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Cursor vs Windsurf

A feature-by-feature comparison of Cursor and Windsurf across 7 capability categories.

First tool

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Second tool

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Modalities — Cursor Wins

Modalities: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Text Input	Yes. Agent chat is driven by text prompts in the input. You type instructions, attach @ context, and switch models from that same field.	Yes. Chat and inline prompting throughout the editor.
Image Upload / Vision	Yes. You can drag an image into chat or paste a screenshot. Agent also reads image files (.png, .jpg, .gif, .webp, .svg) for vision-capable models.	Yes. Paste screenshots and mockups into the chat as context.
Image Generation	Yes. Agent can generate images from text or reference images for UI mockups and diagrams. Files land in the project assets/ folder and show inline in chat.	No. Does not generate still images.
Voice Mode	Partial. A microphone in the chat input dictation-transcribes prompts, and iOS can dictate to agents. That is one-way voice input, not a two-way spoken conversation loop.	No. No voice interface.
Video Understanding	Partial. Grok Bot accepts video attachments (up to 200 MB) so that Bot can inspect recorded footage. Core Agent chat is documented for images and files, not a general YouTube/video-watch loop, so this is not product-wide video understanding.	No. Does not analyse existing video.
Video Generation	No. Not a video generation product.	No. Not a video generation product.
File Upload (PDF, DOCX)	Yes. Chat @-mentions attach files and folders. Grok Bot also takes PDFs, Office docs, CSV, JSON, source, and notebooks as message attachments.	Yes. Reads files from the open workspace and accepts attachments.
Code Execution	Yes. Agent runs shell commands in the terminal, watches output, and can execute tests, linters, and builds as part of a task.	Yes. Cascade runs terminal commands and tests as part of an agentic loop.
Audio Input	Partial. Grok Bot message attachments include audio files (25 MB each) in the same table as documents and images, so pre-recorded audio can be sent for a task. Core Agent chat is not documented as a general audio-file transcribe surface, so this is Grok Bot only.	No. No audio input.
Canvas / Artifact Editor	Yes. The Agents Window is an agent-first workspace beside the classic IDE editor, with diffs, file search, and split layouts. Agent also opens in a Cmd+I sidepane.	Yes. The editor pane is the shared surface.
Screen Sharing / Computer Use	Yes. Cloud Agents run a full desktop and can drive mouse/keyboard plus the browser (computer use). You can take over the remote desktop, then hand control back to the agent.	No. Operates on the codebase and terminal, not the screen.

Memory & Context — Tie

Memory & Context: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Persistent Memory	Partial. Grok Bots retain facts and summaries across work. Core Agent chat relies on Rules instead of auto-memory between completions, so this is not ChatGPT-style global memory.	Yes. Memories persist project context across sessions.
Large Context Window	Yes. Each chat has a fixed model context window with a usage ring. Cloud Agents let you pick context size; several models document up to 1M-token extended context.	Partial. Indexes the whole repository; the usable window depends on the selected model.
Custom Instructions	Yes. Project and user Rules (.cursor/rules plus User Rules) inject persistent instructions into Agent. Always Apply, glob, and @-mention rules are documented.	Yes. Workspace rules files steer the assistant per project.
Conversation History	Yes. Past chats persist so you can @Chats into a new prompt. CLI resume/continue reloads prior threads; iOS keeps an agent inbox of running conversations.	Yes. Cascade conversations are saved per workspace.

Integrations — Cursor Wins

Integrations: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Web Search / Browsing	Yes. Agent has a Web tool that generates search queries and performs live web searches during a task.	Yes. Can fetch documentation and web results as context.
Plugins / Extensions	Yes. Cursor Marketplace installs official plugins that bundle rules, skills, MCP servers, and hooks. Teams can ship a private marketplace; VS Code extensions still work in the editor.	Partial. MCP servers extend it, rather than a first-party plugin marketplace.
API Access	Yes. Cloud Agents API, TypeScript/Python SDKs, Admin API, Analytics API, and related endpoints are documented. They run agent workflows, not a raw chat-completions API.	No. An IDE product, not an API.
Zapier Integration	Unknown. No first-party Cursor Zapier app was listed on cursor.com/docs. Automations document GitHub, GitLab, Slack, Linear, and webhooks instead.	Unknown. Not confirmed either way.
Custom GPTs / Bots	Yes. Grok Bots are named durable agents with a profile, skills, routines, and shareable templates. You create, duplicate, and share a Bot the way Custom GPTs are specialized agents.	Partial. Workflows and rules rather than shareable custom agents.
Real-time Collaboration	Partial. You can share a Cloud Agent URL with teammates (read-only unless team follow-ups are on). Grok Bot group chats exist. This is not a simultaneous multiplayer editor session.	Unknown. Not confirmed either way.
Live Social Data Integration
Live Citation Mapping

Developer — Tie

Developer: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Function Calling	Yes. Cursor connects to MCP servers that expose tools the model can execute. Agents call those functions from chat and Plan Mode, with user approval before each tool run by default.	Yes. Tool calling drives the agentic editing loop.
Streaming Responses	Yes. iOS follows agent work live and watches the chat stream as the agent codes. The TypeScript SDK iterates streams; ACP clients handle streaming session updates.	Yes. Responses stream into the editor as they are produced.
Fine-Tuning	No. Public APIs run hosted agent workflows. Docs do not offer a customer fine-tune SKU for foundation weights; you pick Cursor and third-party hosted models.	No. No custom model training.
Embeddings API	No. Cursor APIs are agent, admin, and analytics endpoints, not a vector embeddings API for converting text into embeddings in your own app.	No. No embeddings endpoint.
Structured Output (JSON)	Unknown. ACP and SDKs exchange JSON-RPC/tool payloads, but no first-party JSON-schema guarantee for model replies was documented on the API overview.	No. Not a language model, so this does not apply.
Reasoning / Thinking Mode	Yes. The model catalog lists Thinking variants and GPT reasoning-effort options (for example gpt-5-high). The SDK exposes thinking messages and a reasoning-effort parameter.	Yes. Available through the frontier models it can be pointed at.
Local Execution
Open Weights
Multi-Agent Orchestration

Platforms — Cursor Wins

Platforms: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Web App	Yes. Cursor Web at cursor.com/agents starts and manages cloud agents from a browser on any device, alongside desktop and iOS.	No. Desktop editor only.
iOS App	Yes. Native Cursor for iOS (App Store) directs cloud and local agents, reviews PRs, and streams work. Requires iOS/iPadOS 26+; listed on Start through Enterprise.	No. No native mobile app; the web app runs in a mobile browser.
Android App	Partial. There is no native Android app; docs say Android is planned. Use cursor.com/agents in Chrome and Install App for a PWA.	No. No native mobile app; the web app runs in a mobile browser.
Desktop App	Yes. Cursor is a native IDE: .dmg on macOS 12+, .exe on Windows 10+, and apt/yum/AppImage on Linux. Quickstart starts with installing that desktop app.	Yes. A desktop IDE, forked from VS Code.
Chrome Extension	No. Documented clients are the desktop IDE, cursor.com/agents, iOS, Slack, GitHub, Linear, and the API. Agent uses a built-in IDE browser, not an official Chrome extension.	No. No official browser extension.

Privacy — Tie

Privacy: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
GDPR Compliant	Yes. Enterprise docs link a GDPR-compliant DPA and state Cursor maintains GDPR compliance alongside SOC 2 Type II. Individual plans follow the Privacy Policy, not the DPA.	Yes. Codeium publishes a DPA and serves EU customers.
Opt Out of Data Training	Yes. Privacy Mode is a settings toggle: with it on, Customer Data is not used for training by Cursor or model providers under ZDR. Teams/Enterprise can enforce it org-wide.	Yes. Zero-data-retention mode is available; enterprise plans do not train on your code.
Enterprise Privacy Mode	Yes, requires enterprise plan. Enterprise adds Privacy Mode enforcement, ZDR, optional CMEK, data residency, SSO/SCIM, and a DPA. Privacy Mode is on by default for Enterprise teams.	Yes, requires enterprise plan. Self-hosted and VPC deployment options for enterprise.

Workspaces — Tie

Workspaces: Cursor compared with Windsurf
Feature	Cursor	Windsurf
Projects / Folders	Yes. You open a project folder after install. Agents Window adds multi-workspace; Agent search docs cover multi-root workspaces with per-folder context.	Yes. Organised by workspace.