Cursor vs Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): which AI editor in late 2026?

Is Windsurf still a separate product from Cursor?

Yes, but not under that name. On June 2, 2026, Cognition renamed Windsurf to Devin Desktop. Its announcement says it builds on the IDE foundation of Windsurf, and the windsurf.com address now serves the Devin site. The download page states it plainly: Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf. Cognition had announced in July 2025 that it was acquiring Windsurf, including its product, trademark and brand, in a post by Cognition’s Scott Wu.

Cursor changed too. Its blog announced on August 14, 2026 that Cursor is now a part of SpaceX, completing an acquisition that began with a partnership in April. Cursor is now sold as part of The X Subscription, one subscription covering Grok, Cursor and X.

That means older comparisons, which weigh Cursor’s Pro and Pro+ plans against Windsurf’s earlier plans, describe plans that no longer match what a new customer sees. The rest of this page uses what the vendors’ own pages say in October 2026.

How do Cursor and Devin Desktop compare at a glance?

Sources: Cursor’s pricing page and its models and pricing documentation; Cognition’s Windsurf pricing page and Devin Desktop FAQ.

What is Cursor in late 2026?

Cursor’s documentation calls it a coding agent for building ambitious software, and lists understanding a codebase, planning and building features, fixing bugs and reviewing changes. It connects to GitHub, GitLab, Azure DevOps, Bitbucket, JetBrains, Slack and Linear, and you add plugins, skills, MCP servers and rules from one place. On October 20, 2026 it released an Agent SDK for defining an agent as a folder of code, testing it with evals and deploying it to Cursor or your own infrastructure.

Three details matter before you pay. First, Cursor’s included pool covers Cursor’s own models: Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5 and Composer 2.5. Third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini are not part of the pool. On Premium and above you can use them at the model’s API list price from prepaid credit, and on Plus and Free you cannot use them. Second, the pool is shared with Grok, so chatting with Grok draws on the same weekly allowance. Third, the earlier plans (Hobby, Pro at USD 20, Pro+ at USD 60, Ultra at USD 200 and Teams Standard and Premium) are now called legacy plans. Cursor says they keep working as they are for existing customers, and switching to The X Subscription is optional and permanent.

What is Windsurf (Devin Desktop) in late 2026?

Cognition describes Devin Desktop as a full IDE with an agent manager built in. Its Agent Command Center puts every local and cloud agent on one Kanban board, and Spaces group sessions, pull requests and context. It supports the Agent Client Protocol, so third-party agents, including Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode, can run inside it. Its own local agent is Devin Local, rewritten in Rust as the successor to Cascade. Cognition said Cascade stayed available through July 1, 2026.

The editor stays familiar. Cognition says your extensions, settings, keybindings and in-progress work carried over after the rename, and that Devin Desktop imports VS Code or Cursor settings during setup. It reads existing .windsurfrules files, adds a .devin/rules/ directory, reads AGENTS.md files and can import Cursor’s .cursor/rules files. Devin also ships a terminal agent, Devin CLI, and a code review product, Devin Review. Cognition’s FAQ states that Devin Desktop works without Devin Cloud: you can keep using local-only agents.

Which should you pick for each use case?

Because plans meter usage differently, a monthly price does not tell you how far it goes. Cursor says each paid tier includes at least twice the coding usage with its models as the legacy plan it replaces, while dropping the included third-party model allowance. Cognition says most paid users will not hit their quota, and that you can reduce usage by controlling prompt size and using smaller models for routine tasks. Both claims are theirs; test with your own work.

How do you try both without wasting a month?

Both have a free plan. Install each, import your editor settings, and give both the same small job in the same repository on separate branches. If you do not have a job in mind, pick a small tool from the developer tools ideas on the board; each has a generated build prompt. Then keep notes.

Editor: <Cursor | Devin Desktop>
Plan tested: <Free | paid tier>
Task: <one small feature or bug, same in both>

1. Setup time, including importing settings and extensions: <minutes>
2. Could I choose the model I wanted on this plan? <yes / no / only at extra cost>
3. Did the agent find the right files unprompted? <yes / partly / no>
4. Prompts I needed before the diff was mergeable: <number>
5. Usage left after the task, from the usage screen: <number or %>
6. Did anything surprise me on billing (extra charges, model not included)? <notes>
7. Would I open this editor again tomorrow without being asked? <yes / no>

Decide on item 7 first, then check items 2 and 6 before you pay.

Keep the project’s instructions in an AGENTS.md file. Devin Desktop reads it, and Claude Code can read it in place of a CLAUDE.md, so the same instructions move with you if you change tools. If you are still deciding between editors and terminal agents, the comparison of Claude Code, Cursor and Lovable covers the other styles, and Claude Code alternatives lists the rest.