Fixed vs "Surprise, Your Bill is $200" Pricing
These three tools handle billing in completely different ways, and trust me, you'll learn the hard way which approach works:
GitHub Copilot is the only honest one. Free tier gives you 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests. Pro is $10/month, period. No surprises, no gotchas, no "usage-based charges". When you hit limits, it just slows down instead of billing you into bankruptcy. Revolutionary concept, I know.
Cursor is where your budget goes to die. The $20 Pro plan is marketing bullshit. Agent mode eats credits like a GPU mining rig eats electricity. I hit around $80 in month two just refactoring a React app. Seen devs report $150+/month bills because Agent mode was "too good to turn off." Budget at least double what they advertise.
Windsurf burns through 500 prompt credits faster than you can say "npm install." $15 gets you about 2 weeks if you actually use it. Additional credits are $10 per 250, and the math never makes sense. Simple refactoring? 5 credits. Complex function? Sometimes 0.5, sometimes 15. It's like playing cost roulette.
Oh, and Cursor's Agent mode will easily eat through $40-60 in an afternoon? Because it will.
Free Tiers: What Actually Works vs Marketing Lies
GitHub Copilot Free is legitimately usable. 2,000 completions lasts me about 3 weeks of real development. 50 chat requests is enough for debugging sessions without feeling rationed. Works in VS Code, JetBrains, Vim, everywhere. No time limits, no feature restrictions, just "you get X requests then wait for next month."
Cursor Free is a joke. Two weeks of Pro trial, then you're basically locked out. The free tier after trial is so limited it's useless for actual work. This isn't a free tier; it's a "please subscribe or fuck off" tier. Don't plan any projects around this.
Windsurf Free gives you 25 credits after the trial. That's about 2-3 days of light usage before you're buying credits. Their free tier documentation doesn't even pretend it's for real development. It's evaluation-only, which is honest but useless.
Hidden Costs That Will Bite You in the Ass
Editor Lock-in Hell: Cursor forces you into their VS Code fork, which sounds innocent until you realize you can't easily switch back. Your extensions break, keyboard shortcuts are different, and syncing settings becomes a nightmare. I spent like 4+ hours migrating my setup back to regular VS Code when I got fed up with surprise bills. Time cost: probably $300+ worth of my hourly rate.
Learning Curve Tax: Each tool has completely different interaction patterns. GitHub Copilot is straightforward autocomplete + chat. Cursor Agent mode requires learning prompt engineering for coding. Windsurf Cascade has its own weird workflow. Budget 1-2 weeks of reduced productivity switching between any of these.
Team Billing Chaos: Half your team hits usage limits, half doesn't. Junior devs burn through credits faster than seniors because they rely on AI more. GitHub Enterprise billing is predictable. Cursor team billing varies wildly month-to-month. Someone always forgets to monitor usage and ruins the budget.
Tool Addiction Syndrome: You'll want Claude for architecture, ChatGPT for debugging, Cursor for refactoring, Windsurf for exploration, and GitHub Copilot for daily coding. Total AI tool costs easily hit $100-200/month per developer when you account for the complete workflow addiction.
Productivity Cliff: When billing limits kick in, productivity doesn't gradually decrease - it falls off a cliff. Cursor usage limits mean you go from coding superhuman to regular human instantly. Windsurf credit depletion stops your workflow mid-sprint. Only GitHub Copilot throttling is graceful.
Cost Predictability: Who Lies vs Who Tells the Truth
Most Predictable: GitHub Copilot - They say $10/month, you pay $10/month. Wild concept. When you hit limits, it just slows down instead of charging you. I've never seen a GitHub Copilot bill that surprised me. Revolutionary honesty in tech pricing.
Unpredictable as Hell: Cursor - The $20 "Pro" plan is a lie. Frontier model usage charges are opaque, vary by model, and compound quickly. I've seen bills swing from $30 to $140 month-to-month for the same developer. No usage alerts, no spend limits, just surprise billing. Budget 3-6x the advertised price.
Moderately Sketchy: Windsurf - Credit system lets you monitor spending, but credit consumption is inconsistent. Simple refactoring: 2 credits. Same refactoring next week: 8 credits. Additional credits are $10/250, but you'll buy them every month if you actually use it.
Real Monthly Costs Based on 8 Months of Bills
Light Usage (weekends + side projects):
- GitHub Copilot: $0 (free tier actually works)
- Cursor: Around $30 if you avoid Agent mode (good luck)
- Windsurf: $15 base plus you'll buy credits once
Normal Usage (40hrs/week development):
- GitHub Copilot: $10 exactly
- Cursor: My average was like $75-85, seen others hit $120+
- Windsurf: Usually around $40-50 with credit purchases
Heavy Usage (enterprise development + refactoring):
- GitHub Copilot: $39 exactly (Pro+)
- Cursor: I've seen individual bills over $200
- Windsurf: Expect $80-100+ with constant credit buying
Sources and War Stories:
- Cursor Official Pricing - The lies they tell
- GitHub Copilot Plans - Honest pricing that works
- Windsurf Pricing - Credit math that never adds up
- This Stack Overflow thread about surprise billing saved my ass
