Cursor vs Windsurf

Cursor and Windsurf get compared constantly because they solve the same problem the same way: an AI agent that reads your codebase, proposes a multi-file change, and executes it inside an editor you already know how to use. The real 2026 story is not which agent is smarter. It is that one of these two products does not go by its old name anymore, and a fair comparison has to say so before it says anything else.

What happened to Windsurf, and does the name still apply?

Cognition, the company behind the AI agent Devin, acquired Windsurf in late 2025. On June 2, 2026, Cognition shipped what it calls "the next generation of Windsurf": a rebrand into Devin Desktop, built around an Agent Command Center that manages every local and cloud agent from one view, with a new context-sharing feature called Spaces. The change arrived as a standard over-the-air update, not a migration a user had to trigger, and existing accounts, plans, extensions, keybindings, and MCP connections carried over without a reinstall.

Windsurf's own editor, its VS Code compatibility, and its extensions all remain in place under the new name, per Cognition's own announcement. What changed underneath is the primary local agent: Devin Local replaced Cascade, rewritten from scratch in Rust, which Cognition states keeps Cascade's settings and capabilities while running about 30 percent more token-efficiently. Cascade itself stayed available through July 1, 2026, for anyone who wanted to finish a project on the agent they already knew. Because "Windsurf" is still what people search for and what windsurf.com still calls itself in casual use, this page uses that name throughout, with Devin Desktop named explicitly wherever a fact is specific to the post-rebrand product.

How much do Cursor and Windsurf actually cost?

	Cursor	Windsurf (Devin Desktop)
Free tier	Hobby: limited usage, all models	Free tier available
Entry paid plan	Pro: $20/month, $20 included API usage	Pro: $20/month
Mid tier	Pro+: $60/month, $70 included API usage	Not published as a distinct tier
Top individual tier	Ultra: $200/month, $400 included API usage	Max: $200/month
Team plan	$40/user/month, $20/user included API usage	$40/user/month
Extra usage	Billed at API pricing once included usage runs out	Additional credits: $10 for 250 (individual), $120 for 1,000 pooled (teams)
Tab completions	Unlimited on every paid plan	Included on paid plans
Enterprise	Custom, pooled usage, SCIM, audit logs, invoice billing	Custom, SSO, RBAC, hybrid deployment, SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, FedRAMP High

The two products land at nearly identical price points for an individual: $20 a month to start, $200 a month at the top individual tier, $40 a user for a team. Where they diverge is the shape of the ceiling. Cursor states a specific included-usage dollar figure at every paid tier ($20, $70, or $400 depending on plan), so you can estimate a monthly cost before you commit. Windsurf's individual pricing does not publish an equivalent included-usage figure in the same way; instead it sells additional prompt credits at a fixed rate once your plan's allowance runs out, which makes Cursor's structure easier to budget against in advance and Windsurf's easier to top up incrementally without a plan change.

Which AI models does each one support?

Neither Cursor nor Windsurf builds its own frontier model. Both are model routers that sit on top of models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, plus a few of their own. Cursor's model picker spans Claude and GPT models, Gemini, and Cursor's own Composer and Grok-based models, with the available set depending on your plan tier; Hobby users see a smaller list, paid plans open up the full one. Windsurf, now inside Devin Desktop, lists Claude Opus and Sonnet models, Gemini models, GPT models, and additional options including Grok and DeepSeek variants, again gated partly by plan.

That means the "which model is better" question does not actually separate these two products. The real difference is interface and workflow: Cursor structures a build around three explicit modes, Ask, Plan, and Agent, that you switch between deliberately. Windsurf's Cascade agent (now Devin Local) leans on a tighter build-preview-fix loop, where a built-in browser preview feeds the DOM, console errors, and logs straight back to the agent so it can react to what it just built without you copying error text back and forth by hand.

What does Builders Camp actually teach, Cursor or Windsurf?

Builders Camp's Building with Cursor bootcamp, taught by Tiago Pedro da Costa, teaches Cursor directly: the Ask, Plan, and Agent workflow, prompting patterns, and team standards for using AI inside a real codebase, across 1 week and 2 live sessions. Windsurf, including its current Devin Desktop form, is not a named tool in any Builders Camp bootcamp curriculum as of this page's publish date. That is a real, checkable gap, not a slight against Windsurf: the underlying discipline the Cursor bootcamp teaches, explore before you build, get a reviewable plan before you execute, read every diff, transfers directly to Windsurf or any other AI-native editor, but the bootcamp does not walk through Windsurf's specific interface session by session.

Choose Cursor if, choose Windsurf if

Choose Cursor if you want an explicit, three-stage workflow (Ask, Plan, Agent) that forces a reviewable plan before code changes land, a published included-usage dollar figure at every tier so you can budget in advance, and a direct line into Builders Camp's own bootcamp curriculum. Choose Windsurf if you already prefer its built-in browser preview feeding errors straight back to the agent, you want the newer Agent Command Center that manages local and cloud agents from one Kanban-style view, or your team is already standardized on Windsurf and migrating editors is not worth the switching cost on its own.

Who this is for, and who it is not for

This comparison is for developers, technical PMs, and tech leads deciding which AI-native editor to standardize on, and for anyone who searched "Cursor vs Windsurf" expecting the old Windsurf brand and needs to know it changed hands and names in 2026. It is not for someone who wants to build a prototype without ever looking at code; both tools assume you can read a diff and a terminal, and a no-code path like Lovable will get a non-technical builder to a working screen faster, as how to build a prototype with Lovable covers directly.

Get the Ask, Plan, Agent workflow from the people who use it daily

Reading a comparison table is not the same as running the workflow under a working developer's eye. Builders Camp's Building with Cursor bootcamp teaches the full Ask, Plan, Agent loop in 1 week across 2 live sessions, taught by Tiago Pedro da Costa, Co-founder and CTO of Zumer, with a practical challenge built around shipping a real feature through the loop end to end.

See the Building with Cursor bootcamp

For the step-by-step walkthrough of building inside each tool, see how to build a prototype with Cursor and how to build a prototype with Windsurf. If neither tool's code-first workflow fits, how to build an MVP with Replit covers a gentler ramp, and the best AI tools for product managers in 2026 puts both tools in the context of a wider stack.