Comparison · under IB-CODE-2026.2
GitHub Copilot vs Windsurf
| GitHub Copilot | Windsurf | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | GitHub / Microsoft | Cognition (formerly Codeium) |
| Pricing | Individual $10/mo (moving to usage-based billing June 1 2026); Business $19/user/mo | Free 25 credits/mo; Pro $15/mo (500 credits); Teams $30/user/mo |
| Default model | Switchable per prompt — GPT-5.5, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Gemini 2.5 Pro | SWE-1.5 (Cognition proprietary, trained with Devin's engineering stack); Claude/GPT switchable |
| CLI surface | ✓ | — |
| Eval status | queued | out of scope |
Comparison pending — neither side evaluated yet
Both GitHub Copilot and Windsurf are currently unevaluated under IB-CODE-2026.2. This page will update as evaluations land.
Want this comparison sooner? Vendors can commission an evaluation to bump their tool up the queue (with full editorial independence on the verdict). Readers can email hello@indiebench.dev to vote for which comparison ships next.
About each tool
GitHub Copilot
GitHub Copilot has the highest absolute adoption among developers using AI at work (29%, Pragmatic Engineer Feb 2026 survey). The Coding Agent feature (GA September 2025) is the autonomous issue-to-PR mode evaluable under IB-CODE-2026.2 — distinct from the inline-autocomplete experience that gets th…
Windsurf
Windsurf is the agentic IDE acquired by Cognition (the Devin team) in late 2025. The Cascade multi-step engine is genuinely strong — but it is IDE-only, with no standalone CLI or SDK as of May 2026. This puts Windsurf out of scope for IB-CODE-2026.2 (autonomous CLI/API evaluation). When the upcoming…