# Windsurf: how AI models rank it, September 2026

IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition. Named in 26 judge labels across 1 categories by 11 of 12 models. Page: https://it-ai-index.com/vendors/windsurf/

## Standing by category

| Category | Share | Rank | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI coding assistants | 10% | 2 | 19% | 26 |

## What the models said for it

- "Codeium (Best Free Option) ... Codeium's free tier or GitHub Copilot's $10/month plan offer the best balance of cost and functionality." (Claude Haiku 4.5, AI coding)
- "recommend starting with GitHub Copilot ... or Codeium (for cost efficiency and privacy options) as pilots" (Claude Haiku 4.5, AI coding)
- "Windsurf is widely considered one of the best AI coding assistants for companies with a limited budget" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, AI coding)
- "Start with Codeium's free tier — it offers the most generous free plan with unlimited completions." (Kimi K2, AI coding)

## And against it

- "avoid standard free-tier or public instances of major AI coding assistants (such as GitHub Copilot standard, Cursor, or Windsurf)" (Qwen 3.7 Flash, AI coding)
- "Listed among tools impacted by IDEsaster; vulnerable to the same chaining of prompt injection with IDE features" (GLM 4.7 FlashX, AI coding)
- "Avoid: Free tiers of Copilot/Windsurf for proprietary code" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, AI coding)
- "(such as Claude Code, Devin, Cursor, and Windsurf) ... they introduce severe new attack surfaces" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, AI coding)

## Record

- Method: https://it-ai-index.com/methodology/
- Raw judge labels and full responses: https://it-ai-index.com/data/
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as IT AI Recommendation Index, September 2026 Edition, it-ai-index.com.