Cline vs Windsurf: Which AI Agent Is Better?
An in-depth comparison of Cline and Windsurf across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
An in-depth comparison of Cline and Windsurf across output quality, autonomy, reliability, speed, value, and ease of use. Vote for your favorite.
Either way, you pay for the model calls. A median coding-agent day on our gateway is 95 requests and 8.6 million tokens. The table prices every step at one model’s rate.
Cline runs on Standard Compute, where each step goes to the cheapest model that can do it: routine steps go to efficient open models, hard ones to frontier models such as Claude Fable 5.1 or GPT-6 Astra.
| Model | Typical day | Busy day |
|---|---|---|
| Claude Opus 5.5 | $7.34 | $59.10 |
| Claude Sonnet 5.5 | $3.67 | $29.55 |
| GPT-6 Luna | $0.23 | $2.43 |
Fixed monthly plans from $19. Eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute first, no card. Trial terms
Pick a winner in each category. You can change your vote anytime.
ClineWindsurfChoose Cline if you are developers who want a powerful, safety-gated agent inside the editor they already use. Choose Windsurf if you are developers who want an affordable AI editor with agentic capabilities.
In our editorial scoring, Cline leads in 4 of six categories (output quality, autonomy, reliability and value), while Windsurf leads in 2 (speed and ease of use). On price, Cline runs free (byo api key) and is open source; Windsurf runs free / $20 pro / $200 max (as devin desktop) and is proprietary.
What it costs to run Cline
Best API for Cline →
5 options compared, with prices and limits
Standard Compute sends each step to the cheapest model that can do it, on providers we vet for price, uptime and speed. Plans start at $19 a month, and eligible new accounts can try $0.25 of compute with no card. Choose your agent below to connect.
See the trial and activation steps →
More on Cline: How do I use DeepSeek in Cline? · How do I use GLM 5.3 in Cline?
Cline is the open-source coding agent that defined the in-editor agent category, with 11M+ installs across VS Code, JetBrains, Cursor, its CLI and a new desktop app. Its Plan/Act modes separate thinking from doing: the agent proposes a plan you approve before it touches files or runs commands. Apache-2.0 licensed with full bring-your-own-key model freedom, MCP integration, and deployment options up to on-prem and air-gapped for enterprises.
Windsurf began as Codeium's AI-first code editor, known for its Cascade agent. Cognition (the company behind Devin) bought it in 2025, and since June 2026 it ships as Devin Desktop, "the next generation of Windsurf": an agent command center with a built-in VS Code-style IDE; windsurf.com now redirects there. Plans are shared with Devin: Free, Pro at $20 a month and Max at $200, each with a usage allowance that refreshes daily and weekly, and extra usage billed at API prices.
Cline runs on Standard Compute
