| Feature | Cursor | Windsurf |
|---|---|---|
| Best For | Agentic AI pair programming | Flow-state agentic coding |
| Free Plan | ✔ | ✔ |
| Paid Plan Starts At | Plus $8 / Premium $30 per month | Pro $15 per month |
| Context Window | Model-dependent | Model-dependent |
| Multimodal Input | ✔ | ✔ |
| Web Search | ✔ | ✔ |
| Open Source | — | — |
| Rating | ★ 4.8 | ★ 4.5 |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux | Windows, macOS, Linux |
Quick verdicts
Cursor: The current benchmark for AI coding agents - if you write code daily, Cursor's Premium tier pays for itself within a week.
Windsurf: The best-value Cursor alternative - Cascade's proactive agent and the free tier make it the easy second editor to try.