How to Use OpenHands to Build Software with AI Agents
OpenHands is an open-source AI software engineering agent that can write code, run commands, browse the web, and debug projects directly on your machine....
Devin 3 is Cognition’s autonomous AI software engineer. You give it a task in a Slack channel or web console, and it plans the work, writes code, runs tests, and reports back from its own cloud workspace. It is a paid product with usage-based pricing starting around $20 for a small monthly credit allowance.
What is Devin 3?
Devin was the first widely publicized “AI software engineer” when Cognition launched it in 2024. Version 3 pushes toward parallelism: instead of one agent doing one task, you can spin up several Devins on separate workstreams. Each one gets its own shell, editor, and browser inside a sandboxed VM, so a run can install packages, run a dev server, and click through a UI without touching your laptop.
It is not a code-completion tool. You do not pair with it line by line. You delegate and review.
Product Features
- Full dev environment: shell, editor, and browser in a cloud sandbox per task.
- Parallel sessions: run multiple Devin instances at once on independent tasks.
- Slack and IDE handoff: start tasks from Slack, hand off to your editor when you want to take over.
- Long-horizon planning: Devin writes a plan, asks clarifying questions on ambiguity, then executes step by step.
- Repo onboarding: it indexes your codebase so later tasks reuse that context.
Product Highlights
Autonomy is the selling point. Devin keeps working while you sleep, which sounds great until you price it. Cognition bills on compute credits, and a single complex task can burn through a meaningful chunk. Teams that treat it as an unlimited junior engineer get surprised.
When it works, the review burden drops. When it misunderstands a vague prompt, you can waste credits watching it confidently build the wrong thing. Clear, scoped tickets matter more here than with interactive tools.
Use Cases
- Migrating a codebase to a newer framework version across many files.
- Fixing flaky tests and wiring up missing CI steps.
- Building internal tools or scripts that nobody on the team has time for.
- Handling routine dependency upgrades and security patches.
- Prototyping small features end to end before a human refines them.
How much does Devin 3 cost?
Devin uses an ACU (agent compute unit) model. The entry plan starts around $20 per month with a small credit pool, and heavier team plans run into the hundreds. Because credits map to model and compute time, cost scales with task complexity, not seats.
Skip Devin if your work is exploratory or you need tight control over every edit. It fits teams with a backlog of clearly specified, independent tasks.
Quick Summary
- Devin 3 is Cognition’s autonomous AI software engineer, a paid usage-based product.
- It runs tasks in its own cloud VM with shell, editor, and browser access.
- Version 3 supports parallel sessions for independent workstreams.
- Pricing starts near $20/month on an ACU credit model.
- Best for well-scoped backlog tickets, not exploratory or line-by-line coding.
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