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Amazon Q vs Windsurf

Honest comparison of features, pricing, pros, and cons — updated for 2026

Our Verdict
Amazon Q leads by rating
Amazon Q has higher user and editor ratings (4.5 vs 4.0). For premium quality, choose Amazon Q.

Amazon Q

Free (developer) | Pro $20/user/mo

AWS's business AI assistant for coding and cloud operations. Integrates with AWS services, IDEs, and management consoles. Can explain and fix issues in AWS infrastructure code.

Strengths
  • Deep integration with AWS cloud services and console
  • Strong security and enterprise permission guardrails
  • Excellent for writing and debugging cloud infrastructure (Terraform, CloudFormation)
  • Helps with legacy Java migration and code modernizing
Could be better
  • Not optimized for general non-AWS developers
  • Interface in VS Code is less polished than Cursor
  • Limited free tier options for teams

Windsurf

Free tier | Pro $15/mo

The first agentic IDE by Codeium. Powered by the Cascade agent, Windsurf supports real-time collaborative coding, terminal integration, and autonomous multi-file refactoring.

Strengths
  • Cascade agent handles large autonomous refactors well
  • Historically generous free tier
  • Now backed by Cognition's Devin research
Could be better
  • Opaque credit pricing frustrates power users
  • Product direction uncertain post-acquisition
  • Smaller plugin/extension ecosystem than Cursor
Features Amazon Q Windsurf
Rating 4.5 / 5.0 4.0 / 5.0
Pricing Model subscription freemium
Pricing Detail Free (developer) | Pro $20/user/mo Free tier | Pro $15/mo
Category code code
Popularity 0 views 0 views
Official Site Visit Amazon Q → Visit Windsurf →
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