Windsurf Review 2026: Now Devin Desktop, Pricing & Changes

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Last verified: October 12, 2026. This is an editorial research review — how we review. Prices and plans change often; confirm on the vendor’s site.

Status update: Formerly Windsurf. Cognition agreed to acquire Windsurf in July 2025 and renamed the editor Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026; windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai.

If you are looking for a Windsurf review, this is it under the product’s current name. Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent, agreed to buy Windsurf in July 2025. On June 2, 2026, it renamed the Windsurf editor Devin Desktop. The update reached existing users over the air, and windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai. Because Windsurf no longer exists as a separate product, we review its successor here.

Devin Desktop is for developers who want a full, VS Code-compatible IDE that doubles as a control centre for AI agents. You can run agents on your own machine, hand longer tasks to Devin in the cloud, and bring in third-party agents such as Codex or Claude Agent, then review their work in one place. It also aims to make the shift from writing code to directing agents easier, without taking the editor away.

This is an editorial research review based on Cognition’s announcements, the Devin pricing page, the Devin Desktop documentation and changelog. We did not run our own benchmarks or timed tests.

Quick verdict

Devin Desktop is a capable agent-first IDE with an unusually open approach. Through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) it can run other vendors’ agents next to Cognition’s own, and it adds a clean path to cloud agents. The catch is how fast it is changing. The local agent was replaced three months after the rename, several legacy Windsurf features have been removed, and plan quotas are not published as hard numbers. Long-time Windsurf users should expect to relearn parts of their workflow.

Pro: A full IDE that stays compatible with Windsurf and VS Code extensions, keybindings and settings.
Pro: An Agent Command Center (a Kanban view) and Spaces for managing many local and cloud agents.
Pro: Open to third-party agents through ACP, including Codex, Claude Agent, OpenCode and custom in-house agents.
Pro: The Free plan includes unlimited Tab completions and inline edits.
Con: Constant change. Cascade, Windsurf’s original agent, was removed in September 2026, along with some legacy features such as Deploy and workflow commands.
Con: Daily and weekly quotas are described only qualitatively, so it is hard to compare plans before you buy.
Con: The Teams plan has an $80 monthly minimum, and free “flex” seats do not include Devin Desktop.
Con: The old Windsurf JetBrains plugin is in maintenance mode, and Cognition recommends switching to Devin over ACP.

Visit Devin Desktop

What is Devin Desktop?

Devin Desktop is the renamed Windsurf IDE, which began as a Codeium product. When Cognition announced the deal on July 14, 2025, it said the purchase covered Windsurf’s IP, product, trademark and brand. Cognition also cited $82M of annual recurring revenue and more than 350 enterprise customers at the time. Over the following year it folded Windsurf into the Devin product family, which now includes Devin Cloud (the autonomous cloud agent), Devin CLI, Devin Review and Devin Desktop.

According to Cognition’s FAQ, Devin Desktop is “the same IDE, same editor” as Windsurf. The main change is that the Agent Command Center is now the default view. The classic editor is one shortcut away. Windsurf settings, rules files (.windsurfrules and .windsurf/rules/) and extensions carry over, and the surf command has been replaced by devin-desktop. Devin Desktop runs on macOS, Windows and Linux.

Key features

Agent Command Center and Spaces

The Agent Command Center shows every local and cloud agent session on a single board, grouped by status: running, waiting for review or done. Spaces group sessions, pull requests, files and context so that several agents can share context and Git worktrees on the same piece of work.

Devin Local, the successor to Cascade

Devin Local is now the only built-in local agent. Cognition says it rewrote the agent from scratch in Rust, shares its harness with Devin CLI, and made it “up to 30% more token efficient” than Cascade. That is a vendor claim we have not verified. It supports subagents, plan mode with a reviewable Markdown plan, worktrees and sandboxing. The September 8, 2026 release (v3.9.19) removed Cascade and added a prompt to move existing conversations over.

Third-party agents over ACP

Devin Desktop launched with Agent Client Protocol support, so ACP-compatible agents such as Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode appear in the same board and Spaces as Devin. ACP has been always-on since v3.10.23. That release also added remote agent hosts over SSH.

Tab, Command and code understanding

Tab (marketed as Supercomplete) offers inline suggestions with Tab to Jump and Tab to Import. Command (Cmd/Ctrl+I) makes natural-language inline edits, and Cognition’s docs say it needs no premium credits. Fast Context, Codemaps and DeepWiki help agents and developers find their way around large codebases.

Models: Adaptive, Fusion and SWE-2

Adaptive is Cognition’s model router. Fusion pairs a frontier “lead” model, which plans and reviews, with a cheaper “sidekick” model that does the implementation, and bills each at its own rate. Fusion requires a paid plan and is not available on legacy credit-based plans. SWE-2 is Cognition’s in-house coding model. Since late September 2026 you can also sign in with an eligible ChatGPT plan and bill GPT model usage to that plan.

Cloud handoff and review

You can hand a plan off to Devin Cloud so it keeps running after you close your laptop. Quick Review runs an agentic review of your local changes before you push.

Who should use Devin Desktop

Devin Desktop suits existing Windsurf users who want to stay on a familiar IDE, and teams already using Devin Cloud who want one place to manage local and cloud agents. It is also a good fit for developers who want to run several vendors’ agents side by side in a VS Code-compatible editor.

Who should skip it

Skip Devin Desktop if you need stable workflows and published usage numbers for budgeting, or if you work mainly in JetBrains IDEs. Small teams that want cheap occasional access may also struggle, because Devin Desktop requires a full seat.

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

Open agent model. Running Codex, Claude Agent or your own ACP agent next to Devin avoids locking you into one vendor’s agent.
Local and cloud in one flow. The same subscription covers local agents and Devin Cloud, with a handoff built into the IDE.
Continuity for Windsurf users. Settings, rules, extensions and plans carried over. Devin Desktop also reads AGENTS.md files and can import Cursor rules.
Generous free tier for completions. Unlimited Tab and inline edits on the Free plan suit developers who mostly want autocomplete.

Limitations

Product churn. In under a year the product changed name, default view and local agent. Some legacy Cascade features (Deploy, workflow commands, Vibe and Replace) were removed in September 2026, so check that the features you rely on still exist.
Opaque quotas. Plans describe “light”, “increased” and “significantly higher” quotas rather than numbers, which makes cost planning harder.
Agent-first default. The Agent Command Center now opens first. Developers who mainly want an editor with AI help may find this more than they need, even though the classic editor remains.
JetBrains users lose the native plugin path. The Windsurf JetBrains plugin is in maintenance mode.
Two billing worlds. Legacy Windsurf Enterprise plans, ACU-based Cognition Platform contracts and newer self-serve plans differ in which features they get. For example, Fusion is not available on legacy credit plans.

Pricing (as of October 2026)

Plan	Price	What you get
Free	$0	A light agent quota, limited model choice, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions.
Pro	$20/month	Daily and weekly quotas covering Devin Desktop, Devin CLI and Devin sessions. Frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI plus open-source models, Devin Cloud access, and extra usage at API pricing.
Max	$200/month	Everything in Pro with a much larger weekly quota and no daily cap.
Teams	$80/month minimum; $40/month per full seat	Up to 200 users. Full seats get a Pro-equivalent quota and Devin Desktop access. Free flex seats draw on shared credits but cannot use Devin Desktop. Includes an admin dashboard and centralized billing.
Enterprise	Custom	SAML/OIDC SSO, centralized admin controls, a dedicated or VPC deployment option and dedicated support.

Prepaid on-demand credits roll over and never expire. Cognition says existing Windsurf plans, including legacy Windsurf Enterprise contracts, carried over unchanged after the rename. The pricing page also lists free SWE-2 use in Devin Desktop and the CLI through October 16, 2026, a time-limited offer. Confirm current plans and quotas on Cognition’s pricing page before you buy. See Devin Desktop pricing

Prices verified on October 12, 2026 against the official Windsurf (Devin Desktop) pricing page. Plans change often — confirm on the vendor’s page before you buy.

Use cases

Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) is a VS Code-compatible editor that doubles as a control center for AI agents. The scenarios below reflect Cognition’s documentation as of October 2026; the product has changed quickly since the rename, so confirm that any feature you depend on is still current.

Staying on Windsurf after the rename

Developers and teams who adopted Windsurf can keep their editor, settings, rules files and extensions, and Cognition says existing plans, including legacy Windsurf Enterprise contracts, carried over unchanged. The main adjustment is the agent: Devin Local replaced Cascade in September 2026, and legacy features such as Deploy and workflow commands were removed. In our assessment, teams should check their workflows against the current changelog rather than assume everything works as it did under the Windsurf name.

Running several vendors’ agents side by side

Teams that want to compare or combine agents can run ACP-compatible agents such as Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode, or an in-house agent, on the same Agent Command Center board as Devin. Spaces let several agents share context and Git worktrees on one piece of work, which makes it easier to judge different agents on the same task. Since v3.10.23, ACP support is always on and agents can also run on remote hosts over SSH.

Starting a task locally and finishing it in the cloud

A developer can draft a task with Devin Local’s plan mode, review the Markdown plan, and hand it to Devin Cloud so the work continues after the laptop is closed. The Agent Command Center shows local and cloud sessions on one board by status, and Quick Review can run an agentic review of local changes before pushing. Because plan quotas are described only qualitatively, watch usage before relying on cloud handoff for a large volume of work.

Autocomplete-first use on the Free plan

Developers who mainly want AI help while typing can use the Free plan’s unlimited Tab completions, with Tab to Jump and Tab to Import, plus Command (Cmd/Ctrl+I) for natural-language inline edits, which Cognition’s docs say needs no premium credits. The editor now opens to the Agent Command Center by default, so these users will want the classic editor view, which is one shortcut away. Agent use on the Free plan is limited to a light quota.

Getting oriented in a large codebase

Engineers new to a large codebase can generate Codemaps, shareable maps of execution order and component relationships whose nodes link straight to the code, and use DeepWiki hover explanations for unfamiliar functions, classes and variables. Fast Context helps agents retrieve the relevant code, which suits investigation work before anything is changed. Indexing remote repositories that are not stored locally is limited to the Teams and Enterprise plans.

Alternatives

Cursor: a VS Code-style AI editor with local and cloud agents, Bugbot and published per-plan prices.
Kiro: AWS’s agentic IDE built around spec-driven development, with credit-based plans and published model multipliers.
Zed: a fast, open-source native editor that also hosts ACP agents and supports your own API keys.

Final verdict

Devin Desktop is where Windsurf went, and it is now a serious agent-management IDE rather than just an AI editor. Its openness to third-party agents and its tie-in with Devin Cloud are real advantages. The pace of change and the vague quotas are real drawbacks. Start on the Free plan to try the editor, then step up to Pro if the agent workflow suits you.

Try Devin Desktop

FAQ

What happened to Windsurf?

Cognition, the company behind the Devin coding agent, agreed to acquire Windsurf in July 2025 and renamed the Windsurf editor Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. The update reached existing users over the air, and windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai. Cognition’s FAQ describes Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) as the same IDE and editor, with the Agent Command Center as the default view and the classic editor one shortcut away.

Is Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) free?

Yes, there is a Free plan with unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, a light agent quota and limited model choice. Paid plans add larger daily and weekly agent quotas, frontier models and Devin Cloud access, but Cognition describes those quotas qualitatively rather than as published numbers. On the Teams plan, only full seats include Devin Desktop; the free flex seats do not.

Will my Windsurf settings and plan carry over?

Settings, rules files (.windsurfrules and .windsurf/rules/) and extensions carry over, and Cognition says existing Windsurf plans, including legacy Enterprise contracts, continued unchanged. Workflows have changed, though: Cascade was removed in the September 8, 2026 release (v3.9.19) and replaced by Devin Local, with a prompt to move existing conversations, and legacy features such as Deploy and workflow commands were dropped. The surf command is now devin-desktop, so update any scripts that call it.

Does Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) work with JetBrains IDEs?

Not as a supported plugin going forward. The Windsurf JetBrains plugin is in maintenance mode, Cognition warns that newer JetBrains releases can break it, and it recommends running Devin through the Agent Client Protocol (ACP) instead. That route adds Devin as an agent in JetBrains AI Chat, installed from the ACP Registry and requiring the AI Assistant plugin, but it brings in the Devin agent rather than the Devin Desktop editor and its Agent Command Center.

Does Cognition train on my code in Windsurf (now Devin Desktop)?

By default it may. Cognition’s security documentation says it may use your data for model training by default, that customers on paid plans can opt out at any time on the Data Controls settings page, and that opting out also enables zero data retention with its model providers. On Teams only an administrator can opt out, and Enterprise data is not used for training without express prior written consent. The page covers Devin’s services generally, does not name Devin Desktop and does not describe an opt-out on the Free plan, so check Data Controls before opening sensitive code.

Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) or Cursor?

Both are VS Code-compatible editors with local and cloud agents. Devin Desktop stands out for running third-party agents such as Codex, Claude Agent and OpenCode next to Cognition’s own and for its handoff to Devin Cloud, while Cursor bundles more of its own tools, such as Bugbot code review, and ties included usage to published per-model API rates rather than qualitative quotas. In our assessment, Devin Desktop suits teams that want vendor-neutral agent management or already use Devin, and Cursor suits teams that want a wider single-vendor toolset, provided its SpaceX ownership and the planned end of OpenAI access are not concerns.

Windsurf Review (2026): The AI Editor Now Called Devin Desktop