COMPARISON · Last verified: September 2026
Claude Code vs Devin
Devin product update
- Windsurf is now Devin Desktop. Cognition launched it on June 2, 2026 as the next generation of Windsurf, and existing users got it as an over-the-air update with the same plan and pricing. This page covers Devin Cloud, Devin Desktop, the Devin CLI and Devin Review.
Our Windsurf review covers the IDE under its earlier name.
Claude Code works in your terminal and IDE; Devin Cloud works on its own cloud machine. Compared on verified pricing, features and fit.
🏆 Quick Verdict
Claude Code (4.6/5 vs 4.2/5)
Devin has a $0 Free plan; Claude Code needs a paid Claude plan (Pro: $20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually) or API billing
⭐ Strongest At
Every tool has one thing it does better than its competitors. Here is each one's honest edge:
Working alongside you: it reads the repo, edits across files, runs your commands and tests, and commits, from the terminal, IDE, desktop app or web.
Delegation: tag it in Slack or Teams, or hand it Linear and Jira tickets, and Devin Cloud works on its own machine, then opens a pull request.
📊 Quick Specs
Claude Code vs Devin: official demos
Watch each tool in action: official demos for Claude Code and Devin, side by side, before you decide.
Claude Code
Devin
Official videos via YouTube (Anthropic; Cognition), embedded for reference. ToolChase does not host or claim these videos.
What is Claude Code?
Claude Code is Anthropic's agentic coding tool. It reads your codebase, edits files, runs commands and connects to your development tools from a terminal CLI, a VS Code extension, a JetBrains plugin, a desktop app or the web, all sharing one engine, so a repository's CLAUDE.md instructions, settings and MCP servers carry across. Terminal, IDE and local desktop sessions run on your own machine; cloud sessions, which keep going after you close your laptop, are in research preview for Pro, Max and Team users. It creates commits and pull requests, runs agents in parallel, and automates work through GitHub Actions, GitLab CI/CD, Slack and scheduled routines. Permission modes include Manual, which stops before most edits and shell commands, and auto mode, the starting mode on Pro, Max and Team, where a classifier model reviews actions instead. It uses Anthropic's Claude models and comes with every paid Claude plan, or with per-token billing through an Anthropic Console account.
What is Devin?
Devin is Cognition's autonomous AI software engineer. Its long-running agent, Devin Cloud, works on its own cloud machine with a shell, an embedded IDE and a browser, which it uses to run commands, read documentation and test the web apps it builds. You assign work by tagging @Devin in Slack or Microsoft Teams, pointing it at Linear or Jira tickets, or starting a session in the web app or API, then follow along, take over in its IDE if needed, and review the pull request. Cognition's rule of thumb: if you could do a task in about three hours, Devin can most likely do it. Devin Desktop, the IDE called Windsurf until June 2, 2026, manages local and cloud agents from one Kanban view, and the Devin CLI is a local terminal agent that can pass longer tasks to Devin Cloud with /handoff. Devin Review adds code review, and DeepWiki builds repository wikis.
Key differences at a glance
Both plan, write, run and test code and produce pull requests. They differ in where the work happens and how you hand it out:
- -- Where it runs: Claude Code works on your machine, with cloud sessions in research preview; Devin Cloud works on its own cloud VM, with the CLI and Devin Desktop for local work.
- -- How you assign work: Claude Code takes tasks in a live session, from @claude on GitHub, from Slack or on a schedule; Devin takes them from Slack or Teams tags, Linear and Jira tickets, the web app or its API.
- -- Editor: Devin ships its own IDE, Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf), with unlimited Tab completions on every plan; Claude Code plugs into VS Code and JetBrains.
- -- Free plan: Devin has a $0 plan; Claude Code is not included in Claude's free plan.
- -- Models: Claude Code uses Anthropic's Claude models; Devin Pro mixes models from several labs with Cognition's SWE-2.
- -- Team billing: A Claude Team Standard seat is $25/month ($20 billed annually); a Devin full seat is $40/month, with an $80/month team minimum.
- -- Score: Claude Code rates 4.6/5 in our review; Devin rates 4.2/5.
Feature-by-feature comparison
Here is how Claude Code and Devin compare on the capabilities that affect daily use:
Pricing comparison
Claude Code is not on Claude's free plan; every paid plan includes it. Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually. Max is $100/month for 5x Pro's usage or $200/month for 20x, billed monthly. The Team plan (2 to 150 people) charges per seat: Standard is $25/month billed monthly or $20 billed annually, and Premium, with 5x a Standard seat's usage, is $125 or $100. Enterprise is $20 per seat per month billed annually, plus usage at API rates. Or skip the subscription and pay per token through an Anthropic Console account: Sonnet 5 costs $2/$10 per million input/output tokens and Opus 5 costs $5/$25.
Devin has a Free plan at $0 (light agent quota, limited models, unlimited Tab completions and inline edits). Pro is $20 per month and Max is $200 per month, each for one user. Teams costs $40/month per full seat with an $80/month minimum: below two full seats, the rest of the $80 is billed as prepaid on-demand credits for the team, and from two seats up you pay $40 per seat. Free flex seats draw on those shared credits and do not include Devin Desktop. Enterprise is custom, billed in Agent Compute Units, with SAML/OIDC SSO and a VPC deployment option.
What $20 buys. Claude Pro includes Claude Code, with usage limits on a rolling five-hour window plus weekly limits, shared with chat; for heavy coding sessions Anthropic suggests pay-as-you-go API credits, and Max raises usage to 5x or 20x Pro. Devin Pro buys a daily and weekly quota across Devin Cloud, the CLI and Desktop, the full model list, up to 10 concurrent cloud sessions, the Devin API, and the Slack, Teams, Linear, Jira, GitHub, GitLab and Bitbucket integrations.
Worked example: a five-person team. On Claude's Team plan with Standard seats, five developers pay $125/month billed monthly or $100/month billed annually, and each seat includes Claude Code. On Devin Teams with five full seats, they pay $200/month, which clears the $80 minimum, and each seat gets a Pro-equivalent quota and Devin Desktop. Both bill extra usage when quotas run out: Claude through usage credits at API rates, Devin through shared on-demand credits.
Pros & Cons
Claude Code
- One engine across terminal, VS Code, JetBrains, desktop and web, sharing CLAUDE.md, settings and MCP servers
- Commits and pull requests, @claude in GitHub issues and PRs, and GitLab CI/CD
- Tunable oversight: Manual approval, plan mode, or auto mode for long tasks
- Lower team seat price: $25/month, or $20 billed annually
- Not included in Claude's free plan
- Plan usage is shared with Claude chat, with five-hour and weekly limits
- Cloud sessions and managed Code Review are research previews
- Managed Code Review costs extra, averaging $15-25 per review
Devin
- $0 Free plan with unlimited Tab completions and inline edits
- Built for delegation from Slack, Teams, Linear, Jira, the web app or the API
- Devin Cloud has its own VM with a shell, IDE and browser, and keeps working after you close your laptop
- Devin Desktop manages local, cloud and third-party ACP agents in one Kanban view
- Cloud agents, the API and the Slack, Teams, Linear and Jira integrations start at Pro
- Full team seats cost $40/month each, with an $80/month team minimum
- Cognition may use your data for model training by default; paid plans can opt out
- Works best on well-scoped tasks with explicit completion criteria
Which Should You Choose?
Choose Claude Code if you:
- → Want to steer an agent through multi-file changes in your own repo
- → Already pay for Claude Pro, Max or Team, which include Claude Code
- → Automate with GitHub or GitLab, for example @claude in issues and pull requests
- → Are equipping a team of daily users ($25 vs $40 per seat a month)
- → Prefer pay-per-token API billing
Choose Devin if you:
- → Want to hand off tickets from Slack, Teams, Linear or Jira and review the PRs later
- → Need an agent that runs dev servers, browsers and long jobs on its own cloud machine
- → Want a free start: the $0 plan includes Devin Desktop with unlimited Tab completions
- → Want to switch between models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and others
- → Want local and cloud agents managed from one IDE
Bottom Line
Claude Code (4.6/5) and Devin (4.2/5) are both autonomous coding agents that start from opposite ends. Claude Code is strongest when you work alongside it in your terminal and IDE, on your real files, with GitHub and GitLab automation. Devin is strongest when you delegate tickets from Slack, Teams, Linear or Jira to Devin Cloud, with Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) and the CLI for local work. Devin has the $0 plan, both Pro plans cost $20 a month billed monthly, and a five-person team pays less on Claude's Team plan ($125 vs $200 a month).
Frequently asked questions
Claude Code vs Devin, which one should I pick?
Pick Claude Code if you want an agent you work alongside in your terminal, IDE, desktop app or the web, on your real files, tests and git history. Pick Devin if you want to delegate tickets from Slack, Microsoft Teams, Linear, Jira or the web app to Devin Cloud, which works on its own machine and opens a pull request. Claude Code scores 4.6/5 in our review and Devin scores 4.2/5.
Is Claude Code or Devin cheaper?
For one developer the entry plans tie: Claude Pro is $20/month billed monthly or $17/month billed annually, and Devin Pro is $20/month; Claude Code can also be paid per token through the Anthropic API. For five developers, Claude Team Standard seats cost $125/month billed monthly ($100 billed annually), while five Devin full seats cost $200/month, above Devin's $80/month team minimum.
Does Claude Code or Devin have a free plan?
Devin does: its $0 plan has a light agent quota, limited models, and unlimited Tab completions and inline edits, while cloud agents start with Pro at $20/month. Claude Code is not included in Claude's free plan; you need a Pro, Max, Team or Enterprise plan, an Anthropic Console account billed per token, or a cloud provider such as Amazon Bedrock.
Is Windsurf part of Devin now?
Yes. Windsurf became Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026, when Cognition launched it as the next generation of Windsurf, a full IDE with an Agent Command Center for local and cloud agents. Existing users got it as an over-the-air update with the same plan and pricing.
Can Claude Code run tasks in the cloud like Devin?
Yes, as a research preview. Claude Code cloud sessions run on Anthropic-managed infrastructure and keep going after you close your laptop. Pro, Max, Team and eligible Enterprise users start them from claude.ai/code, the Claude mobile app, the desktop app or claude --cloud, and can run several at once.
Can I use Claude Code and Devin together?
Yes. Cognition's open-source Devin Handoff plugin works with Claude Code, Codex, Cursor and other agents: ask your agent to hand a task off to Devin, and it sends the repo, branch and uncommitted changes to a new cloud Devin session and returns a link. It needs a Devin API key, and the Devin API comes with Pro and above.
Does Devin use Claude models?
It can. Devin Pro includes frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI, plus open-source models and Cognition's SWE-2. Claude Code uses Anthropic's Claude models, defaulting to Sonnet 5 on Pro and Team Standard seats and Opus 5 on Max, Team Premium, Enterprise and API accounts.