Windsurf Pricing: Every Plan Explained
Windsurf raised Pro from $15 to $20 in March 2026 and switched from credits to daily/weekly quotas. The key differentiator: FedRAMP + HIPAA compliance that no competitor matches.
| Plan | Price | Quota | Premium Models | Cascade Flows | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Light (daily limit) | No | Yes | Hobbyists, evaluation |
| Pro | $20/mo | Standard (daily/weekly) | All | Yes | Solo developers |
| Max | $200/mo | Heavy (high limits) | All | Yes | All-day AI coding |
| Teams | $40/seat/mo | Per-user quota | All | Yes | Teams up to 200 seats |
| Enterprise | $60/seat/mo | 2x Teams quota | All | Yes | Large orgs, regulated industries |
Free tier includes SWE-1.5 — Windsurf's proprietary model that rivals Claude Sonnet 4.5 quality at 950 tokens/sec. Premium models (Claude, GPT-5, Gemini) require Pro or above. Existing $15/mo subscribers are grandfathered.
Quota System — Daily/Weekly Rate Limits
In March 2026, Windsurf replaced its credit pool with daily and weekly quotas. Instead of a monthly budget, you get a daily allowance that refreshes every 24 hours.
| What Changed | Old System (Credits) | New System (Quotas) |
|---|---|---|
| Billing unit | Monthly credit pool | Daily/weekly rate limits |
| Flexibility | High — use anytime in month | Lower — daily caps |
| Predictability | Can run out mid-month | Consistent daily access |
| Overage | Service stops | Wait for next day refresh |
Community reaction: Mixed. Power users who preferred bursty usage (burning credits in intense coding sessions) dislike the daily caps. Steady users benefit from guaranteed daily access.
Plan Details
Free Plan
- AutocompleteLimited
- Chat/agentLimited
- SWE-1.5Yes
- SWE-1.5 available free — near Sonnet-quality at 13x the speed
- Cascade agent with light daily quota
- Works in Windsurf editor and 40+ IDE plugins
- No premium models (Claude, GPT-5, Gemini)
Pro Plan
- AutocompleteUnlimited
- Premium modelsAll
- Cascade FlowsFull
- All premium models: Claude Sonnet 4.6, GPT-5, Gemini 3.1
- Standard daily/weekly quota (enough for most developers)
- Zero data retention — your code is never stored
- Was $15/mo until March 2026 (existing users grandfathered)
Max Plan
- AutocompleteUnlimited
- QuotaHeavy
- All featuresYes
- Highest individual quota — rarely hit daily limits
- Same models and features as Pro, just more usage
- Comparable to Cursor Ultra at the same price point
- For developers who code with AI 8+ hours daily
Teams Plan
- Per-user quotaStandard
- SSOYes
- Admin dashboardYes
- Centralized billing and seat management
- SSO and RBAC (role-based access control)
- Usage analytics per developer
- SOC 2 Type II compliant
Enterprise Plan
- Quota2x Teams
- SCIM provisioningYes
- ComplianceFull suite
- FedRAMP High authorized (via Palantir FedStart on AWS GovCloud)
- HIPAA with BAA, DoD IL4/IL5, ITAR compliant
- SCIM user provisioning + SAML SSO
- Custom seat limits above 200, dedicated support
SWE-1.5 — Windsurf's Secret Weapon
Windsurf's proprietary model is free on all plans, including Free tier. Here's how it compares.
| Metric | SWE-1.5 | Claude Sonnet 4.5 | GPT-5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | 950 tok/s | 73 tok/s | ~150 tok/s |
| Code quality | Near Sonnet-level | Best-in-class | Strong |
| Training | End-to-end RL on open base | RLHF + Constitutional AI | RLHF |
| Cost to user | Free | Pro plan required | Pro plan required |
Why it matters: SWE-1.5 is 13x faster than Sonnet and 6x faster than Haiku. For autocomplete and quick chat, it's the fastest quality option in any AI code editor — and it doesn't count against your quota.
Compliance — Windsurf's Strongest Moat
No other AI coding tool matches Windsurf's compliance portfolio. This is why government and healthcare orgs choose Windsurf.
| Certification | Windsurf | Cursor | GitHub Copilot | Claude Code |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SOC 2 Type II | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27001 | Yes | — | Yes | — |
| HIPAA | Yes (BAA) | — | Enterprise | — |
| FedRAMP High | Yes | — | — | — |
| DoD IL4/IL5 | Yes | — | — | — |
| ITAR | Yes | — | — | — |
| Zero data retention | Default | Yes | Opt-out | Yes |
Team Cost Calculator
How much would Windsurf cost your team per year?
| Team Size | Teams (annual) | Enterprise (annual) |
|---|---|---|
| 5 developers | $2,400/yr | $3,600/yr |
| 10 developers | $4,800/yr | $7,200/yr |
| 25 developers | $12,000/yr | $18,000/yr |
| 50 developers | $24,000/yr | $36,000/yr |
| 100 developers | $48,000/yr | $72,000/yr |
Windsurf vs Alternatives
How does Windsurf compare on price?
| Tool | Solo Pro | Team/Seat | Key Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Windsurf | $20/mo | $40/seat | FedRAMP, HIPAA, SWE-1.5 free model |
| GitHub Copilot | $10/mo | $19/seat | Cheapest, broadest IDE support |
| Cursor | $20/mo | $40/seat | Best autocomplete, credit-based billing |
| Claude Code | $20/mo | $150/seat | Terminal agent, deepest codebase understanding |
| Amazon Q | $19/mo | $19/seat | AWS integration, security scanning |
Bottom line: Windsurf at $20/mo matches Cursor's price. The free SWE-1.5 model is unique — no other editor gives you near-frontier-quality coding for free. For regulated industries, Windsurf is the only viable option.
Cursor vs Windsurf → | Cursor Pricing → | Copilot Pricing → | Copilot vs Claude Code → | 3-Way: Copilot vs Windsurf vs Cursor → | All Pricing Compared → | Best AI Coding Tools 2026 → | Compare all tools →