Cursor vs Windsurf: Claude is $10 a month cheaper in Windsurf

Which is cheaper, Cursor or Windsurf?

Windsurf is cheaper if you code with Claude, GPT or Gemini, and Cursor is cheaper if Grok is enough. We read Cursor's pricing page and Cognition's Devin pricing page, where windsurf.com/pricing now redirects, on 8 November 2026. US prices, before tax:

The gap comes from what each of them puts in the plan. Cursor's pricing docs say third-party models are billed "at the model's API list price from the first request." Cognition's Pro plan lists "access to frontier models from OpenAI, Claude, Gemini, and SpaceXAI" inside "increased quotas." Past that quota, Cognition's quota docs say "Usage is billed at API list prices for the model you're using." So both charge the same rate once you're paying per token. Windsurf just starts $10 lower and covers some tokens first.

What does a month of Claude cost in Cursor vs Windsurf?

A month of Claude costs at least $10 less in Windsurf than in Cursor, however much you use. Once you're paying per token, both editors bill Claude at Anthropic's list price, and Anthropic's API price for Sonnet 5.5 is $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output, read 8 November 2026. Here's a worked month for one developer coding 20 days with Claude.

We used Anthropic's own average for a day of agent coding. Its Claude Code cost docs say: "Across enterprise deployments, the average cost is around $13 per developer per active day." Twenty days at $13 is $260 of Claude usage at API rates.

Cognition doesn't publish its quota sizes, so we can't say how much of the $260 Windsurf Pro absorbs. Its FAQ says "Most users will never hit their limits." The floor is still clear. Even if the quota covered nothing, Windsurf Pro comes in $10 under Cursor Premium. Your editor can also burn more or fewer tokens per task than Claude Code does. Cognition says its Devin Local agent is "up to 30% more token efficient" than the agent it replaced.

Heavy months widen the gap. Cursor Ultra at $200 doesn't help here, because its 50x pool covers Grok and Composer, so the same $260 of Claude makes a $460 month. Windsurf Max at $200 undercuts $280 only if its quota absorbs most of the Claude work, and Cognition doesn't say how much it holds. If Claude is the only model you need, a Claude plan with Claude Code is cheaper again. Cursor vs Claude Code runs that math.

Is Windsurf still Windsurf?

No. Windsurf is now called Devin Desktop, and the same plans carry over. Cognition, which makes the Devin coding agent, signed to buy Windsurf on 14 July 2025, and its announcement says the deal "includes Windsurf's IP, product, trademark and brand." On 2 June 2026, Cognition renamed the editor and pushed the change as an over-the-air update.

The Devin Desktop page says "Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf" and "Only the name and branding are changing." Your plan, extensions and settings move across. The local agent did change. Devin Local replaced the old Cascade agent, which stayed available through 1 July 2026. The Windsurf plugin for JetBrains IDEs still ships under the Windsurf name.

If you're buying now, there's one thing to watch for. Comparison pages on page one still quote Windsurf Pro at $15. That price exists only for people who subscribed before 19 March 2026, who keep it "indefinitely," per Cognition's quota docs. A new Pro plan costs $20.

Which models do Cursor and Windsurf include?

Cursor's plans include Grok and Cursor's own Composer, and Windsurf's paid plans include models from four labs. Cursor's docs say "Third-party models like Claude, GPT, and Gemini aren't part of the included pool." The pool covers Grok 4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 plus Composer 2.5. Cognition's model docs add its own SWE models, which it sells cheaply or gives away.

The quiet saving in Windsurf is that Cognition gives some of its own models away. Its quota docs say "free models don't count against your quota at all." Cursor's equivalent is Composer 2.5, which sits in the pool at a quarter of Sonnet 5.5's input price. On Cursor Plus, that pool is all you get, because Cursor says "Only Grok models are available on this plan."

Is Cursor or Windsurf cheaper for a team?

Cursor is $10 a seat cheaper for a team, and Windsurf catches up once each seat uses more than $10 of Claude or GPT inside its quota. Cursor Teams costs $30, $100 or $200 a seat, each with the matching individual plan's pool. Windsurf Teams costs $40 per full seat with an $80 monthly minimum, per Cognition's billing docs. For five developers:

Cursor's Token Rate applies on top of API pricing for eligible third-party requests on Teams and Enterprise. At $0.25 per million tokens, a developer who sends 10 million tokens a month adds $2.50. Small, but it never touches an individual plan. Windsurf's flex seats suit reviewers who only use Devin in the browser, since they "do not include Devin Desktop access."

How do Cursor and Windsurf differ beyond price?

Cursor and Windsurf differ most in their agents. Cursor shares one usage pool across its editor Agent, a CLI and Cloud Agents, per its pricing docs, while Windsurf pairs its Devin Local agent in the editor with Devin Cloud from Pro up. Here's what each vendor lists, read 8 November 2026:

We didn't run a head-to-head coding test, so this table lists features, not quality. Cognition says Devin Local is "up to 30% more token efficient" than Cascade and supports subagents. Cursor's plans now double as X subscriptions. On Premium, Cursor's pricing page lists "Third-party models at API list price" next to Grok Bot and ad-free scrolling, so part of what you pay for isn't the editor.

Is Windsurf better than Cursor?

Windsurf is the better buy for a developer who wants Claude, GPT or Gemini in the editor, and Cursor is the better buy for a Grok user or a yearly payer. Pick by what you'll run:

Cursor loses on Claude and wins on clarity. It publishes its tiers as multiples (4x, 15x and 50x Plus), so you can see what $100 buys over $30. Cognition gives no numbers at all, only "light," "increased" and "significantly higher." If you hate guessing at a quota, that's a real cost of Windsurf.

What do Cursor and Windsurf cost next to the rest of your AI stack?

A common coding stack runs $60 to $70 a month: the editor plus ChatGPT Plus at $20 and Claude Pro at $20, per OpenAI and Anthropic on 8 November 2026. With Cursor Premium that's $70. With Windsurf Pro it's $60, before any extra usage.

Whizi, which publishes this page, can stand in for the chat half of that stack and not the editor. Whizi Pro costs $29.99 a month and puts Claude, GPT and Gemini in one chat, with pictures, video and music on the same plan. Credits per message vary by model. That's less than the $40 ChatGPT Plus and Claude Pro pair if you use them only for chat. Whizi has no coding agent, no IDE and no API, so keep Cursor or Windsurf for the editor work, and keep Claude Pro if you rely on Claude Code. Cheapest way to use Claude and GPT prices the chat routes one by one, and one subscription for all AI models covers what a single plan does and doesn't replace.