Windsurf vs Cursor (2026): Pricing, Agent Mode Compared

Windsurf and Cursor are still the two names people mean when they say "AI code editor," but windsurf vs cursor is a slightly different question in August 2026 than it was a year ago, because Windsurf itself has changed. Cursor remains an independent, VS Code-based editor from Anysphere on a credit-metered pricing model. Windsurf was acquired by Cognition (maker of the AI agent Devin) in July 2025 and rebranded Devin Desktop in June 2026. If you're evaluating "Windsurf" today, you're evaluating Devin Desktop, the old Windsurf codebase with Cognition's agent stack layered in. Cursor suits teams that want a tool that isn't mid-rebrand; Devin Desktop suits teams that want tighter integration with Cognition's cloud agents. Below is what's actually documented, what's still murky, and where to verify before committing a team to either.

The short version

Cursor is a standalone AI-first fork of VS Code from Anysphere, priced on a credit system with a Hobby free tier and Pro starting at $20/month. Its Tab autocomplete runs on an in-house model tuned for edit prediction, and Agent mode gives you a choice of frontier models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI, plus Anysphere's own Composer model for faster routine edits, per Cursor's pricing page. Windsurf, now Devin Desktop, is Cognition's editor after the acquisition and rename documented in Devin's desktop changelog. It also runs Free and Pro ($20/month) tiers, with unlimited-feeling Tab-style autocomplete even on the free plan, and it leans on Cognition's own coding models alongside Claude, GPT, and Gemini access on paid tiers. The practical difference now is less about editor mechanics and more about which company's roadmap you're betting on.

What actually changed with Windsurf

This part is worth getting precise about, since a lot of older comparison posts still describe a "Windsurf" that no longer exists as an independent product. Cognition, the startup behind the autonomous coding agent Devin, announced a deal to acquire Windsurf on July 14, 2025, per TechCrunch's reporting. The deal came together fast: Google had just hired away Windsurf's CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen, and several research leads in a licensing arrangement, and Cognition stepped in that same weekend to acquire the rest of the company, its IP, product, and remaining staff.

Cognition initially said Windsurf would keep operating as a standalone product. That held for about eleven months. On June 2, 2026, the desktop app was renamed Devin Desktop, folding the old Windsurf editor into Cognition's broader Devin lineup rather than keeping it a separate brand. Download "Windsurf" today and windsurf.com now redirects to Cognition's site; the app itself ships under the Devin name.

One detail is genuinely unsettled in public reporting: whether Windsurf's original agentic layer, Cascade, is still the primary in-editor agent or has been superseded by Cognition's "Devin Local" terminal agent. Sources disagree as of this writing, some describe Cascade as retired in mid-2026, others describe it as still active alongside Devin Local. Rather than guess, check the in-app agent picker before standardizing a team on either workflow, since this is exactly the kind of detail that can flip between point releases.

Pricing comparison

Both tools use tiered subscriptions with a metered component rather than flat unlimited usage. Treat the numbers below as a snapshot; both companies have changed prices at least once in the past year.

• Cursor Hobby - free. Limited agent requests and Tab completions, enough to trial the workflow.

• Cursor Pro - $20/month. Extended agent limits, frontier model access (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI) plus Anysphere's in-house Composer and Tab models, MCP and hooks support.

• Cursor Pro+ / Ultra - commonly reported around $60/month and $200/month respectively (roughly 3x and 20x Pro's agent limits), though Cursor's own pricing page does not spell out exact dollar figures for these two tiers as plainly as it does Pro, so confirm the current number directly.

• Cursor Teams - $40/user/month for centralized billing, shared context, and admin controls, with a Premium tier at roughly 5x Standard's agent limits.

• Devin Desktop (Windsurf) Free - $0. Effectively unlimited autocomplete with no hard credit cap, but limited frontier chat/agent model access.

• Devin Desktop (Windsurf) Pro - $20/month, raised from $15 in March 2026 explicitly to match Cursor's Pro price. This is where frontier model access (Claude, GPT, Gemini) and cloud agent sessions open up.

• Devin Desktop (Windsurf) Max/Teams - widely reported around $200/month for the top individual tier, with Teams combining a base fee plus a per-seat charge. We could not load Cognition's own pricing page during this research pass (it returned a server error on request), so treat this figure as third-party-reported, not confirmed, until you check devin.ai/pricing directly.

• Enterprise - custom pricing on both sides, with SSO, audit logs, and (on the Devin Desktop side) a self-hosted inference option aimed at regulated industries.

Agent mode and autocomplete

Cursor's agent mode lets you pick a model per task from a fairly wide roster: Anthropic's Claude line, OpenAI's GPT line, Google's Gemini line, and xAI's Grok models are all selectable, alongside Anysphere's own Composer model, tuned to keep routine agent work fast without burning premium-model credits. Tab, Cursor's autocomplete, runs on a separate in-house model trained specifically on edit patterns rather than raw generation, which is part of why it tends to feel faster than routing every keystroke through a general chat model.

Devin Desktop's approach mirrors this split: a lightweight, effectively unlimited autocomplete available even on the free tier, and a heavier agent layer (formerly branded Cascade, increasingly associated with Devin Local and Cognition's cloud-based Devin agents) that handles multi-file changes, terminal commands, and longer planning chains once you're on a paid plan. Frontier model access, meaning pointing the agent at Claude, GPT, or Gemini specifically, is gated behind Pro on both products now that Windsurf's Pro price matches Cursor's.

If your workflow leans on short, fast completions, both handle that well and the free tiers are usable for real work. If you lean on multi-step agent runs and cloud or background agent sessions, that's where the paid tiers earn their price on either side, and it's worth trialing both against your actual codebase rather than a toy repo before deciding.

Comparison table

• Company / ownership: Cursor - Anysphere, independent. Devin Desktop (Windsurf) - Cognition, acquired July 2025, rebranded June 2026.

• Base editor: Cursor - fork of VS Code. Devin Desktop - fork of VS Code, inherited from Windsurf.

• Free tier: Cursor Hobby - limited agent/Tab usage. Devin Desktop Free - unlimited-feeling autocomplete, limited frontier model access.

• Entry paid tier: Cursor Pro $20/month. Devin Desktop Pro $20/month, raised from $15 in March 2026.

• Top individual tier: Cursor Ultra, reported around $200/month. Devin Desktop Max, reported around $200/month.

• Team pricing: Cursor Teams $40/user/month. Devin Desktop Teams - base fee plus per-seat charge, exact figure unverified on the official page during this research pass.

• Model access (paid tiers): Both offer Claude, GPT, and Gemini model families plus an in-house model for cheaper routine work.

• Autocomplete engine: Cursor - in-house Tab model tuned on edit patterns. Devin Desktop - Windsurf-derived autocomplete, unlimited even on free.

• Agent branding: Cursor - Agent mode plus Bugbot for review. Devin Desktop - Cascade/Devin Local for in-editor work, Devin cloud agents for background sessions.

• Notable 2025-2026 event: Cursor - no ownership change. Devin Desktop - acquisition, leadership departure to Google, and full rebrand within about 11 months.

Which one to actually pick

If organizational stability matters to your decision, that favors Cursor right now, not because Cursor is objectively better, but because it hasn't changed owners or names in the past year. A rebrand doesn't mean the product got worse; it does mean documentation, extensions, and community answers written before June 2026 may reference a product name that no longer matches what you install. For a decision independent of which specific IDE you pick, our breakdown of terminal-based versus IDE-based AI coding agents covers that tradeoff.

If you're choosing on price and daily usability rather than corporate history, both land at the same $20/month Pro price now, with similar model access. Our guide to the best AI coding agent for solo developers digs into that comparison at the individual-contributor level, and Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex compared brings a CLI-first agent into the same frame for a third data point.

For where both tools sit relative to the rest of the category, our AI coding tools hub tracks the cluster as a whole, and if you want the underlying architecture either editor's agent claims rest on, what an AI agent framework actually is is useful background before taking either product's agent marketing at face value.

FAQ

Is Windsurf still called Windsurf?

Not as a standalone product name. Cognition, which acquired Windsurf in July 2025, renamed the desktop app Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. The underlying editor is the same VS Code-based codebase; the branding, download names, and marketing now sit under Cognition's Devin product line, and windsurf.com redirects to Cognition's site.

Is Cursor or Devin Desktop (Windsurf) cheaper?

Their entry paid tiers now match: both charge $20/month for a Pro plan with frontier model access. Windsurf's Pro was $15/month until March 2026, when it was raised to match Cursor exactly. Free tiers differ in shape more than headline cost: Cursor's Hobby tier limits both agent and Tab usage, while Devin Desktop's free tier offers effectively unlimited autocomplete but gates frontier chat models behind Pro.

Which has a better agent mode for large codebases?

Neither has a public, apples-to-apples benchmark we could verify for this comparison, and both changed their agent architecture within the past year (Cursor's Composer model, Windsurf/Devin Desktop's shift from Cascade toward Devin Local and cloud agents). The honest answer is to trial both against your own repository rather than trust a generic ranking, since agent performance depends heavily on codebase size, language, and how much context the tool can index.

Do both support Claude, GPT, and Gemini models?

Yes, on paid tiers. Cursor lists Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, and xAI models as selectable in Agent mode alongside its own Composer and Tab models. Devin Desktop offers Claude, GPT, and Gemini access starting on its Pro tier, alongside Cognition's own SWE-series coding models. Exact model version numbers on both sides change often enough that checking each tool's in-app model picker beats trusting a snapshot list.

Should Windsurf's ownership change worry me for long-term support?

It's a reasonable question to ask before committing a team, not something to dismiss or overstate. Cognition kept Windsurf's product running and continued shipping updates through the acquisition and rebrand, and the June 2026 name change was a rebrand rather than a shutdown. That said, one acquisition and one full rename in under twelve months is more churn than Cursor has had, and it's fair to factor that into a decision if editor continuity matters to your team.