Cursor vs Windsurf: Which Should You Pick?

What each tool is

Cursor is a desktop editor whose vendor calls it a coding agent for building ambitious software. Its product pages list Agents in the editor, Cloud Agents that run autonomously and in parallel on their own machines, a CLI that also works in Slack and reviews pull requests on GitHub, Automations for scheduled or triggered agents, a Plan Mode and Bugbot for code review. Models come from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, SpaceXAI and Cursor's own Composer line, and it extends through MCP servers, plugins, skills and rules.

Windsurf is now Devin Desktop, built by Cognition. The product page describes an Agent Command Center with Spaces and a Kanban view for managing several agents, a full IDE with autocomplete and debugging, Fast Context for codebase understanding, Supercomplete predictive completion, local agents (Devin Local) and cloud agents (Devin Cloud) connected through an Agent Client Protocol that accepts multiple models and agents. The editor can import settings and keybindings from VS Code and Cursor, and Windsurf for JetBrains continues separately for IntelliJ IDEA, PyCharm and WebStorm.

Pricing

Cursor's Hobby plan is free with limited Agent requests and access to Composer. Pro is $20 a month, Pro Plus $60 a month and Ultra $200 a month. Cursor's docs describe two monthly usage pools, one for Composer and Grok models with significantly more included usage and one for third-party models charged at API rates; beyond that you continue on pay-as-you-go at the same rates. Teams is $40 per user a month on Standard and $120 per user a month on Premium, which has five times the Agent limits, and adds centralized billing, Bugbot reviews, usage analytics and SAML or OIDC SSO. Enterprise is custom.

Windsurf is priced on devin.ai/pricing as Devin Desktop. Free is $0 with a light agent quota, limited model availability, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions. Pro is $20 a month with increased quotas, full model availability across OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI plus open source models, access to Devin Cloud agents, and extra usage at API pricing. Max is $200 a month with significantly higher quotas. Teams is $80 a month for the team plan plus $40 a month per full developer seat, for up to 200 seats, with centralized billing, an admin dashboard with analytics and priority support. Enterprise is custom with SAML or OIDC SSO and billing in Agent Compute Units.

Where Cursor wins

Cursor is the more complete editor product today. Its agent runs in the editor, in the terminal, in Slack and on GitHub pull requests, and Cloud Agents and Automations give you parallel and scheduled execution without leaving the Cursor ecosystem. Bugbot is a distinct review product with its own rules and a 14-day free trial.

Pricing is more granular. Pro, Pro Plus and Ultra give an individual three steps between $20 and $200, and the two-pool billing means heavy use of Cursor's own models does not exhaust the allowance you keep for third-party models. Teams has two tiers and per-seat pricing with no flat monthly base.

Enterprise controls are more detailed: auto-run, browser and network controls, allowlists for repositories, models and MCP servers, service accounts, and an API for tracking AI-generated code. If your security team wants to constrain what the agent can touch, Cursor publishes more levers.

Where Windsurf wins

The Free plan is more generous on the basics. Cognition lists unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions at $0, where Cursor's Hobby plan is described only as limited Agent requests plus Composer access.

The subscription bundles a cloud agent at the $20 tier. Pro includes Devin Cloud agents alongside the desktop editor, so one plan covers the local editor loop and background delegation, and the Devin lineage means the cloud side is the company's core product rather than an extension of the editor.

The Agent Command Center is a different bet on how work will be organized: Spaces and a Kanban board for running several agents at once, with an Agent Client Protocol that lets other agents plug into the same interface. If you expect to supervise a fleet of agents rather than pair with one, this layout fits. The JetBrains plugin also continues as a separate product.

Who should pick which

Pick Cursor if you want the editor to be the center of your work, if you value clear per-seat team pricing, if you want three individual tiers to grow through, or if your organization needs detailed controls over models, MCP servers and agent permissions.

Pick Windsurf if you are already invested in Devin, if you want a generous free tier for completions, or if the multi-agent command center matches how you plan to work.