Cursor vs Windsurf: Which to Pick

Pick Cursor if you want the widest model menu in one editor and are fine with usage billed on top of a plan. Pick Windsurf, now sold as Devin Desktop, if you want a flat $20 Pro plan with daily and weekly quotas and Cognition's agents behind it. Both are VS Code-style editors that import each other's settings. Plans, prices and names were checked on 31 October 2026.

The short version

If those rows already decide it, stop here. If not, the rest of this page covers what each product is now, what its plans really include, and the traps in both price pages.

Both products changed recently

This is the most useful fact on the page, because most comparisons online describe the old versions.

Cursor

Cursor's docs describe it as a coding agent for building software. It ships as a desktop app, a CLI and cloud agents, with a marketplace for plugins. Its pricing page now sells plans through a combined set of X and Grok features, and the plan names reflect that: Free, Plus, Premium, Super, Ultra and Teams. We covered the same facts in Cursor vs Claude Code, which has a longer explanation of the corporate background.

Windsurf

Windsurf's own homepage now leads with Devin Desktop, "the home for every agent you run." The page says you can manage any agent, locally or in the cloud, from one command center. It lists the Cascade assistant as legacy in the docs navigation and names newer in-house models, SWE-2 and SWE-1.7. The getting-started page says "Download and install Devin Desktop IDE for Mac, Windows, or Linux" and mentions importing VS Code or Cursor settings. The company behind it is Cognition, whose security page we cite below.

So the practical difference is no longer "two forks of VS Code with a chat panel." Cursor is building around a plan ladder with X and Grok features attached. Windsurf is building around a desktop that hosts many agents, local and cloud, and a cloud product named Devin.

Plans and prices

Cursor

The footnote matters more than the plan names. Third-party model usage in Cursor is not included in the monthly prices and must be purchased separately, billed by usage. The plans are sold through X Subscription, so the checkout is an X account purchase.

Windsurf

Windsurf's quota is the part to read. Each paid plan has an allowance that refreshes on a daily and weekly basis, and the FAQ says that for most users this will fully cover agent usage. Cost per message varies by model, task size and reasoning. The FAQ's advice for stretching it is practical: control prompt size, switch to smaller models for routine tasks, and use mini models such as Haiku or open models like Kimi K2.5.

What the numbers mean in practice

For one developer, the comparison is not $8 versus $20. Cursor's $8 plan only includes Grok models. To use Claude or GPT models in Cursor you move to Premium at $30, where third-party models bill at API list price on top. So a heavy user's Cursor bill is the plan plus the model usage.

Windsurf's $20 Pro folds the frontier models into the quota. You pay once, and you hit a quota instead of a meter. That is simpler to budget, and worse if you routinely exceed the quota.

Both pages say prices exclude taxes, and Cursor's says to cancel at least 24 hours before renewal.

Side-by-side facts

The extension row deserves attention. Windsurf's getting-started page lists "incompatible extensions": other AI code-complete extensions and proprietary extensions, and says you cannot install extensions through any marketplace on Devin Desktop. If your workflow depends on a specific VS Code extension, check that it works before you switch.

Using add-ons: MCP and skills

Both tools can call MCP servers, which is how an agent reaches GitHub, databases and browsers. Cursor's MCP docs are explicit: servers can use stdio, SSE or Streamable HTTP, with OAuth for remote servers, and a marketplace entry installs with an "Add to Cursor" button. For static OAuth credentials on servers that do not support dynamic registration, it documents a config block.

For Windsurf, the docs list an MCP page, but our fetch did not return its contents, so we will not describe it. Browse the MCP server directory and check each server's listing for per-agent install lines. Our best MCP servers page is a good starting list. If your team plans to rely on MCP, test one server end to end in each tool before you pay for seats.

Privacy and data handling

This is a trade-off area, and the plan you pick decides the answer.

Cognition's security page says the company has been SOC 2 Type II certified since September 2024. Under its data retention answer, it says that by default it may use your data for model training to improve its services, and that paid-plan users can opt out at any time. Read that as: on the free plan, assume your data may be used.

For Cursor, the Teams plan lists team-wide privacy settings and custom chat data retention.

For enterprise buyers, both list SSO and admin controls on higher plans. Cursor's enterprise column adds SCIM seat management and granular spend controls. Windsurf's adds centralised admin controls and Teamspace isolation. Neither page, as we read it, replaces a security review against your own policy.

Limits and gotchas

• Naming confusion. "Windsurf" in search results, "Devin Desktop" in the app and docs, and "Cascade (legacy)" in the navigation all describe overlapping things. Search the docs for the current name.
• Cursor's cheapest plan is Grok-only. Do not buy Plus expecting Claude or GPT.
• Cursor's usage multipliers are relative. The page says 4x, 15x and 50x "compared to Plus" without an absolute number, so you cannot convert them to tokens.
• Windsurf quotas are opaque too. The FAQ says cost per message varies, with no fixed number of messages.
• Extension compatibility. Check your must-have extensions on Windsurf first.
• Corporate changes. Both companies have changed owners or partners in the last year. A tool you adopt for a team should have an exit plan: your rules, prompts and MCP config in files you control.
• Price pages move. Cursor's page says prices are subject to change.

Who should pick which

A solo developer who wants model variety

Cursor. Pay for Premium if you want Claude or GPT through the plan, set a spending cap on third-party models, and use Plus only if Grok models are enough.

A solo developer who wants a flat bill

Windsurf Pro at $20. Use smaller models for routine edits to stretch the quota, as the FAQ itself suggests.

A student or hobbyist

Start on both Free plans. Windsurf's Free includes unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, which matters more than the agent quota when you are learning.

A team

Compare the seat math. Cursor Teams is $30 or more per user per month with pooled usage. Windsurf Teams is $80 a month for the team plus $40 per full dev seat. For a team of ten, that is $300 or more versus $480 before usage, from the published prices alone. Neither number includes model overage, so ask each vendor how overage is billed before you decide.

Someone who wants both

You can. They are separate apps, and Windsurf imports Cursor settings. If you also use a terminal agent, our Cursor vs Claude Code and Cursor vs Codex pages cover those pairings. For broader options see Cursor alternatives.

Moving from one to the other

1. Export nothing: both are VS Code-style editors, and your repo is the same repo.
2. In Windsurf, import your VS Code or Cursor settings at onboarding, or later from the settings screen.
3. Move your rules files and MCP config by hand and test each MCP server.
4. Check your extensions against Windsurf's incompatibility list.
5. Run one real task in each tool and compare the time to a clean diff.
6. Cancel the plan you stop using before its renewal date.

Team seat math at three sizes

The published team prices are Cursor Teams at $30 plus per user a month, and Windsurf Teams at $80 a month for the team plus $40 a month per full dev seat. Cursor's "plus" means the figure is a floor, so these are minimums.

Windsurf's flat $80 hurts most on small teams, where it is large next to the per-seat price, and its $40 seat price keeps the gap growing as you add people. Two cautions before you read this as a ranking. The Cursor figure leaves out third-party model usage, which the pricing page says is billed on top, and the Windsurf figure leaves out whatever you spend if a quota runs out. Also, the word "full" in "full dev seat" suggests lighter seat types may exist.

Solo use at three levels

Light. Both Free plans work. Windsurf's Free lists unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, so a learner can use it for a long time without an agent quota mattering. Cursor's Free is limited in both usage and agent requests.

Daily, one strong model. Windsurf Pro at $20 puts frontier models inside a quota. Cursor Premium at $30 includes cloud agents, code hosting and AI code reviews, with third-party models at API list price on top. If you use one model all day, ask whether that model's meter would pass $10 a month. If it would, the Windsurf quota is likely cheaper. If you rarely use a third-party model, Premium's extra features may matter more.

Heavy, all day. Windsurf Max at $200 lists significantly higher quotas. Cursor offers Super at $100 and Ultra at $200 as multiples of Plus usage. The two ladders reach $200 at the same step, and neither page gives an absolute volume, so compare them with your own usage screen from the weeks before.

What to move and what to leave

Settings travel easily and habits do not. Windsurf imports VS Code and Cursor settings, so keybindings and themes arrive on their own. Rules and prompts are another matter. Keep the rules you wrote in a plain Markdown file in the repository, so both editors, and any terminal agent you add later, can read them. Keep MCP server definitions in one reviewed list and re-add them in whichever editor you open next. The goal is that no tool holds the only copy of what you taught the agent about your project.

Questions people ask

Is Windsurf the same product as Devin Desktop? Windsurf's own homepage now leads with Devin Desktop, and the getting-started page tells you to install Devin Desktop IDE. The docs navigation still lists Cascade as legacy.

Can I run both on one machine? Yes, they are separate apps.

Which has the cheaper paid entry? Cursor Plus at $8, but it includes only Grok models. Windsurf Pro at $20 is the cheapest paid plan that lists frontier models from several vendors.

Our take

We think the choice comes down to billing style more than features. Cursor gives you a wide menu and a meter. Windsurf gives you a flat plan and a quota. Neither of those is better in the abstract. A person who uses one strong model all day will likely prefer the quota. A person who bounces between vendors and wants the newest model the day it ships will prefer the menu.

We did not run a hands-on test for this page. The comparison above comes from the vendors' own pricing, docs and security pages on 31 October 2026, and where a page did not say, we marked it. The one thing we would push readers to do is read their own usage for a week before choosing. Both tools show it, and it beats any estimate we could write.

Related pages

• Cursor and Windsurf agent pages
• Cursor vs GitHub Copilot
• AI coding agents for the full list