Comparison · under IB-CODE-2026.2
Grok Build vs Windsurf
| Grok Build | Windsurf | |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor | xAI | Cognition (formerly Codeium) |
| Pricing | SuperHeavy intro $99/mo for first 6 months (then $299/mo); API at $0.20 / $1.50 per Mtok in/out | Free 25 credits/mo; Pro $15/mo (500 credits); Teams $30/user/mo |
| Default model | Grok 3.5 (Grok Build proprietary fine-tune); 256K context; 70.8% SWE-bench Verified | SWE-1.5 (Cognition proprietary, trained with Devin's engineering stack); Claude/GPT switchable |
| CLI surface | ✓ | — |
| Eval status | deferred | out of scope |
Comparison pending — neither side evaluated yet
Both Grok Build 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
Grok Build
Grok Build launched May 14 2026 in early beta — xAI's entry in the agentic coding CLI category. The novel feature is multi-agent arena mode: up to 8 concurrent sub-agents working on parallel branches with a coordinator selecting the best result. Pricing is the steepest in this list for individual us…
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…