Windsurf vs Cursor
Zero of fourteen models named Windsurf first on the direct prompt; one named Cursor. Windsurf was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and Cursor by fourteen and Windsurf carries 34 labels and Cursor 57, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in one category this edition.
Named in four categories this edition.
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the AI coding assistants page.
By framing
WindsurfFirst choices, of fourteen modelsCursor
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Windsurf and Cursor were named in the same answer seventy-eight times, of the 97 answers naming Windsurf and the 176 naming Cursor. In those answers Cursor took the first choice eleven times and Windsurf twelve.
Every model, every framing
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | | | | |||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | | ||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | ||
| Grok 4.20 | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | ||||
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | | |
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | ||||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | ||
| Kimi K2 | | | | | ||
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | | |
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | |
Windsurf Cursor first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Windsurf on the left and Cursor on the right.The direct prompt
Cursor first, Windsurf not the choice
1 of 14 modelsWindsurf was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Neither was the first choice, one was named
10 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Neither was named
3 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
Windsurf0%#7 of 9Cursor0%#9 of 9What the models said about Windsurf
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Cursor, Replit, Windsurf, OpenAI Codex. Named in the 43.1% unauthorized file operations taxonomy” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Augment and Windsurf did not issue swift fixes, leaving their users temporarily exposed.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“Augment and Windsurf had not provided a fix update at the time of publication” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Codeium – best free unlimited usage ... Zero budget / proof of concept: Codeium free unlimited + Amazon Q Developer free tier” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · first choice
“The best AI coding assistant for a company with a limited budget is Windsurf, which is priced at $15/month.” Llama 4 Maverick · budget prompt · first choice
“The Top Pick for $0 Budget: Codeium ... is the strongest option for a budget-conscious team” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
What the models said about Cursor
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“Cursor says it sends prompts and code context to model providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google... If you're on an individual plan, the DPA does not apply.” GPT-5.4 mini · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cursor, Replit, Windsurf, OpenAI Codex. Named in the 43.1% unauthorized file operations taxonomy and in the IDEsaster 100% vulnerable set.” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cursor has bugs and inconsistent outputs, where the AI claims to have completed a task but hasn't actually done what it said” Claude Haiku 4.5 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cursor at $20-40/month offers the most sophisticated agent workflows with Composer mode, multi-file awareness, and autonomous coding capabilities.” Muse Glimmer 30B · comparative prompt · first choice
“It earns the top overall ranking based on its whole-codebase context awareness, multi-file editing capabilities, and strong accuracy scores” Claude Haiku 4.5 · comparative prompt · first choice
“Select two of the above tools (e.g., GitHub Copilot and Cursor) and run a head-to-head pilot” Gemini 3.5 Flash · scale prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.