Windsurf — An AI-powered code editor originally built by Codeium, now folded into Cognition's Devin product line as "Devin Desktop" after Cognition acquired Windsurf in 2025.
By Noahlast updated
Windsurf screenshots & video
Windsurf in 20 seconds
Best for: developers who want an agentic AI coding assistant and are open to using Cognition's broader Devin product line
Pricing: Free tier exists in Cognition's Devin plan lineup; Pro/Max/Teams pricing could not be verified, Enterprise is custom.
- Windsurf was an AI-native VS Code-based editor built by the company formerly known as Codeium.
- Cognition AI, maker of Devin, acquired Windsurf's product, brand, and team in July 2025.
- windsurf.com now permanently redirects to devin.ai, and Cognition relaunched the product as 'Devin Desktop' in June 2026.
- Cognition's current self-serve pricing lineup is Free, Pro, Max, Teams, and Enterprise, introduced April 2026.
Limitations: The standalone Windsurf product and brand no longer exist independently of Cognition's Devin.; Current tier-by-tier pricing could not be verified due to persistent rate-limiting on Cognition's sites.
Top alternatives: Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Zed — full list
What is Windsurf?
Windsurf was an AI-native code editor — a fork of VS Code with "Cascade" agentic flows that could plan and execute multi-file coding tasks — built by the company formerly named Codeium and rebranded to Windsurf in 2025. Windsurf's independence was short-lived. In mid-2025, OpenAI reportedly came close to acquiring Windsurf for roughly $3 billion before the deal collapsed; Google DeepMind then hired Windsurf's CEO, co-founder, and several key researchers under a licensing arrangement, and Cognition AI — maker of the autonomous coding agent Devin — acquired the remaining Windsurf company, including its product, brand, and customer base, within days of the DeepMind deal. Rather than shutting the editor down, Cognition kept developing it, and in June 2026 relaunched it as Devin Desktop, described in Cognition's own announcement as "the next generation of Windsurf, built around Devin Cloud, the Agent Command Center, and a full IDE." Cognition overhauled its pricing in April 2026 around unified Free, Pro, Max, Teams, and Enterprise plans that now cover Devin Desktop alongside Cognition's other agent products. Because windsurf.com now redirects permanently to devin.ai, there is effectively no standalone "Windsurf" product left to evaluate independently of Devin.
Windsurf was an agentic AI code editor (a VS Code-based IDE with autonomous multi-step coding "Flows") built by the company formerly known as Codeium. In July 2025, Cognition AI, maker of the Devin autonomous software engineer, acquired Windsurf's product, brand, and remaining team after a separate deal for Windsurf's leadership to join Google DeepMind fell through; windsurf.com now redirects permanently to Cognition's devin.ai, and Cognition's June 2026 "Introducing Devin Desktop" announcement describes the new product as "the next generation of Windsurf, built around Devin Cloud." Cognition restructured its self-serve pricing in April 2026 around Free, Pro, Max, Teams, and Enterprise plans, but Cognition's own site returned repeated rate-limit errors, so current per-tier dollar pricing for Devin Desktop could not be independently verified. Anyone evaluating "Windsurf" today is effectively evaluating Devin Desktop, not a standalone Windsurf product.
Standout feature: Cascade-style agentic "Flows" that can plan and execute multi-step coding tasks across a codebase, inherited from the original Windsurf editor and now positioned as the IDE layer inside Cognition's Devin Desktop.
Biggest weakness: Windsurf as an independent product is effectively gone: windsurf.com now redirects permanently to devin.ai, and the editor has been absorbed into Cognition's Devin Desktop and its "Free, Pro, Max, Teams, Enterprise" pricing lineup following the 2025 acquisition, so anyone signing up for "Windsurf" today is committing to Cognition's broader (and differently priced) Devin ecosystem rather than the original standalone tool.
Pros
- Agentic Cascade/Flow-style multi-step code editing carried over from the original Windsurf editor.
- Now backed by Cognition's Devin Cloud infrastructure and Agent Command Center rather than a smaller standalone team.
- A free tier exists in the current Devin plan lineup for developers who want to try it before paying.
- VS Code-based interface keeps the editing experience familiar to developers switching from VS Code or Cursor.
Cons
- The Windsurf brand and standalone product no longer exist independently; windsurf.com redirects to devin.ai.
- Current per-tier pricing (Pro, Max, Teams) was not publicly verifiable, making cost comparison against competitors difficult without visiting devin.ai directly.
- Users who chose Windsurf specifically for its smaller, independent-company positioning are now inside a larger, differently-focused product (Devin) built around autonomous agents rather than a lightweight editor.
Windsurf pricing
Free
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free | Entry tier in Cognition's unified Devin plan lineup (Free, Pro, Max, Teams, Enterprise), introduced April 2026; specific usage limits for Devin Desktop were not published on pages reachable. |
| Pro | Custom | Named tier in Cognition's current lineup; exact price could not be confirmed due to repeated rate-limiting on devin.ai and cognition.com. |
| Max | Custom | Named tier in Cognition's current lineup; exact price could not be confirmed. |
| Teams | Custom | Named tier in Cognition's current lineup; exact price could not be confirmed. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom pricing; contact sales. |
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