October 2026 AI shutdowns and acquisitions: what changed and what to use instead

October 2026 was a busy month for consolidation in AI tools, especially coding agents. If you rely on any of these, here is what the companies themselves (or reporting on their announcements) say, and which BotPickr listings are reasonable alternatives. Dates are as announced; check each source for the latest.

Google Jules is winding down

Google is sunsetting Jules, the coding agent it launched in December 2024, and says it will bring the learnings into its Antigravity platform (as reported by The Verge). What to use instead: Google Antigravity, which has a $0 individual plan with basic weekly limits and higher limits through Google AI Pro and Ultra, according to its pricing page.

Ona Cloud (formerly Gitpod) shuts down on October 31, 2026

Ona says its team joined OpenAI to work on Codex, that Ona Cloud winds down on October 31, 2026, that new signups have closed, and that environments do not move to Codex automatically. Ona says it will refund October payments and unused purchased credits. Do now: save any code and data you want to keep. What to use instead: OpenAI Codex Cloud (included from ChatGPT Plus, per OpenAI's Codex pricing page), or OpenHands if you want an open-source option.

Harness acquired Augment Code assets

Harness announced it acquired select Augment Code assets, including Cosmos, the Auggie CLI and the Code Context Engine, with the team joining Harness. If you use Augment, watch for account and pricing emails. Alternatives on BotPickr: Claude Code, Cursor, GitHub Copilot.

Chroma is joining Replit

Chroma, the vector database many AI apps use for memory and search, announced on October 23, 2026 that it signed an agreement to join Replit. Its post says open-source Chroma continues and has a section on the impact for Chroma Cloud customers; read it for timelines. If you self-host: nothing changes today. Related tools: Replit Agent, AnythingLLM, RAGFlow.

Character.AI filed for Chapter 11

Character.AI said it started a voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy process to run a court-supervised sale of the company. The service is still running. If you use it: export anything you want to keep and review its updates. Alternatives: SillyTavern (open source, runs locally) or AI Dungeon.

A checklist for any tool that changes hands

1. Export your data, prompts and history now, while export still works.
2. Check billing: cancel renewals you no longer need and note refund terms from the vendor's own post.
3. Move one real task to the alternative and compare before switching everything.
4. Update any automations, API keys or integrations that point at the old service.

I use [OLD TOOL] for [WHAT I USE IT FOR]. It is shutting down or changing ownership.
Here is what I rely on it for: [LIST FEATURES].
The alternatives I am considering: [TOOL A], [TOOL B].
Make a migration checklist: what to export, what to rebuild, what to test, and in what order. Flag any feature that may not exist in the alternatives as [VERIFY].

Tools mentioned

Listings link to each tool's official site. Prices change often; confirm on the vendor's page.

Sources

Factual claims in this article come from these pages. We have not tested every tool mentioned.

1. The Verge: Google is sunsetting its AI coding agent, Jules ↗
2. Google Antigravity: Pricing ↗
3. Ona: Ona Cloud is shutting down on October 31, 2026 ↗
4. OpenAI Developers: Codex pricing ↗
5. Harness: Harness acquires Augment Code to advance the Autonomous SDLC ↗
6. Chroma: Chroma is joining Replit ↗
7. Character.AI: An update on Character.AI ↗

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