Windsurf vs Copilot: 2026 Pricing and Verdict
Windsurf was renamed Devin Desktop in June 2026. Here is how it compares with GitHub Copilot on current pricing, models and multi-agent workflow.
TL;DR
- Windsurf no longer exists as a brand. Cognition renamed it Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026; windsurf.com redirects to devin.ai. Every comparison still calling it "Windsurf" is stale.
- Devin Desktop: Free $0, Pro $20/mo, Max $200/mo, Teams $80/mo + $40 per seat.
- GitHub Copilot: Free $0, Pro $10/mo, Pro+ $39/mo, Max $100/mo, Business $19/seat, Enterprise $39/seat. Moved to usage-based AI Credits on June 1, 2026.
- Verdict: Copilot if you live in GitHub and want the cheapest credible autocomplete. Devin Desktop if you run several coding agents at once and want one surface to manage them.
Windsurf is now Devin Desktop. Cognition rebranded the editor on June 2, 2026, so windsurf vs copilot is really Devin Desktop versus GitHub Copilot. Devin Desktop runs $0–$200/month; Copilot runs $0–$100/month for individuals. Copilot wins on price and GitHub integration. Devin Desktop wins on multi-agent orchestration.
Edgewisely sells neither tool and takes no revenue from either vendor.
What is Windsurf, and what happened to it?
Windsurf was an agentic IDE — a VS Code fork with a built-in AI agent called Cascade. Cognition, the company behind the Devin agent, signed a definitive agreement to acquire it on July 14, 2025, picking up the IP, trademark, $82M of ARR and 350+ enterprise customers. We covered Cognition's $48 billion valuation and what it was buying at the time.
Eleven months later the name went away. Cognition announced the rename to Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, shipping it as an over-the-air update.
Three things changed beyond the logo:
- Cascade was replaced by Devin Local, rewritten from scratch in Rust and, per Cognition, up to 30% more token efficient. Legacy Cascade stayed available through July 1, 2026.
- The Agent Command Center became the default surface — a Kanban board for every local and cloud agent, plus "Spaces" for sharing context and Git worktrees between them.
- Agent Client Protocol (ACP) support landed, so Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode run inside the editor alongside Devin.
One remnant: Windsurf for JetBrains is still distributed under the old name.
Windsurf vs Copilot: pricing compared
Both products repriced in mid-2026. Here is what each costs today, from the vendors' own pages — Devin's pricing page and GitHub's Copilot plans documentation.
| Plan | Devin Desktop (ex-Windsurf) | GitHub Copilot |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 — light quota, limited models, unlimited Tab completions | $0 — capped at 2,000 completions/month, auto model selection only |
| Entry paid | Pro $20/mo | Pro $10/mo — 1,500 AI Credits |
| Mid | — | Pro+ $39/mo — 7,000 AI Credits |
| Power user | Max $200/mo | Max $100/mo — 20,000 AI Credits |
| Team | $80/mo + $40/mo per seat, up to 200 users | Business $19/seat — 1,900 credits/user |
| Enterprise | Custom — VPC deploy, SAML/OIDC SSO | $39/seat — 3,900 credits/user |
The billing models differ in a way that matters. Copilot switched to usage-based AI Credits on June 1, 2026, replacing premium request units. Credits burn against token consumption; overage costs $0.01 per credit. Base prices did not change.
Two Copilot details worth knowing. Code completions and next edit suggestions remain unlimited and do not consume credits on any paid plan. And the old fallback behaviour — dropping to a cheaper model when you ran out — was removed. You now stop, or you pay.
Devin Desktop uses refreshing daily and weekly quotas rather than a credit ledger, with overage purchasable at API pricing.
If you want the same pricing analysis for the other major agent pairing, see our Claude Code vs GitHub Copilot comparison.
Which one has the better models?
Copilot is a model aggregator; Cognition ships its own.
Copilot Pro+ and Max give you premium third-party models with priority access on Max. Devin Desktop bundles frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic and Google on Pro, plus SWE-2, Cognition's in-house coding model.
SWE-2's published numbers, from Cognition's model announcement:
| Benchmark | SWE-2 | Kimi K3 | Grok 4.6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| FrontierCode 1.1 Main | 50.0% | 44.2% | 48.0% |
| DeepSWE 1.1 | 73.0% | 68.5% | 67.5% |
| Terminal-Bench 2.1 | 92.8% | 88.3% | 88.4% |
Cognition claims SWE-2 lands within one point of Fable 5.1 on FrontierCode while being 64% cheaper. These are vendor-run benchmarks on a vendor-chosen suite — treat them as directional. Note also that SWE-2 is free in Devin Desktop and CLI only through October 10, 2026. Price your 2027 budget without that discount.
Feature differences that actually matter
Copilot's advantage is distribution and the GitHub graph. Agent mode went generally available on both VS Code and JetBrains in March 2026. The asynchronous coding agent takes an issue and returns a pull request. Copilot code review runs on diffs. None of this requires you to change editors — and Copilot Enterprise reads your org's repos as context.
Devin Desktop's advantage is running many agents at once. The Kanban command center, Spaces, and ACP support are aimed squarely at engineers babysitting four or five concurrent sessions. Free and Pro cap you at 10 concurrent sessions; Max and Team are unlimited.
The structural difference: Copilot is an assistant layered onto your existing editor. Devin Desktop asks you to adopt a new editor in exchange for a control plane. If you would rather not switch editors at all, our Zed vs Cursor comparison covers the other end of that trade.
What this means for you
If you're a solo dev on a budget: Copilot Pro at $10/month. It is half the price of Devin Pro and includes unlimited completions that never touch your credit balance. Start on Copilot Free if you write under 2,000 completions a month.
If you're an agent-heavy IC: Devin Desktop Pro at $20/month. You are paying $10 more for the Agent Command Center and multi-agent Spaces. If you regularly run three or more agents in parallel, that is worth it. If you don't, it isn't.
If you run a platform team of 20+: Copilot Business at $19/seat with pooled credits and admin budget caps is the more predictable line item. Devin Teams at $80 + $40/seat costs $880/month for 20 users versus $380 for Copilot — but includes an admin analytics dashboard and priority support.
If you're in a regulated environment: Devin Enterprise offers VPC deployment; Copilot Enterprise does not. That single line decides a lot of procurement conversations.
If you're already deep in GitHub Actions, Issues and PRs: stay on Copilot. The integration tax of switching editors rarely pays back.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Windsurf free?
Yes. The free tier survived the rename. Devin Desktop Free costs $0 and includes a light agent quota, limited model availability, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions. You do not get Devin Cloud access or premium models. Paid tiers start at $20/month for Pro.
What is Windsurf AI coding tool?
Windsurf was an agentic IDE built on VS Code, acquired by Cognition in July 2025 and renamed Devin Desktop in June 2026. It combines a full editor — syntax highlighting, extensions, LSPs, debugging — with a command center for dispatching and reviewing local and cloud coding agents from one Kanban view.
Is Windsurf better than GitHub Copilot?
Not universally. Devin Desktop is better if you orchestrate multiple concurrent agents or need VPC deployment. Copilot is better if you want the lowest price, unlimited completions, deep GitHub integration, or to keep your current editor. At $10 versus $20 monthly, Copilot is the safer default for most individual developers.
Can you use Windsurf and Copilot together?
Yes, and many teams do. Devin Desktop is VS Code-compatible, so the Copilot extension installs normally. GitHub also ships Agent HQ, a control plane that orchestrates third-party agents — including Cognition's — under one Copilot subscription. Running both means paying both, so confirm the combined spend is justified.
Editor's note — sources: Cognition's Devin Desktop rename announcement, Cognition's Windsurf acquisition post and SWE-2 model post, the Devin pricing page, GitHub's Copilot plans documentation, and GitHub's usage-based billing announcement — all linked inline above. Pricing verified 25 September 2026 and subject to change. Benchmark figures are vendor-reported on a vendor-chosen suite.