pricing
Coding Agent Pricing Comparison: Every Plan for 2024
Compare AI coding agent pricing in 2024: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, and Cline plans, costs, and best-value picks.
Pricing accuracy note: All figures on this page reflect published rates as of mid-2024. AI tool pricing changes frequently — always verify on each tool’s official pricing page before purchasing.
This coding agent pricing comparison covers every major plan across the five tools developers are actively choosing in 2024: GitHub Copilot, Cursor, Windsurf, Devin, and Cline. Whether you’re optimizing a solo workflow or rolling out tooling across an engineering team, the cost structures vary dramatically — from flat monthly subscriptions to pure pay-per-token models. Here’s what each one actually costs.
For a deeper look at how these tools perform beyond their price tags, see our full breakdown of the best coding agents.
Quick Comparison: All Plans at a Glance
| Tool | Free Tier | Entry Paid | Team/Business | Pricing Model |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | ✅ 2,000 completions/mo | $10/mo (Pro) | Contact sales | Flat-rate + AI credits |
| Cursor | ✅ Limited requests | $20/mo (Pro) | $40/user/mo (Teams) | Flat-rate + on-demand |
| Windsurf | ✅ Yes | $15/mo (Pro) | Contact for Teams | Flat-rate |
| Devin | ✅ Light quota | $20/mo (Pro) | $80 base + $40/seat/mo | Flat-rate + overage |
| Cline | ✅ Free extension | API costs only | Custom Enterprise | Pure pay-per-token (BYOK) |
GitHub Copilot Pricing
Official pricing page: github.com/features/copilot/plans
According to GitHub Copilot Plans & Pricing, Copilot now offers four individual tiers:
- Free — $0/month. Includes 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests per month. A genuine free tier for light users, with no credit card required.
- Pro — $10/month. Unlimited code completions and next-edit suggestions, plus $15/month in AI credits for chat, agent mode, Copilot CLI, and cloud agent tasks.
- Pro+ — $39/month. Access to premium models with $70/month in AI credits included.
- Max — $100/month. Highest usage limits with $200/month in AI credits bundled in.
Business and Enterprise plans require contacting GitHub sales directly.
Understanding AI Credits: GitHub AI Credits are billed at $0.01 USD per credit (1 credit = $0.01). Credits are consumed by chat interactions, agent mode tasks, Copilot CLI usage, and cloud agent operations — not by standard code completions, which remain unlimited on paid plans.
Pricing model: Hybrid. Code completions are flat-rate on paid plans; agentic and chat features draw from a monthly AI credit allowance.
For a full assessment of features and limitations, read our GitHub Copilot review.
Cursor Pricing
Official pricing page: cursor.com/pricing
According to Cursor Pricing, the four tiers are:
- Hobby — Free. Includes limited agent requests and tab completions. No credit card required — a solid starting point to evaluate the editor.
- Pro — $20/month. Unlimited agent access, frontier model support, MCPs (Model Context Protocol), and cloud agents.
- Teams — $40/user/month. Adds centralized billing, SAML/OIDC SSO, a team marketplace, and Bugbot automated code reviews.
- Enterprise — Custom pricing. Includes pooled usage across the organization, SCIM provisioning, and audit logs.
On-demand usage: Cursor’s usage-based pricing allows continued model access after a plan’s included amount is consumed, billed in arrears. This prevents hard cutoffs mid-sprint but can lead to unexpected charges if usage spikes. Note that Cursor subscriptions are only available directly through cursor.com — no authorized resellers exist.
Pricing model: Flat-rate with optional on-demand overage.
See our Cursor AI review for a detailed look at how the Pro plan performs in practice.
Windsurf Pricing
Windsurf (by Codeium) offers a straightforward three-tier structure:
- Free — $0/month. Includes a meaningful free allowance to get started without a commitment.
- Pro — $15/month. The most affordable flat-rate paid tier among the five tools covered here, making it the go-to pick for budget-conscious individual developers.
- Teams — Contact Windsurf for team pricing.
Windsurf’s Pro plan sits $5/month below Cursor Pro and $5/month below Devin Pro, which matters for developers who want a capable AI editor without the higher subscription overhead.
Pricing model: Flat-rate subscription.
Our Windsurf review covers what the Pro tier delivers in terms of autocomplete quality and agent capabilities.
Devin Pricing
Official pricing page: devin.ai/pricing
Devin, built by Cognition, is positioned as a more autonomous software engineering agent — and its pricing reflects that. According to Devin Plans and Pricing:
- Free — $0/month. Light agent quota, limited model access, but unlimited inline edits and tab completions.
- Pro — $20/month. Access to frontier models (OpenAI, Claude, Gemini), Devin Cloud, and the SWE 1.6 model at no additional cost.
- Max — $200/month. Significantly higher quotas for heavy users or teams using Devin as a primary autonomous agent.
- Teams — $80/month base fee plus $40/month per full developer seat. Supports unlimited members with centralized billing.
- Enterprise — Custom pricing. Adds SAML/OIDC SSO and VPC deployment for security-sensitive organizations.
Overage handling: Devin’s usage allowance refreshes on a daily and weekly basis. Users who exceed their included quota can purchase additional usage at API pricing. Cost per message varies based on the model selected, task complexity, and reasoning depth required.
Pricing model: Flat-rate with usage-based overage.
Read our Devin AI review to understand where the autonomous agent model excels and where it falls short.
Cline Pricing
Official pricing page: cline.bot/pricing
Cline operates on a fundamentally different model from every other tool on this list. According to Cline Pricing, the VS Code extension itself is completely free and open-source — there is no subscription fee for individual developers. You pay only for AI inference, using your own API keys (BYOK).
- Individual — Free extension. Bring your own API keys from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, OpenRouter, AWS Bedrock, GCP Vertex, Groq, Cerebras, DeepSeek, and more. No vendor lock-in.
- Enterprise — Custom pricing. Adds a JetBrains extension, SSO, centralized billing, RBAC, a team management dashboard, SLA guarantees, and dedicated support.
Cline is trusted by developers at Samsung, Salesforce, Oracle, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, and Visa, according to Cline Pricing.
For a complete feature walkthrough, see our Cline review.
The True Cost of Cline: Estimating Monthly API Spend
Because Cline passes costs directly to your chosen AI provider, your monthly spend depends entirely on usage patterns and model selection. Here’s a practical framework for estimating costs:
Model cost benchmarks (approximate, subject to provider changes):
| Provider & Model | Input (per 1M tokens) | Output (per 1M tokens) |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic Claude 3.5 Sonnet | ~$3 | ~$15 |
| OpenAI GPT-4o | ~$5 | ~$15 |
| Google Gemini 1.5 Pro | ~$3.50 | ~$10.50 |
| DeepSeek Coder V2 | ~$0.14 | ~$0.28 |
Rough monthly estimates by usage level:
- Light use (occasional refactoring, short tasks, ~50K tokens/day): $5–$20/month with Claude 3.5 Sonnet; under $5/month with DeepSeek.
- Moderate use (daily coding sessions, multi-file edits, ~200K tokens/day): $20–$80/month with Claude; $5–$15/month with DeepSeek.
- Heavy use (full-day agentic workflows, large codebases, ~500K+ tokens/day): $100–$300+/month with Claude; $15–$50/month with DeepSeek.
The key levers are model choice and task complexity. Switching from Claude 3.5 Sonnet to DeepSeek Coder V2 can reduce costs by 90%+ with acceptable quality trade-offs for many tasks. For teams processing large volumes, AWS Bedrock or GCP Vertex pricing may offer additional savings over direct API access.
Bottom line: Cline is the cheapest coding agent option at low-to-moderate usage with cost-optimized models, but can become the most expensive at heavy usage with premium models.
Tips for Getting the Best Value
Start with free tiers before committing. GitHub Copilot Free, Cursor Hobby, Devin Free, and Cline all offer meaningful no-cost access. Run each through your actual workflow for a week before paying.
Match the pricing model to your usage pattern. Flat-rate plans (Copilot Pro, Cursor Pro, Windsurf Pro) are predictable. Token-based models (Cline) reward efficiency but punish heavy usage with premium models.
For teams, compare per-seat math carefully. Cursor Teams at $40/seat, Devin Teams at $40/seat (plus $80 base), and GitHub’s business tiers all have different breakeven points depending on team size.
Use cheaper models for routine tasks. With Cline and Devin’s overage pricing, routing simple completions through a smaller model (DeepSeek, Gemini Flash) while reserving Claude or GPT-4o for complex reasoning can cut monthly bills significantly.
Watch for on-demand overage. Cursor’s arrears billing and Devin’s API-rate overage can surprise users who hit plan limits mid-month. Set usage alerts where available.
Summary Verdict
🏆 Best Coding Agent for Budget
Windsurf Pro at $15/month is the most affordable flat-rate paid plan. For individual developers who want a capable AI coding editor without the $20+ price point, it’s the clear value pick. Cline with a low-cost model (DeepSeek) can undercut even this at light usage, but requires more setup and cost monitoring.
🏆 Best for Teams
Cursor Teams at $40/user/month offers the most complete team feature set — SAML/OIDC SSO, Bugbot code reviews, a team marketplace, and centralized billing — at a competitive per-seat price. Devin Teams makes sense for organizations specifically deploying autonomous agents, but the $80 base fee adds overhead for smaller groups.
🏆 Best Free Tier
Cline wins outright — the extension is permanently free with no monthly caps, and you only pay for what you use. For developers with existing API credits or access to free-tier model providers, the effective monthly cost can be $0. GitHub Copilot Free (2,000 completions + 50 chat requests) is the best free tier among subscription-based tools.
Pricing data sourced from official pages at github.com/features/copilot/plans, cursor.com/pricing, devin.ai/pricing, and cline.bot/pricing. Windsurf pricing sourced from Codeium’s official site. All figures reflect mid-2024 published rates and are subject to change.