Devin and Cursor are the two most-talked-about names in AI coding, but they are not competing for the same job. Devin (by Cognition) is an autonomous software engineer: you hand it a task from Slack, Linear, or the web app, and it plans, codes, tests, and opens a pull request in its own cloud sandbox — you review the result. Cursor (by Anysphere) is an AI-native code editor, a VS Code fork where you stay at the keyboard: it autocompletes, edits across files, and chats over your codebase, with background agents for longer tasks. Devin starts at a free tier with Pro at $20/month (quota-based, overage at API pricing); Cursor's new plans are Plus $8/month, Premium $30/month, Super $100/month, and Ultra $200/month, with third-party models billed at API rates (legacy Pro $20/month is grandfathered for existing subscribers).
The real question is delegation versus control. Devin removes you from the keyboard: assign work asynchronously, run many agents in parallel across repos, come back to PRs. Cursor supercharges you at the keyboard: every decision stays visible, feedback is instant, and the monthly bill is predictable. Public developer feedback converges on the same conclusion: they serve different moments in the development cycle, and many teams end up using both rather than choosing one.
| Devin | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Autonomous AI software engineer | AI-native code editor (VS Code fork) |
| Price | Free tier; Pro $20/mo; Max $200/mo; Teams $80/mo + $40/seat — quota-based, overage billed at API pricing | Plus $8/mo; Premium $30/mo; Super $100/mo; Ultra $200/mo (Pro $20/mo legacy-only) |
| Free tier | Yes, limited quota | Yes, Hobby plan (limited) |
| Where it runs | Its own cloud sandbox (terminal, browser, editor) | Locally on your machine (IDE) |
| Work model | Async: assign a task, review the finished PR | Interactive: you drive, AI assists in real time |
| Assign via | Slack, Linear, web app, API | The editor itself |
| Parallelism | Many agents in parallel across repos | One editor session, plus background agents |
| Autonomy | Plans, writes, tests, deploys on its own; you supervise | Human-in-the-loop; you approve every step |
| Model choice | OpenAI, Claude, and Gemini frontier models plus Cognition's own | Frontier models included in plans, plus Cursor's own agentic models |
| Weakness | Variable on ambiguous tasks; cost grows beyond quota | Can't fully delegate; you stay in the critical path |
The autonomous AI software engineer that works while you sleep.
Free tier (limited); Pro from $20/mo, Max $200/mo, Teams from $80/mo
Try Devin →The AI-first code editor built for pair-programming with AI.
Free tier; new plans since Oct 2026: Plus $8/mo · Premium $30/mo · Sup
Try Cursor →Pick Cursor for daily development: from $8/month (Plus) it is cheaper and fully predictable for interactive use, feedback is instant, and you keep authorship and control of every change. Pick Devin when the work is well-scoped and parallelizable — migrations, repetitive bug fixes, bulk test-writing — where delegating ten tickets at once is worth a metered bill. The honest answer most reviewers land on: these are complements, not substitutes. Run Cursor as your daily editor and Devin as the async teammate that grinds through the backlog. Two caveats: Devin's old $500/month floor is gone, so entry price is no longer the barrier — cost control is. Set usage limits (Devin added budget caps after developers complained about surprise bills) and always confirm the current quotas on the official pricing page before buying.
Devin's Pro plan is $20/month, but it is quota-based with daily and weekly limits, and extra usage is billed at API pricing — so a busy month costs more than the sticker price. The old flat $500/month plan is gone. Confirm the current quotas on the official pricing page before you commit.
For most developers, no — they do different things. Cursor is where you write code with AI assistance in real time; Devin is where you delegate tickets and come back to review PRs. Many teams use Cursor for daily interactive work and Devin for parallel, well-scoped batch tasks.
Cursor. When the problem is not well-defined, you want to stay in the loop with instant feedback. Devin shines on clear, self-contained tasks and gets less predictable as ambiguity grows.