Amp or Octomind? A Persistent Amp Alternative for Long-Running Agents

Amp and Octomind both understand a fact that many coding assistants miss: a background agent needs a computer, not just a chat endpoint.

Amp answers with orbs — isolated cloud machines provisioned per thread. Threads are saveable and shareable, the CLI and VS Code surfaces are polished, and Sourcegraph moves fast when new frontier models land. Octomind answers with durable Linux machines attached to an open-source runtime: a catalog of 36 hosted models you pick from yourself, persistent files and sessions, chat connectors, and scheduled Routines.

Architecturally, the two are closer than you'd expect. The decision turns on control. Amp is an opinionated, closed product that routes models for you and gives each thread an orb. Octomind hands you the runtime, the model switch, the machine, the storage, and the automation model directly.

Quick verdict

Amp is strongest when you want a coding agent company to make the model and environment decisions for you. Octomind is the stronger Amp alternative when you want an inspectable runtime, explicit model choice, durable machine state, and automations that reach outside the editor.

Choose Octomind if / choose Amp if

Choose Octomind if

• The agent's files, installed packages, and setup must persist beyond a single thread.
• You want to choose the active model yourself and switch it during a session.
• Apache-2.0 source access matters for auditability, self-hosting, or avoiding runtime lock-in.
• You want every hosted model on a free pay-as-you-go plan before paying for a cloud machine.
• Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, GitHub, or an API should start or continue work on the same machine.
• You need scheduled work that wakes the machine and leaves an explicit run history.

Choose Amp if

• You want a focused coding product with a polished CLI and VS Code workflow.
• Per-thread orbs match your mental model better than long-lived personal machines.
• You prefer Amp to select and route frontier models instead of managing the model choice.
• Fast adoption of newly released models matters more than a stable, user-controlled catalog.
• Saveable and shareable threads are the main collaboration artifact you need.
• You value Sourcegraph's candid engineering culture and are comfortable with proprietary infrastructure.

Both products can move work off your laptop. They disagree about how much of the machinery you should see and control.

What Amp does better

Amp's clearest strength is model adoption speed. The product is deliberately frontier-chasing. Instead of asking users to maintain provider menus and routing rules, Amp combines GPT, Claude, and fast models according to what it thinks each is best at. If you don't want model selection to become a second job, it's a defensible product decision.

Orbs are also excellent. The Amp manual describes an isolated cloud machine per thread, loaded with the code and tools the agent needs. That keeps background work easy to reason about: the unit of conversation and the unit of compute are the same thing. Start a thread locally, move it into an orb, let it continue remotely.

Amp's interface focus helps too. It doesn't try to be every kind of business agent or a general automation platform. The CLI, VS Code integration, threads, and orbs form one coherent developer workflow. If your day happens in a repository and you want an opinionated agent rather than a runtime toolkit, that narrowness is a strength.

The company's writing is another advantage. Amp has documented changes to its free program in public, including experiments that didn't last. That doesn't erase the instability discussed later, but it makes the product easier to evaluate than one whose limits change silently.

Subscription linking can also improve the economics if you already pay for ChatGPT. Amp says linked subscriptions and third-party keys can skip the extra per-token layer in supported cases. If your existing subscriptions match its paths, that's a genuine convenience.

What Octomind does better

Octomind makes the runtime itself portable. The core is Apache 2.0, so the same agent definition can run from the CLI on your hardware, in CI through pipes, as a daemon, over WebSocket or ACP, or on the managed cloud. Using the cloud doesn't mean accepting a closed local harness.

In the cloud, each agent gets a real Linux machine. Its filesystem, installed tools, and session data persist through suspension; shared storage can be mounted across an account's machines. Docker workloads run fine, and paid users can bring a custom image based on Octomind's. An Amp orb is a strong per-thread environment; Octomind's advantage is treating the machine and its state as a first-class resource you keep using across projects.

Model control is explicit. The Hub currently lists 36 models across Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, Kimi, GLM, and other families. /model provider:model switches the active model during a session and saves the selection into the session file. You never have to hope the router picked the model you wanted for a security review, a cheap batch edit, or a vision task.

That control extends to cost. Octomind's free plan is the hub: every model from your own tools, pay as you go at the provider's price plus 5%. Cloud machines start with Pro at $50 a month, $20 the first month. Each paid plan includes a monthly usage allowance equal to its price, then draws on prepaid credits; machines bill for their actual work and suspend when idle. Amp publishes its paid bundles too, but Octomind exposes more of the model-by-model rate card — and keeps free self-serve model access open.

Octomind also reaches beyond CLI and VS Code. Telegram, Slack, WhatsApp, and GitHub can connect to cloud machines and sessions. The web panel and REST API expose the same system, while MCP, WebSocket, and ACP cover tool and agent integration. That matters when a background task starts from an issue comment, continues from your phone, and finishes in the panel.

Scheduled Routines are the final difference. A Routine can wake a suspended machine, run a shell check before spending model tokens, execute with persistent state, log “nothing to do” or a failure instead of silently disappearing, and deliver the result. Amp excels at moving a thread into the background. Octomind adds standing work that can start without anyone opening a thread at all.

Documented pain points of Amp

The biggest sourced concern is the stability of free access. Amp launched an ad-supported free program, then announced $10 per day in free credits, later closed new admissions because Amp Free was full, and then removed the ads. As of September 2026, the Amp pricing page listed Megawatt, Gigawatt, education, and enterprise options — but no self-serve free tier.

That history doesn't make the paid product unreliable. It does mean you shouldn't plan a team rollout around free access returning in any particular form. To Amp's credit, it documented the changes itself. The honest conclusion is modest: free availability has moved repeatedly and is currently closed to newcomers.

The second trade-off is model agency. Amp markets multi-model routing, but you don't pin the exact model the way a provider-agnostic CLI usually allows. Plenty of people will prefer that simplicity. Teams with model-specific compliance, reproducibility, budget, or evaluation requirements may find it restrictive.

Finally, Amp is proprietary. You can use BYO keys and linked subscriptions, but the runtime, routing decisions, and orb service aren't an Apache-licensed stack you can fork. That's not a hidden defect — it's a purchasing boundary worth deciding on before your workflows depend on it.

FAQ

Does Amp give every thread a cloud machine?

Yes. Amp's orbs are isolated cloud machines provisioned per thread — a substantial advantage over coding assistants whose background mode is just an opaque remote container. Octomind instead gives you durable account machines that hold multiple sessions and persistent files.

Is Amp free?

Not for new self-serve users, as of September 2026. Amp's free program was reworked several times and admissions closed. The published paid entry is Megawatt at $20 per month; education is listed at $10. Check Amp's current page before purchasing — availability has changed before.

Can I select a specific model in Amp?

Amp is multi-model but opinionated: it routes among its selected models per task rather than offering the pinned model menu Octomind exposes. In Octomind, /model changes the active provider and model inside a live session.

Are Octomind machines the same as Amp orbs?

They solve related problems with different ownership models. An orb is tied to an Amp thread. An Octomind machine is a durable Linux environment — files, installs, shared storage, sessions — reachable through multiple channels and scheduled Routines.

Which is better for background coding?

Choose Amp when a saveable coding thread with a per-thread orb is exactly the workflow you want. Choose Octomind when background work has to persist as a reusable machine, switch models explicitly, take work from several channels, or start on a schedule.

Want a cloud agent with a runtime you can inspect? Start with Pro — $20 your first month.