Cursor vs Windsurf
Cursor and Windsurf side by side: what each one is, verified plan pricing and install commands where we have them, and the full review of each.
Full decision guide
This page is the quick side-by-side. For current models, pricing, workflows and a decision framework, read our maintained Cursor vs Windsurf guide.
Cursor
EssentialAI-native code editor forked from VS Code, now sold as part of The X Subscription. Agent edits multiple files at once and Tab autocomplete predicts your next edit. Plus is $8/mo (Cursor's own Grok and Composer models only); Premium at $30/mo adds third-party models at API list price.
Windsurf
AI-native IDE built by Codeium, acquired by Cognition in 2025 and renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Devin Local, the agent that succeeded Cascade, handles multi-file edits. Free plan; Pro is $20/mo.
At a glance
| Field | | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | AI Coding | AI Coding |
| Website | cursor.sh | windsurf.com |
| Pricing | Free - $0/mo: limited Agent and Chat usage; Plus - $8/mo ($80/yr): Cursor's own models only (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, Composer 2.5) at fixed settings; no Auto, Cloud Agents, Bugbot, third-party models or own API keys; Premium - $30/mo ($300/yr): 4x Plus usage, Cloud Agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot, third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit; Super - $100/mo ($1,000/yr): 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times; Ultra - $200/mo ($2,000/yr): 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models; Teams - $30, $100, or $200 per seat/mo; third-party models at API list price plus a $0.25 per million token Cursor Token Rate; Enterprise - custom pricing, pooled usage | No separate Windsurf plan - windsurf.com/pricing redirects to devin.ai/pricing, and the editor is sold as Devin Desktop on Devin's plans (see the Devin tool page or /coding-agent-plans/devin) |
| Install | curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash or irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex | sudo apt install devin-desktop or sudo dnf install -y devin-desktop |
| Models | Paid plans include a weekly usage pool, shared with Grok, for Cursor's own models: Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5. Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), GPT-5.6, Gemini 4 Argon and 3.x, and Meta Muse Wonder are third-party models billed at API list price from prepaid credit on Premium and above; individual plans get Auto in Cost mode, while Teams and Enterprise can use Cursor Router's Balance and Intelligence modes. | Pick a model from the dropdown under the agent input: Cognition's SWE-2 and SWE-1.7, Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, and Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, Sol, and Luna, Gemini 4 Argon, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, or the Adaptive router. Cognition recommends Fusion, which pairs a frontier lead model with a cheaper sidekick. Free plan users only get SWE-1.6. |
| Last verified | October 25, 2026 | October 25, 2026 |
In Depth
Cursor
Cursor is a fork of VS Code rebuilt around AI. The killer feature is Composer - you describe a change in natural language and it edits multiple files simultaneously with a diff view. Tab autocomplete goes beyond single-line suggestions, predicting multi-line edits based on your recent changes. It indexes your entire codebase for context and supports OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, Cursor models, and custom API keys. Plans are Free, Plus $8/mo, Premium $30/mo, Super $100/mo, and Ultra $200/mo; Claude, GPT, and Gemini are billed at API list price on Premium and above, and the old Pro and Pro+ plans continue only for existing customers. I use Cursor for visual editing alongside Claude Code for CLI-driven autonomous work.
Windsurf
Windsurf is an AI-native IDE originally built by Codeium as a direct competitor to Cursor. Cognition acquired it in 2025 and now sells the editor as Devin Desktop, on the same plans as Devin Cloud and the Devin CLI. Its agent is now Devin Local, which succeeded Cascade and runs the same harness as the Devin CLI, with subagents and sandboxing - an agentic mode that reads your codebase, plans changes across multiple files, and executes them step by step with a diff preview. It supports Claude, GPT, and Codeium's own models. The free plan includes unlimited Tab completions and inline edits plus a light agent quota, and Pro is $20/mo. Windsurf excels at multi-file refactors and has strong context awareness across large codebases. It's VS Code-compatible, so extensions and keybindings carry over seamlessly.
FAQ
Answers taken from each tool's verified fact sheet, with the date it was last checked.
How much does Cursor cost?
As of October 25, 2026: Free - $0/mo: limited Agent and Chat usage; Plus - $8/mo ($80/yr): Cursor's own models only (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, Composer 2.5) at fixed settings; no Auto, Cloud Agents, Bugbot, third-party models or own API keys; Premium - $30/mo ($300/yr): 4x Plus usage, Cloud Agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot, third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit; Super - $100/mo ($1,000/yr): 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times; Ultra - $200/mo ($2,000/yr): 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models; Teams - $30, $100, or $200 per seat/mo; third-party models at API list price plus a $0.25 per million token Cursor Token Rate; Enterprise - custom pricing, pooled usage. Source: Cursor pricing, Cursor docs: Models and Pricing, Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans, Cursor CLI installation, Cursor changelog.
How do I install Cursor?
Official install commands as of October 25, 2026: curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash or irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex.
Which models does Cursor use?
As of October 25, 2026: Paid plans include a weekly usage pool, shared with Grok, for Cursor's own models: Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5. Claude (Opus, Sonnet, Haiku 5.5, Fable 5.1), GPT-5.6, Gemini 4 Argon and 3.x, and Meta Muse Wonder are third-party models billed at API list price from prepaid credit on Premium and above; individual plans get Auto in Cost mode, while Teams and Enterprise can use Cursor Router's Balance and Intelligence modes.
How much does Windsurf cost?
As of October 25, 2026: No separate Windsurf plan - windsurf.com/pricing redirects to devin.ai/pricing, and the editor is sold as Devin Desktop on Devin's plans (see the Devin tool page or /coding-agent-plans/devin). Source: Devin plans and pricing, Install Devin Desktop, Devin Desktop AI models, Devin Desktop changelog, Windsurf to Devin Desktop FAQ.
How do I install Windsurf?
Official install commands as of October 25, 2026: sudo apt install devin-desktop or sudo dnf install -y devin-desktop.
Which models does Windsurf use?
As of October 25, 2026: Pick a model from the dropdown under the agent input: Cognition's SWE-2 and SWE-1.7, Claude Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5, and Fable 5.1, GPT-6 Astra, Sol, and Luna, Gemini 4 Argon, Kimi K3, GLM-5.3, or the Adaptive router. Cognition recommends Fusion, which pairs a frontier lead model with a cheaper sidekick. Free plan users only get SWE-1.6.
