Augment Code

Verdict

Choose Augment Code when repository retrieval is the buying reason: its hosted Context Engine works inside Augment’s IDE and CLI agents, as an MCP service for other agents, and across GitHub review and Cosmos automation. The current flat team price is attractive when several developers can share it, but the allowance is metered spend rather than unlimited work. Skip it if you want predictable high-volume individual usage, local-only indexing, or self-serve autocomplete.

Augment Code is now a family of agent surfaces built around one codebase index. Augment Agent works in VS Code and JetBrains; Auggie runs in a terminal; Context Engine MCP can supply retrieval to other agents; Code Review comments on GitHub pull requests; and Cosmos runs longer tasks in hosted or self-hosted environments.

Start with the best AI coding agents guide. For nearby choices, compare Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, Cursor, and Sourcegraph Cody.

Choose the surface by job

What the current price buys

Standard is $20 per month and Business is $100 per month. Each is a flat workspace price for up to 50 seats and includes the same amount as its price in monthly usage: $20 or $100. Included usage and top-ups are pooled across the team. The public page lists no free plan.

That headline price is a budget, not an unlimited subscription. Augment bills LLM input, output, and cache tokens at the model provider’s public API rate, then adds a 40% service fee on LLM usage. Cosmos cloud compute is $0.19 per hour in five-minute increments. Context Engine, model calls, and compute draw from the same allowance; use above it continues through pay-as-you-go top-ups. Augment estimates Context Engine MCP queries at roughly $0.03–$0.06 each, but retrieval volume changes the actual cost.

Standard and Business currently expose the same core product list, so Business mainly buys a larger included pool. For a solo developer, $20 is the entry cost plus overage exposure. For a team, up to 50 seats sharing one balance can make the seat economics unusually favorable, while one heavy agent loop can also drain the shared pool. Set a budget from observed usage rather than converting the allowance into an invented number of tasks.

Context is the product

The Context Engine indexes repository structure, relationships, history, patterns, and connected sources, then retrieves a smaller working set for the model. Its MCP route matters because a team can use Augment retrieval with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, and other compatible clients instead of adopting Augment’s agent everywhere.

The boundary differs by mode. Local MCP watches the active working directory, but the service still meters retrieval under Augment’s hosted pricing. Remote MCP uses the GitHub App, indexes selected repositories’ default branches, and is better suited to cross-repository search or environments without a local checkout. “Local server” describes where Auggie observes the workspace; it does not mean the index and inference stack are wholly local or self-hosted.

Control and recovery differ by surface

In the IDE, normal Agent pauses before terminal commands and external integration calls. Agent Auto can edit files, execute commands, and call MCP tools without those prompts. Actions expose file diffs, command output, and integration results; checkpoints can restore workspace snapshots.

Auggie CLI and Cosmos add a separate policy system with ordered allow, deny, webhook, and script rules. Augment explicitly says those toolPermissions rules are not enforced in the IDE extension. Treat the IDE approval mode, CLI policy, Cosmos environment, and connected MCP servers as separate security decisions. A checkpoint can restore code, but it cannot reverse a database write, sent message, deployed build, or leaked credential.

Cosmos can run in a new Augment-hosted cloud environment or through a daemon on infrastructure you control. Cloud sessions give reproducible isolation and configured egress. A daemon keeps state and reaches whatever its host can reach, so it is useful for VPC systems and custom hardware but needs the same credential and network controls as any local automation.

Privacy boundary

Augment says paid plans exclude AI training on customer data and states that it never trains on proprietary customer code. It also processes codebase context to provide hosted indexing, retrieval, model calls, and connected workflows. The privacy policy says data is stored and processed in the United States by default, can be handled by service providers, and is retained as needed for service, legal, dispute, and enforcement purposes; exact retention periods are not published there.

For sensitive repositories, review which folders are indexed, which GitHub repositories are connected, model and subprocessor terms, default U.S. processing, retention, support access, MCP tools, and Cosmos secrets. Enterprise controls such as customer-managed encryption keys, data residency, SIEM, granular access, audit trails, and SSO appear on the public plan grid, but require contract and tenant verification.

What users report

In a February 2026 Reddit post, u/Kitchen-Spare-1500 said Augment’s Context Engine MCP improved other IDE agents and was easier to run than the alternatives they tried. In a separate thread, u/single_threaded reported better results as codebases grew, while also describing stuck tool calls, repeated review iterations, and keeping cheaper agents as fallbacks after exhausting Augment usage.

Those reports predate the current dollar-based Standard and Business plans, and neither is a controlled quality or cost comparison. We did not run a coding benchmark, inspect a private repository, or validate Augment’s retrieval claims hands-on for this profile.

Who should choose Augment Code

Choose Augment when codebase-wide retrieval has already proven valuable on your repositories and you want to reuse it across IDE, terminal, MCP, review, and delegated agents. Pilot with one representative large repository, track retrieval and total dollar usage, test the exact permission surface, and review generated changes through normal CI and pull-request controls.

Choose a simpler subscription when monthly cost predictability matters more than the hosted Context Engine. The CLI coding-agent shortlist separates terminal tools by control model, and the issue-to-PR workflow shows how to evaluate delegated work without relying on vendor demos.

Sources & further reading

• Augment pricing and plan comparison
• Token-based pricing
• Augment product introduction
• Augment IDE Agent controls
• Auggie CLI installation and platforms
• Auggie and Cosmos tool permissions
• Context Engine MCP
• Cosmos environment choices
• Augment Code Review
• Security and privacy overview
• Augment privacy policy
• Next Edit and Completions sunset
• Community report on Context Engine MCP
• Community report on large-codebase use and cost