Windsurf: Features, Pricing, Models & Alternatives (2026)

Last researched: September 26, 2026. windsurf.com now redirects to Cognition's devin.ai — verify the current product name, plans, and pricing at devin.ai/pricing before making a decision, since this is a fast-moving rebrand.

Windsurf was an AI-first code editor that began life as Codeium, an AI code-completion company, before rebranding its flagship editor as Windsurf. In July 2025, Cognition — maker of the autonomous coding agent Devin — acquired Windsurf's product, IP, trademark, and remaining team. As of June 2026, Cognition folded the editor into its own product line under the name "Devin Desktop," and the windsurf.com domain now redirects to devin.ai. This profile covers both the historical Windsurf product and its current form as Devin Desktop, since the two are the same underlying editor under different ownership and branding.

What Is Windsurf?

Windsurf began as the rebranded flagship IDE of Codeium, an AI-coding company known for code completion and a stated policy of not training on customers' private code. Windsurf itself was an AI-native editor (a VS Code-based fork) built around an agentic feature called Cascade, aimed at multi-file, agent-driven coding rather than simple autocomplete. Following a turbulent mid-2025 acquisition process — in which a reported OpenAI deal fell through, Google licensed Windsurf's technology and hired away its CEO and several co-founders/staff into Google DeepMind, and Cognition then acquired the remaining company, product, and roughly 210 staff for about $250 million — Windsurf continued operating under its own name for roughly a year before Cognition rebranded it as "Devin Desktop" in June 2026, positioning it as the IDE half of a combined Devin agent platform. windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai, and Cascade was reported to be end-of-life around July 1, 2026 as its functionality was absorbed into Cognition's unified Devin agent stack.

Key Capabilities

• Full IDE (syntax highlighting, autocomplete, debugging) inherited from the original Windsurf/VS Code-fork foundation
• Unlimited Tab-style inline completion that does not consume usage quota
• Multi-agent "fleet" management from a unified Agent Command Center with a Kanban-style task board (current Devin Desktop feature)
• "Fast Context" for rapidly locating relevant files/lines in a codebase
• Support for both local and cloud-based coding agents, plus Git worktrees for running parallel agent sessions without conflicts
• "Spaces" for sharing context across multiple agents on the same task
• Cognition's own proprietary SWE-series coding models as free/default options alongside frontier third-party models
• Broad MCP integrations (e.g., Slack, Linear, Notion, Figma, Stripe, Datadog, Atlassian)

Main Features

Use Cases

• Developers who previously used Windsurf/Codeium and want to continue on the same editor under its new Devin Desktop branding
• Teams that want a single interface to plan work, delegate pieces to autonomous agents, and review the results without leaving the editor
• Running multiple parallel coding-agent sessions against the same repository using Git worktrees
• Organizations standardizing on Cognition's Devin ecosystem for both autonomous cloud agents and local IDE-based agent work

Supported Models / Technologies

Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) defaults to Cognition's own proprietary SWE-series coding models — reporting cites SWE-1.5 as a 2026 default with a free-access promotional period, and a newer SWE-1.6/SWE-2 model described by Cognition as more token-efficient with sub-agent support, though exact current model naming should be verified directly against Cognition's own site given how quickly this has changed. Paid plans also provide access to frontier third-party models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google, selectable through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP), an open protocol for connecting different coding agents to the editor. Specific context-window sizes per model are not publicly detailed by Cognition in the sources reviewed and could not be verified as of this writing.

Platforms

• Desktop: macOS confirmed as a current download target under the Devin Desktop rebrand; Windows and Linux support existed under the original Windsurf product but current cross-platform availability under the Devin Desktop name could not be fully confirmed as of this writing
• IDE integration: JetBrains IDE support reportedly continues as a separate "Windsurf for JetBrains" plugin line, per secondary sources
• Cloud agents: supported via Cognition's Devin Cloud infrastructure
• No confirmed dedicated mobile app for the editor itself (distinct from Cognition's broader Devin product line)

Integrations

• Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers: Slack, Linear, Notion, Figma, Stripe, Datadog, Atlassian, among others
• Language servers and linters: rust-analyzer, clangd, gopls, Pyright, ESLint, Prettier
• Agent Client Protocol (ACP) for connecting third-party agents and models
• Git worktrees for parallel, conflict-free multi-agent sessions

Pricing

Because windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai, figures below reflect Cognition's current Devin/Devin Desktop pricing as of September 26, 2026, cross-referenced against independent trackers; verify directly at devin.ai/pricing.

Advantages

• Inherits a mature, VS Code-based editing experience from the original Windsurf product rather than starting from scratch
• Unlimited inline Tab completion that doesn't consume paid usage quota
• In-house SWE-series models are offered free or bundled, reducing reliance on paying separately for a third-party model
• Kanban-style multi-agent management gives visibility into several concurrent agent sessions at once
• Backed by Cognition's broader Devin autonomous-agent infrastructure for cloud-based, longer-running tasks

Limitations

• The Windsurf brand itself has been discontinued in favor of "Devin Desktop," which may confuse users searching for the original product name
• Cascade, the signature agent feature many users adopted Windsurf for, was reported end-of-life around July 1, 2026
• Rapid rebranding and model changes throughout 2026 make it harder to verify a single stable set of current facts; readers should treat this profile as time-sensitive
• Some platform and JetBrains-support details could not be independently confirmed against an official current source as of this writing

Security & Privacy

Under its original Codeium/Windsurf ownership, the product held SOC 2 Type II certification, reportedly also FedRAMP High accreditation and HIPAA BAA support, and offered zero-data-retention options plus Cloud, Hybrid, and Self-Hosted enterprise deployment modes with SAML SSO, RBAC, and audit logs. Whether these exact certifications and deployment options carried forward unchanged under Cognition's Devin Desktop rebrand could not be independently confirmed as of this writing; consult Cognition/Devin's own current security and privacy documentation before relying on any specific compliance claim.

Best For

Devin Desktop (the product formerly known as Windsurf) is best suited to developers who want a familiar, VS Code-style editor combined with both local and cloud-based autonomous coding agents from Cognition, including teams already invested in or considering Cognition's broader Devin agent ecosystem.

Alternatives

• Cursor — a comparable AI-first editor that has remained independently branded and operated
• GitHub Copilot — broader IDE plugin coverage across many existing editors
• Claude Code — Anthropic's terminal-first agentic coding tool
• Amazon Q Developer — AWS-centric coding assistant
• OpenAI Codex CLI — OpenAI's terminal-based coding agent

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Windsurf still called Windsurf?

Not as a brand name. Windsurf (originally Codeium) was acquired by Cognition, the maker of Devin, in July 2025. In June 2026, Cognition rebranded the Windsurf editor as "Devin Desktop," and windsurf.com now redirects visitors to devin.ai. Existing users' plans, settings, extensions, and keybindings carried over unchanged through the rebrand.

What happened to Cascade, Windsurf's AI agent?

Cascade, Windsurf's original multi-file AI agent feature, was set end-of-life around July 1, 2026, according to independent reporting, as Cognition folded agent functionality into the unified Devin Desktop / Devin agent stack alongside its own SWE-series coding models.

What models power Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf)?

Devin Desktop uses Cognition's own proprietary SWE-series coding models (SWE-1.5 and, more recently, SWE-1.6/SWE-2 by various reports) as defaults, alongside access to frontier third-party models from Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google on paid plans, selectable via the Agent Client Protocol (ACP).

Is Devin Desktop free to use?

Yes, a free tier exists with a light usage quota and unlimited Tab-style inline completions, according to Cognition's own pricing page (reached via the former windsurf.com domain). Paid tiers (Pro at $20/month, Max at $200/month, Teams, and Enterprise) raise or remove those quotas.

Is JetBrains support still available for Windsurf?

According to available reporting, JetBrains IDE support (IntelliJ, PyCharm, WebStorm, and others) continues as a separate "Windsurf for JetBrains" plugin line alongside the rebranded Devin Desktop standalone application, though this could not be independently confirmed beyond secondary sources as of this writing.

Final Summary

Windsurf's story in 2026 is one of rapid consolidation: originally Codeium's flagship editor, it passed through a contested acquisition process into Cognition's hands and, as of June 2026, exists as "Devin Desktop" rather than under the Windsurf name, with windsurf.com redirecting to devin.ai. Prospective users researching "Windsurf" today should expect to land on Cognition's Devin product line rather than an independently branded editor, and should verify pricing, model, and platform details directly against devin.ai given how much has changed since the original Windsurf launch.