Last updated: November 1, 2026
Amp orbs gained three upgrades in late October 2026. Self-hosted orbs (October 22) let you run Amp agents on your own Docker, Kubernetes, E2B or other compute. Personal providers (October 28) remove the workspace requirement. macOS Satellites (October 29, beta) attach a cloud Mac with Xcode for iOS and Mac app work.
Contents
- What’s new in Amp orbs
- How Amp orbs work and what they cost
- Self-hosted Amp orbs
- How to set up a self-hosted orb provider
- macOS Satellites for iOS and Mac apps
- Amp-hosted vs self-hosted orbs vs macOS Satellites
- Workflows and limitations
- Frequently asked questions
What’s new in Amp orbs
Amp is an AI coding agent whose threads can run in orbs: remote machines with your repository, tools and services.
| Date (2026) | Release | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| October 22 | Self-Hosted Orbs | Run orbs on your own infrastructure through a dispatch program |
| October 27 | Amp on Android | An Android app for following and steering orb threads |
| October 28 | Your Own Self-Hosted Orbs | Personal orb providers in Settings, Orbs, without a workspace |
| October 29 | macOS Satellites | Cloud Macs attached to a Linux orb for Xcode builds and simulators (beta) |
| October 29 | Enterprise billing change | Enterprise workspaces start paying standard orb prices for self-hosted orbs |
How Amp orbs work and what they cost
According to Amp’s orb sizes and costs documentation, orbs are billed by the minute and a paused orb costs nothing. An orb pauses 5 minutes after the agent finishes or 20 minutes after your last interaction, whichever comes later. These are idle timeouts, not a cap on run time.
| Size | CPUs | Memory | Standard price |
|---|---|---|---|
| a1.tiny | 1 | 2 GB | $0.08/hour |
| a1.small | 2 | 4 GB | $0.17/hour |
| a1.medium (project default) | 4 | 8 GB | $0.33/hour |
| a1.large | 8 | 16 GB | $0.66/hour |
| a1.xxlarge | 16 | 32 GB | $1.32/hour |
| a1.3xlarge (Gigawatt and Enterprise only) | 16 | 44 GB | $2.13/hour |
Every size includes 60 GB of disk. After a burst of 20 metered orbs, Amp starts one new orb every five minutes.
Self-hosted Amp orbs
The self-hosted orbs documentation describes the model: you run amp orb provider on a machine in your network, it connects out to Amp, and it waits for spawn, pause and delete jobs. Only outbound HTTPS is needed, and Amp never connects in. Your dispatch program receives each job and creates, resumes, stops or removes a machine on your platform.
Amp publishes example dispatch programs for Docker, E2B, Kubernetes (a Helm chart for GKE, EKS and AKS), Apple containers, Modal, Vercel, Daytona, exe.dev and Boat. The platforms differ in what survives a pause. Amp-hosted orbs keep memory, disk and project snapshots. E2B and exe.dev keep memory and disk. Docker, Kubernetes, Modal, Vercel and Daytona keep disk but not memory, so terminal sessions and desktop apps are gone when the orb wakes and services restart on demand.
Pricing: the launch post says self-hosted orbs are free for individuals and teams. Since October 29, Enterprise workspaces pay 100% of the standard price, billed by the minute while the orb is connected to a thread. For sizes that do not match the table above, Amp calculates the hourly price as CPUs times $0.0504 plus GB of memory times $0.0162.
How to set up a self-hosted orb provider
- Write a dispatch program (for example
dispatch.sh) that readsORB_OPERATION,ORB_IDandORB_IMAGEand handlesspawn,pauseanddelete. Start from Amp’s example for your platform. - On spawn, start the machine from Amp’s orb image (or your own Linux image) and run
amp orb bootstrapinside it withORB_TOKENset. - Add a provider. Workspace admins use workspace settings and add a Custom Orb Provider; since October 28, anyone can add a personal provider in Settings, Orbs.
- Copy the provider token and export it as
AMP_ORB_PROVIDER_TOKEN. - Run
chmod +x dispatch.sh, thenamp orb provider ./dispatch.sh. - Create a new thread on ampcode.com or in the macOS or iOS app, expand Orb, and choose your provider under Self-Hosted.
Amp says it built self-hosted orbs mainly for enterprises with rules on where code runs, internal network needs or custom hardware, and that Amp-hosted orbs still give the best experience.
macOS Satellites for iOS and Mac apps
macOS Satellites solve a gap for Apple developers. Per the macOS Satellites documentation, your thread keeps running on its Linux orb, and when work needs macOS, Amp starts a fresh cloud Mac with Xcode, the iOS simulators and Homebrew in about 30 seconds.
Amp keeps editing on the orb. Before each command on the Mac, the orb copies over what changed, while files that Git ignores, such as a local .env, stay on the orb. Screenshots, logs and build output come back to the thread. The thread’s Mac tab streams the screen.
| Mac size | CPUs | Memory | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| mac.medium (default) | 6 | 14 GB | $2/hour |
| mac.large | 12 | 28 GB | $4/hour |
Macs use the macos-27 image by default, with Xcode 26.6 and 27.0 to 27.2 and iOS 27.0 to 27.2 simulators. Older macos-26 and macos-15 images are available per project in Settings, Satellites, and Amp picks a matching image when your project pins a version in .xcode-version.
A Mac stays up for 20 minutes after Amp last used it, so a follow-up reuses its build cache. After that it is deleted with everything on it. You can check Mac time and cost in Settings, Usage, Satellites.
Amp-hosted vs self-hosted orbs vs macOS Satellites
| Feature | Amp-hosted orb | Self-hosted orb | macOS Satellite |
|---|---|---|---|
| Operating system | Linux | Linux image you run | macOS, attached to a Linux orb |
| Keeps memory on pause | Yes | Depends on platform | No; deleted after 20 idle minutes |
| Price | $0.08 to $2.13/hour | Free except Enterprise | $2 or $4/hour |
| Availability | All plans | All workspaces and personal settings | Beta waitlist |
Compare remote agents in our guides to Cline cloud agents and their limits, Devin Desktop 3.11 and Devin Local and the Cursor Agent SDK.
Workflows and limitations
- Fan out cheaply: Amp’s docs suggest prompts such as “Start four low-mode threads in a1.tiny orbs. Give each one a quarter of this test matrix and report the combined results here.”
- Ask for proof: tell the agent to show that its change works, for example “run the app in the iOS Simulator and show me a screenshot.”
- Size per task: from the CLI, pass
--orb-sizewithamp -ox; the default for new projects is a1.medium.
Limitations: macOS Satellites are beta and gated by a waitlist; Mac time draws on plan usage at a higher rate and then on credits; self-hosted platforms without memory snapshots lose running processes on pause; and Amp supports only its side of the self-hosted contract, not every infrastructure you plug in.
For more agent tooling, see our Claude Code power-user guide and GitHub Copilot Automations guide.
Frequently asked questions
What are Amp orbs?
Orbs are remote machines where Amp coding agents work without using your computer. Each orb thread gets a fresh, isolated environment with your code and tools, keeps working while your laptop is closed, and pauses when idle so it costs nothing while asleep.
How much do Amp orbs cost?
Amp-hosted orbs are billed by the minute at standard hourly prices that range from $0.08 per hour for a1.tiny to $2.13 per hour for a1.3xlarge. A paused orb costs nothing. Self-hosted orbs are free on Hobby, Individual and Teams plans.
Are self-hosted Amp orbs free?
Yes for individuals and teams. Amp says self-hosted orbs stay free on the Hobby, Individual and Teams plans. Since October 29, 2026, Enterprise workspaces pay the standard orb price for them, billed by the minute while the orb is connected to a thread.
What are Amp macOS Satellites?
macOS Satellites are cloud Macs that a Linux orb can start when a task needs macOS, such as building and testing an iOS or Mac app. A Mac is ready in about 30 seconds.
How much do macOS Satellites cost?
A mac.medium with 6 CPUs and 14 GB of memory costs $2 per hour, and a mac.large with 12 CPUs and 28 GB costs $4 per hour. Usage comes out of your plan’s orb usage at a higher rate, then out of Amp credits.
How do I get access to macOS Satellites?
They are in beta. Click Join Waitlist under Mac Satellites in Settings, Experimental Features. Amp emails you when you are in, and clicking Move Me Up once a day moves you up the line.
Sources
- Amp Chronicle: Self-Hosted Orbs (October 22, 2026)
- Amp Chronicle: macOS Satellites (October 29, 2026)
- Amp documentation: Self-Hosted Orbs
- Amp documentation: macOS Satellites
- Amp documentation: Orb Sizes and Costs
Image: “Technician with laptop working on server rack at NERSC” by Derrick Coetzee, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons. Resized. Illustrative only; not Amp infrastructure. FreeAnswers is not affiliated with Amp.
Related guide: Cursor Remote Control guide: steer local agents from the iOS app.
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