In an announcement published on 12 November 2026, Amp said it is dropping the Dial. The Dial let users choose how demanding a task was from four modes (low, medium, high and ultra), and by default Amp decided which model ran behind each mode.

Amp said billing was the reason for the change. Users can connect their own subscriptions and API keys to Amp, and Amp is then free. Since that became possible, the model has also determined who pays. The medium mode, for example, could use a Claude subscription, a ChatGPT subscription or Amp credits, and users could not easily see which of them was paying.

Amp stresses that users are not choosing just a model. The company builds a harness around each model: the program that steers the agent, gives the model its tools and runs its steps. Each model in the selector has a system prompt and tools optimised for it, and both change with the model.

Switching models mid-thread comes at a cost

A thread is a single conversation with the agent. Under the Dial, a thread stayed in its original mode and model because, Amp said, a model became confused when continuing a conversation started by another model. The company now judges that models recover from this well enough. The new model takes over from the user’s next message, and the conversation history records the switch.

Switching is not free. The prompt cache stores text that has already been processed so that it does not have to be processed again. The cache is specific to each model, however, so the new model reads the whole thread without it, and the first message after a switch costs more. Threads run by a plugin agent stay with that agent.

New threads start by default with Staff Pick, Amp’s own recommendation. It is currently Claude Opus 5.5, and Amp says it will change the recommendation if another model performs better in its benchmarks. The exception is users who had set a default mode for the Dial. In the settings, users can choose to start new threads with the last model selected or with one fixed model.

Dial settings do not carry over

Existing threads continue with the model they started with. Users who had changed a mode’s model in Tune Modes now need to pick that model in the selector. Custom agents added under Build Dial are listed under Other Models.

With default settings, the modes used these models: low ran GLM-5.3-Flash, medium Claude Opus 5.5, high GPT-6 Astra and ultra Claude Fable 5.2, which is now under Other Models. Users can pin models under Settings → Model Selector, and Amp’s Model Selector documentation gives more detailed instructions.