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

Updated 21 October 2026: pricing and agent details below were rechecked against Cursor's pricing page and Cognition's billing and changelog documentation. Cursor's plan lineup has changed, and the Cascade question is now answered.

Windsurf and Cursor are still the two names people mean when they say "AI code editor," but windsurf vs cursor is a different question now than it was a year ago, because Windsurf itself has changed. Cursor remains an independent, VS Code-based editor from Anysphere. 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 documented, 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. Its pricing page now lists Free, Plus, Premium, Super, Ultra, Teams and Enterprise plans, with usage shared in a pool. Windsurf, now Devin Desktop, is Cognition's editor after the acquisition and rename documented in Devin's desktop changelog. Cognition's self-serve billing documentation lists Free, Pro ($20/month), Max ($200/month) and Teams plans, and says Devin Desktop is included on Pro and Max. The practical difference is less about editor mechanics and more about which company's roadmap you're betting on, and what the plan you buy actually covers.

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 that was unsettled earlier is now documented. Devin Desktop's changelog says, in version 3.9.19: "Cascade has been removed. Devin Local is now the only agent available in Devin Desktop." A later entry, version 3.10.23, says some legacy Cascade entry points are removed. The changelog does not carry dates, so check the version you have installed.

Pricing comparison

Both tools use tiered subscriptions with a metered component rather than flat unlimited usage. Treat the numbers below as a snapshot taken on 21 October 2026; both companies have changed plans more than once in the past year.

• Cursor Free - $0. Limited agent requests and limited Chat requests.

• Cursor Plus - $8/month. A shared usage pool, and the page says "Only Grok models are available on this plan."

• Cursor Premium - $30/month, marked "Most popular". Four times Plus usage, cloud agents and automations, and third-party models at API list price, billed separately.

• Cursor Super - $100/month. Fifteen times Plus usage and priority model access at peak times.

• Cursor Ultra - $200/month. Fifty times Plus usage and the earliest access to products and models.

• Cursor Teams - $30 or more per user per month, with centralized billing, usage analytics and SSO.

• Devin Desktop (Windsurf) Free - $0. Limited Devin usage, plus Devin Review and DeepWiki.

• Devin Desktop Pro - $20/month. A daily and weekly quota shared with Devin sessions and the Devin CLI, with Devin Desktop included.

• Devin Desktop Max - $200/month. A larger weekly quota with no daily cap, with Devin Desktop included.

• Devin Teams - $80/month minimum, with full seats at $40/month each (Devin Desktop included) and free flex seats that do not include Devin Desktop.

• Enterprise - custom pricing on both sides.

Agent mode and autocomplete

Cursor describes its plans around a shared usage pool. Its pricing page says only Grok models are available on the Plus plan, and that third-party models on Premium and above are billed separately at API list price. The page we read does not describe Tab autocomplete or Agent mode in detail, so check Cursor's documentation for current model lists and limits rather than relying on an older snapshot.

Devin Desktop's approach is a split between a lightweight autocomplete and a heavier agent layer. According to its changelog the old Cascade agent is gone and Devin Local is the only agent in the editor, with Cognition's cloud-based Devin sessions alongside it. Cognition's billing documentation says Devin Desktop usage draws on the same daily and weekly quota as Devin sessions and the Devin CLI, so heavy agent use and heavy editor use come from one pool.

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 Free - limited agent and Chat requests. Devin Free - limited Devin usage.

• Entry paid tier: Cursor Plus $8/month (Grok models only). Devin Desktop Pro $20/month.

• Mainstream paid tier: Cursor Premium $30/month. Devin Desktop Pro $20/month.

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

• Team pricing: Cursor Teams from $30 per user per month. Devin Teams $80/month minimum, $40 per full seat.

• Agent: Cursor - Agent mode. Devin Desktop - Devin Local, the only agent after Cascade was removed.

• Notable 2025-2026 event: Cursor - plan lineup rebuilt. 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, compare the plans by what they include, because the names no longer line up. Cursor's $8 Plus plan is limited to Grok models, while third-party models on Premium and above are billed separately at API list price. Devin's $20 Pro plan bundles Devin Desktop with a shared quota. Our guide to the best AI coding agent for solo developers digs into that comparison at the individual level, and Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex compared brings a CLI-first agent into the same frame.

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?

It depends on which models you want. Cursor's cheapest paid plan is Plus at $8/month, but its page says only Grok models are available on it. Cursor's Premium plan is $30/month, and third-party models are billed separately at API list price. Devin Desktop's Pro plan is $20/month and includes Devin Desktop with a quota shared with Devin sessions and the Devin CLI. Compare the plan that gives you the models you use, not the headline price.

Which has a better agent mode for large codebases?

Neither has a public, apples-to-apples benchmark we could verify for this comparison. Devin Desktop has changed its agent architecture, with Cascade removed and Devin Local now its only agent according to the changelog. 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?

It depends on the plan. Cursor's page says only Grok models are available on Plus, and that third-party models on higher plans are billed separately at API list price. Devin Desktop's documentation lists Pro and Max as including Devin Desktop, but the billing page we read does not enumerate model families, so check the in-app model picker. Model lists change often enough that a snapshot goes stale quickly.

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.