Cost comparison
Cursor vs Windsurf: cost comparison in 2026
Cursor and Windsurf are both agentic AI IDEs priced around $40 per developer seat, but the extras differ: Cursor layers on a $120 Premium seat for heavy agent users, while Windsurf — now Devin Desktop after Cognition’s June 2026 rebrand — adds an $80/month Teams platform base. Both bill per assigned seat, so the comparison that matters is how many of those seats are actually used.
Prices verified against official vendor pages — Cursor on 2026-06-12, Windsurf on 2026-06-27. Waste figures are estimates from your own inputs.
Plans and per-seat prices, side by side
VENDORCursor
| Plan | Price / seat / mo |
|---|---|
| HobbyIndividuals | $0 |
| ProIndividuals | $20 |
| UltraIndividual power users | $200 |
| Teams StandardTeams and organizations | $40$32/seat/month billed annually |
| Teams PremiumHeavy agent users on team plans | $120$96/seat/month billed annually |
| EnterpriseLarge organizations | Custom |
Windsurf
| Plan | Price / seat / mo |
|---|---|
| FreeIndividual developers | $0 |
| ProIndividual professional developers | $20 |
| MaxHeavy individual / power users | $200 |
| TeamsTeams and organizations | $80/mo base + $40/seat |
| EnterpriseLarge organizations | Custom |
Which is cheaper — and where the real cost hides
The standard team seat is the same $40 on both. From there Cursor’s cost depends on how many developers you put on the $120 Premium tier, while Windsurf’s depends on the fixed $80/month base plus any $200 Max individual seats. On either, idle seats keep billing until an admin reclaims them, and over-tiering (Cursor Premium, Windsurf Max) is the quiet leak. DevSpend reconciles seats purchased vs assigned vs active for both so you see the real monthly number, not the list price.
Estimate your spend on both
The calculator below is prefilled with a typical setup for each — together about $1,600/month with an estimated $440/month lost to inactive seats. Swap in your own seats and prices — nothing is saved until you create a free workspace.
Tool inputs
Seats, price, active estimate, and usage/API spend. Nothing is saved yet.
Active is your best estimate of seats in real use — the gap to assigned seats is your recoverable waste. Active can’t exceed seats, so it’s capped automatically.
Cursor vs Windsurf: cost FAQ
Is Cursor or Windsurf cheaper for teams?
The standard team seat is $40 per user per month on both. Windsurf Teams adds an $80/month platform base, while Cursor adds a $120 Premium seat tier for heavy agent users. Which is cheaper depends on your team size and how many heavy users you have.
What is the pricing difference between Cursor and Windsurf?
Cursor Teams has Standard ($40) and Premium ($120) seats, each with included usage pools. Windsurf Teams is a flat $40 per seat plus an $80/month platform base, with a $200 Max tier for individual power users. Both bill per assigned seat and charge usage overage at API pricing.
Which wastes more on unused seats?
Both bill every assigned seat in full whether or not the developer is active, so idle seats waste money on either. The over-tiering risk differs: Cursor’s is a Premium seat ($120) given to a light user; Windsurf’s is a Max seat ($200) whose quota goes untouched.
How do I track spend across Cursor and Windsurf?
A DevSpend AI workspace tracks seats purchased, assigned, and active for each vendor side by side, with the reclaimable dollars attached — so total AI-tool spend and waste across both appear in one place.
Track both in one free workspace
Up to 5 subscriptions, waste number always visible. Need unlimited tracking or a print-ready reclaim report? See Pro — $39/mo.