keep Amp and add Nori's Slack and Discord control, automations, and org skillsets.

Does Amp support SSO and SCIM?

Amp lists SAML/OIDC SSO on Teams and SCIM, audit logs, and IP allowlisting on Enterprise. Nori Enterprise brings your own identity provider with SAML, SCIM, or OIDC.

Sources

Competitor facts are as of October 2026 and come from the pages below. Items marked as reported come from third parties, not the vendor.

• Amp: Agents in Orbs announcement (June 30, 2026)
• Amp pricing: plans, no token fees, subscriptions and BYOK, SSO and SCIM
• Amp: What are Orbs, sizes, per-minute prices, runners, webhooks
• Amp manual: Orbs lifecycle, pausing, and sync
• Amp manual: harness and models
• Amp chronicle: Slack, scheduling, Linear, GitHub, and runner updates

Compare every cloud coding agent side by side in our cloud coding agents comparison, or see Nori pricing.