Copilot vs Windsurf in 2026: GitHub Copilot against Devin Desktop

What is the difference between Copilot and Windsurf?

GitHub Copilot is an AI assistant that plugs into the editor you already use and into GitHub itself, while Windsurf, now called Devin Desktop, is a standalone AI code editor with its own agents. Copilot runs in VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse and Xcode, in a terminal CLI and on github.com. Devin Desktop is one app, built on VS Code's interface, that runs local agents, cloud Devin sessions and third-party agents from one board.

The name matters if you are searching for Windsurf in 2026. Cognition's Devin Desktop FAQ says "Devin Desktop is the new name for Windsurf," effective June 2, 2026, and windsurf.com now redirects to devin.ai/desktop. This page compares what the official GitHub and Devin pages say today, 27 October 2026.

How does GitHub Copilot work?

GitHub's Where to use Copilot page lists its surfaces: the Copilot app, Copilot CLI, your IDE (VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Eclipse and Xcode), the Copilot SDK, the GitHub website, GitHub Mobile and GitHub Desktop.

The main features:

• Inline suggestions as you type. Copilot Free is limited to 2,000 completions a month; paid plans list unlimited inline suggestions.
• Agent mode in the IDE, included on every plan.
• Copilot cloud agent, which per the cloud agent docs "can research a repository, plan changes, and implement them in the background" in an ephemeral cloud environment, then opens a pull request. It only works with repositories hosted on GitHub, opens one pull request per task, and each session runs for at most 59 minutes.
• Copilot code review on pull requests.
• Copilot CLI, a terminal agent included on every plan.

npm install -g @github/copilot        # all platforms
brew install --cask copilot-cli       # macOS and Linux
winget install GitHub.Copilot         # Windows

On Pro+ and Max, the plans page adds delegating tasks to third-party coding agents such as Claude and OpenAI Codex, in preview. See the Copilot cloud agent guide for setup.

How does Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) work?

Devin Desktop is still the Windsurf editor. The FAQ says "Your current plan continues to work exactly as it does today. Pricing is unchanged," and "All of your Windsurf settings will be ported to Devin Desktop automatically."

What changed is the agent. The changelog records that Cascade was removed in v3.9.19 on September 8, 2026, leaving Devin Local as the built-in agent. The Devin Local page calls it "our next-generation agent harness shared with Devin CLI" and lists:

• Subagents that run in the foreground or background.
• OS-level sandboxing, with filesystem isolation and network filtering by domain.
• Normal, Plan and Ask modes, where Plan mode is read-only research ending in an approval request.
• Sessions inside a git worktree that you merge back when done.

The Devin Desktop page describes Tab as "Supercomplete," which "predicts your next thought, not just your next edit," along with Fast Context for finding relevant code and Devin Review for diffs. You can run sessions locally or in Devin Cloud and move between them with the same context.

Devin Desktop also runs other agents. The ACP page says "Any agent that speaks ACP can be run inside Devin Desktop," naming Codex CLI, Claude Agent, OpenCode, Junie and Gemini CLI, on Free, Pro, Max and Teams plans. Billing for those agents "is directly between you and the third-party agent provider." The changelog also added Sign in with ChatGPT for GPT model usage in v3.10.48.

Copilot vs Windsurf side by side

How much do Copilot and Windsurf cost?

GitHub Copilot. GitHub's plans docs list, as of October 2026:

Free and Student get auto model selection only, and Free has no cloud agent. The plans page lists models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, Microsoft and xAI, plus Kimi K3. The Copilot pricing guide explains how AI credits are counted.

Devin Desktop. The Devin pricing page lists, as of October 2026:

• Free, $0: a light agent quota, limited models, unlimited inline edits and unlimited Tab completions.
• Pro, $20 a month: higher quotas, frontier models from several providers, free use of SWE-2, Devin Cloud, and extra usage at API pricing.
• Max, $200 a month: significantly higher quotas.
• Teams, $80 a month for the team plan plus $40 a month per full dev seat, up to 200 users.
• Enterprise: pricing on request.

How do rules, skills and MCP compare?

Rules. Copilot's custom instructions docs cover a repository-wide .github/copilot-instructions.md, path-specific .github/instructions/NAME.instructions.md files, and agent instructions in AGENTS.md, CLAUDE.md or GEMINI.md, which are "currently not supported by all Copilot features." Devin Local follows the Devin CLI rules: AGENTS.md (recommended), CLAUDE.md, .windsurfrules, .devin/rules/*.md, .windsurf/rules/*.md and even .cursor/rules/*.mdc, with triggers always_on, manual, model_decision, agent and glob. AGENTS.md works in both.

Skills. GitHub's agent skills docs list project skills in .github/skills, .claude/skills or .agents/skills, and personal skills in ~/.copilot/skills or ~/.agents/skills, for the Copilot app, CLI, cloud agent, code review and agent mode in VS Code, Visual Studio and JetBrains. Devin's skills overview lists .agents/skills, .devin/skills and .windsurf/skills in a project, and ~/.agents/skills or ~/.config/devin/skills globally.

MCP. GitHub's MCP docs say "MCP servers are supported in Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode, and Eclipse," the CLI supports local and remote servers, and cloud agent servers are set per repository on GitHub.com. Devin Desktop supports MCP too, and its changelog added support for the 2026-07-28 MCP protocol version in v3.10.67. The Devin Desktop guide covers where its servers are configured.

Which should you pick?

Copilot tends to fit when:

• You want to keep your current editor, especially JetBrains, Visual Studio, Eclipse or Xcode.
• Your code lives on GitHub and you want agents that turn issues into pull requests and review them.
• You want the lowest paid entry price, Pro at $10 a month.
• Your company already buys GitHub Business or Enterprise.

Devin Desktop tends to fit when:

• You were a Windsurf user and want the same editor with your settings carried over.
• You want local agents, cloud Devin sessions and agents like Codex CLI or Claude Agent on one board.
• You want unlimited Tab and inline edits on the Free plan.
• You like working in git worktrees with a sandboxed agent.

Since both read AGENTS.md and .agents/skills, you can try either on a real repository without rewriting your setup. For Windsurf against another editor, see Cursor vs Windsurf.

Keep your prompts and skills in one place

Rules and skills are the part of your setup worth keeping when you switch tools. Kipt stores your prompts and Agent Skills as Markdown in a private GitHub repo you own, and installs every skill into Claude Code or Codex with one npx skills add command. For Copilot or Devin Desktop, copy the skill folder into .agents/skills. The free SKILL.md generator turns a prompt you keep reusing into a skill.