Cursor Alternatives

Short version: if you want to stay in a VS Code-style editor, GitHub Copilot at $10 or Windsurf (now Devin) at $20 are the easiest swaps. If you'd rather work in the terminal, Claude Code and OpenAI Codex both come with a regular chat subscription. If you want to pay as little as possible, Zed and OpenCode are free to use with your own model keys.

Why people look around: Cursor's $8 Plus plan only runs Grok models, and Claude or GPT models cost API list price on top, even on the $30 Premium plan. If those are the models you want, another tool may be the cheaper deal. We compared Cursor with Windsurf in detail here.

What you pay

Tool	Free option	Cheapest paid plan	Next step up	Teams
Cursor (for reference)	Limited agent and chat requests	Plus, $8/mo (Grok models only)	Premium, $30/mo	Separate team plans
Windsurf (Devin)	Light agent quota, unlimited Tab completions	Pro, $20/mo	Max, $200/mo	$80/mo plus $40 per full seat
GitHub Copilot	2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month	Pro, $10/mo	Pro+ $39/mo, Max $100/mo	Business and Enterprise plans
Claude Code	Not on Claude's free plan	Claude Pro, $20/mo ($17/mo billed yearly)	Max, from $100/mo	From $20 per seat/mo, billed yearly
OpenAI Codex	Included in ChatGPT Free (desktop app, as it rolls out)	ChatGPT Go, $8/mo	Plus $20/mo, Pro from $100/mo	Business, $20 per user/mo billed yearly
Zed	Free forever with your own keys	Pro, $10/mo ($5 of AI usage included)	Usage at API list price +10%	Business, $30 per seat/mo
OpenCode	Free and open source, some free models	Go, $10/mo (optional)	Go Plus, $40/mo	—

Prices are before tax. Checked October 17, 2026.

The options

Windsurf (now Devin). Windsurf's website now forwards to Devin, and the app is sold as Devin Desktop. Pro at $20 includes models from OpenAI, Claude, Gemini and others, plus Devin's cloud agents. The catch is the jump: after Pro, the next plan is $200.

GitHub Copilot. The cheapest well-known swap at $10 a month, and it plugs into editors you may already use, like VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains and Neovim. Completions are unlimited on every paid plan. Chat and agent work draw from a monthly pool of credits.

Claude Code. Anthropic's coding agent runs in your terminal and comes with Claude Pro, so if you already pay for Claude, you may already have it. It isn't on the free plan. Heavier users move to Max, which starts at $100 a month.

OpenAI Codex. Codex is included with ChatGPT plans, from Free up. The free and $8 Go plans are for light tasks in the desktop app. Plus at $20 adds Codex on the web, in the CLI and IDE extension, and automatic code review. You can also run it on an API key and pay per use.

Zed. A fast, open-source editor. The free Personal plan works with your own API keys or outside agents like Codex CLI, so you only pay your model provider. Pro is $10 with unlimited edit predictions and $5 of hosted AI usage, then usage at list price plus 10%.

OpenCode. An open-source coding agent for the terminal, IDE or desktop. It's free, includes some free models, and connects to models from almost any provider. If you'd rather not juggle keys, its optional Go plan is $10 a month.

Which one should you pick?

• Cheapest switch that still feels like Cursor: GitHub Copilot Pro at $10.
• You want Claude, GPT and Gemini in one $20 plan: Windsurf (Devin) Pro.
• You already pay for Claude or ChatGPT: try Claude Code or Codex first, since it's already in your plan.
• You want to pay only for what you use: Zed or OpenCode with your own API keys.
• Small team on a budget: Claude Team and ChatGPT Business both start at $20 a seat billed yearly. Zed Business is $30 a seat, but AI usage is billed separately.

Most of these have a free way in, so pick two, open the same project in each for an afternoon, and keep whichever one gets in your way least.