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AI coding assistants · October 2026 Edition

Windsurf vs Tabnine

Zero of fourteen models named Windsurf first on the direct prompt; zero named Tabnine. Windsurf was named by thirteen of the fourteen models and Tabnine by eleven and Windsurf carries 34 labels and Tabnine 33, so the shares are not directly comparable.

Windsurf

accepted challenger

Named in one category this edition.

Tabnine

accepted challenger

Named in two categories this edition.

First-choice share14%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate9%0%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#2#5A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels3433A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Windsurf reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.GitHub Copilot was named alongside these two in fourteen of the fourteen direct answers. GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf · GitHub Copilot vs Tabnine · Windsurf vs Cursor

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

How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
WindsurfFirst choices, of fourteen modelsTabnine
Direct00
Paraphrase00
Comparative00
Budget-constrained71
Scale-constrained00
Negative053 against Windsurf
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.

Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Windsurf and Tabnine were named in the same answer fifty-nine times, of the 97 answers naming Windsurf and the 119 naming Tabnine. In those answers Tabnine took the first choice seven times and Windsurf eleven.

Every model, every framing

The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Windsurf and Tabnine stood in it.
ModelDirectParaphraseComparativeBudget-constrainedScale-constrainedNegative
Claude Haiku 4.5
GPT-5.4 mini
Gemini 3.5 Flash
Perplexity Sonar
Grok 4.1 Fast
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 Tabnine first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Windsurf on the left and Tabnine on the right.

The direct prompt

The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Windsurf and Tabnine stood in it.

Neither was the first choice, one was named

5 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.
Grok 4.1 FastGitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Gemini Code Assist, Tabnine
DeepSeek V4 FlashGitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, Windsurf
Kimi K2GitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Cursor, Tabnine
GLM 4.7 FlashXGitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, Tabnine, Windsurf
MiniMax M2.5GitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, Windsurf

Neither was named

9 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.
Claude Haiku 4.5GitHub Copilot alternatives: JetBrains AI Assistant
GPT-5.4 miniGitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, JetBrains AI Assistant
Gemini 3.5 FlashGitHub Copilot alternatives: Augment Code, Cursor, Devin
Perplexity SonarGitHub Copilot alternatives: Augment Code, Claude Code, Cursor, Kilo Code
Mistral SmallGitHub Copilot
Llama 4 MaverickGitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code
Qwen 3.7 FlashCursor, GitHub Copilot alternatives: Claude Code
GPT-6 LunaGitHub Copilot alternatives: Cursor, Gemini Code Assist
Muse Glimmer 30BGitHub Copilot alternatives: Amazon Q Developer, Augment Code, Cursor

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

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Windsurf leads by seventeen points.
Windsurf19%#2 of 7
Tabnine2%#4 of 7
The full small business standing →
Mid-marketThe figures above
Windsurf leads by twelve points.
Windsurf14%#2 of 9
Tabnine2%#5 of 9
The full mid-market standing →
Enterprise
The order flips: Tabnine leads at enterprise.
Tabnine9%#2 of 9
Windsurf0%#7 of 9
The full enterprise standing →

What 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 Tabnine

Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Three of four in this category shown.

“on-prem / local models such as Tabnine are repeatedly called out as the privacy champion because your code never leaves your infrastructure” Muse Glimmer 30B · negative prompt · first choice
“Prefer privacy-first tools like Tabnine (which can run locally/air-gapped and is trained only on permissively licensed code)” DeepSeek V4 Flash · negative prompt · first choice
“I'd start with Amazon CodeWhisperer or Tabnine since they're free” MiniMax M2.5 · budget prompt · first choice
Also compared

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.