Researched
This analysis is based on documentation, public user reports, and vendor materials — not yet on our own hands-on testing. How we rate
What you're actually looking for
If you searched for Codeium, one of three things is true. You used it and want to know where it went. You read a comparison written before mid-2025 and want to check if it's still accurate. Or you're evaluating tools and Codeium appeared on a list that hasn't been updated.
All three deserve the same answer, and it isn't a feature table.
Codeium is not a product name anymore. The company became Windsurf in April 2025. Windsurf the editor became Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Between those two events, the company was taken apart and distributed across three owners in about 72 hours.
The free plugin still runs. Everything around it changed.
The 72 hours
In May 2025, Bloomberg reported that OpenAI had agreed to acquire Windsurf — formerly Codeium — for roughly $3 billion. It would have been OpenAI's largest acquisition, buying it talent, technology and a user base in AI-assisted coding.
On July 11, 2025, the deal was reported dead. The reported reason: Microsoft's contractual relationship with OpenAI would have given it access to Windsurf's intellectual property, which made the transaction unworkable.
The same evening, Google DeepMind hired CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen and around 40 senior staff in a $2.4 billion non-exclusive licensing arrangement — a reverse acquihire that took the leadership and the technology rights without buying the company.
By Monday, Cognition had acquired what was left: the product, the brand, the IP and roughly 210 employees, together with about $82 million in ARR and more than 350 enterprise customers including names like JPMorgan Chase and Dell.
Three owners, one weekend. A company valued at $3 billion on Friday was three separate things by Monday.
The eleven-month promise
Two days after closing, Cognition published a post titled "Our Commitment to Windsurf." It said plainly that Windsurf would remain the Windsurf people knew, kept as a standalone product, with nobody forced to adopt Devin alongside it.
That commitment held for about eleven months.
On June 2, 2026, developers who opened the editor found it had renamed itself Devin Desktop. Cognition's own anniversary post described the company as having "finally unified into one brand."
Whether that's a broken promise or a normal product decision depends on how literally you read corporate reassurance. What's not debatable is the practical effect: users of a tool called Codeium in 2024 are now using a tool called Devin Desktop in 2026, having agreed to none of the intervening steps.
What still works
The free IDE plugin — completion inside VS Code, JetBrains and other editors, without adopting a whole new IDE — has remained available, and 2026 comparisons still name it as a credible free option for developers who want zero-cost completion and accept cloud transmission of their code.
That's a genuinely useful thing to know if you're already running it. It's a much weaker basis for adopting it today.
What you don't get with it: a roadmap, a commitment, or a company whose attention is on this product. Cognition's focus is Devin and Devin Desktop. The plugin is inherited surface area, not the strategy.
For an individual, that's fine — you can leave in an afternoon. For a team standardising on a tool, it isn't.
If you wanted free completion in your existing editor: GitHub Copilot has a free tier, and its inline completions stay unmetered even on paid plans — that's the closest replacement for what Codeium's free tier actually did. Cline is free and open source if you're happy supplying your own API key.
If you wanted the agentic IDE: Devin Desktop is where that product went, and it's the same lineage under a new name. Cursor at $20 is the obvious alternative, with a larger install base and its own consolidation story — SpaceX agreed to acquire its parent company Anysphere in June 2026.
If you were there for privacy: Tabnine sells air-gapped and on-premise deployment, though it deleted its individual plans and now starts at $39 per user annually. A self-hosted open-source setup is the cheaper route.
If you wanted model freedom: Aider or Cline, both bring-your-own-key with no vendor between you and the model.
Codeium vs the alternatives
Against GitHub Copilot: Copilot is the practical replacement for the thing most people used Codeium for. It has a free tier, unmetered completion on paid plans at $10, and — decisively for this comparison — a corporate parent with no interest in selling it. Broad editor support was Codeium's edge; Copilot now covers VS Code, JetBrains, Visual Studio, Neovim and the CLI.
Against Cursor: Cursor won the IDE fight that Windsurf lost. It's $20 a month, has the largest install base in the category, and is itself being absorbed into a much larger company — worth noting for anyone whose lesson from this saga is "check the ownership."
Against Cline: Cline is what Codeium's free tier promised, structurally: no seat fee, no vendor, no acquisition risk that can take your tool away. You pay for inference and manage your own keys. Apache-licensed code doesn't get renamed out from under you.
Against Devin Desktop: Devin Desktop is the direct continuation — same product lineage, same team remnant, new name and new owner. If you liked Windsurf's Cascade agent, this is where it lives. If the ownership churn is what unnerved you, note that this is the third owner in eighteen months.
Pricing 2026
| What | Status |
|---|
| Codeium plugin (free tier) | Still available, no active roadmap |
| Codeium paid individual plans | Discontinued as a distinct brand |
| Windsurf editor | Renamed Devin Desktop, June 2, 2026 |
| Current product pricing | See Devin Desktop / Cognition |
Checked August 2026. Codeium no longer publishes an independent pricing page — pricing now sits with Cognition's Devin product family. Any article quoting current Codeium plan prices is describing a brand that has been through two renames and an ownership split; verify against cognition.ai before acting on it.
Don't standardise a team on this. Individual use is low-risk because leaving costs an afternoon. Team adoption means a migration when the plugin's status changes again.
If you're already running it and it works, there's no emergency. Nothing has been switched off. Just don't build process around it.
Our Verdict
This page exists to correct a record rather than recommend a product. Codeium built something real — $82 million in ARR, 350-plus enterprise customers, over a million developers, a free tier that was the honest answer when someone asked for AI completion without a subscription. In most software eras that's a durable independent company.
It didn't survive as one. The OpenAI deal collapsed over Microsoft's IP position, Google took the founders in a $2.4 billion licensing arrangement, Cognition took the rest, and the product that started as a free autocomplete plugin now carries a name — Devin Desktop — chosen by its third owner. The promise that Windsurf would stay Windsurf lasted eleven months.
The free plugin still works, which is worth knowing and not worth building on. Anyone choosing an AI coding tool today should start from the current products and, if the last two years taught anything, should treat "who will own this in eighteen months" as a real line item rather than a cynical joke.
Not recommended as a new adoption. Recommended as a cautionary case study, and the most instructive one this category has produced.
Note: Codeium does not have an affiliate program with AIVario. We earn no commission, and this rating reflects the product's discontinued status rather than the quality of what it was.
Best for: Understanding where a tool you used has gone, and why AI-coding vendor stability is worth checking
Not ideal for: New adoption, team standardisation, anyone who needs a roadmap
Bottom line: The name is retired and the product has had three owners in eighteen months. The free plugin still runs; build nothing important on it.
- Devin Desktop — where the editor actually went, under Cognition
- GitHub Copilot — the practical replacement for Codeium's free completion
- Cursor — the editor that won the fight Windsurf lost
- Cline — free, open source, no owner who can rename it
- Devin — Cognition's autonomous agent, the strategy this all folded into
Frequently Asked Questions about Codeium
Does Codeium still exist?
Not as a brand. The company renamed itself Windsurf in April 2025, and the editor was renamed again to Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026 under Cognition's ownership. The free IDE plugin that people knew as Codeium has continued to be available for developers who want completion inside their existing editor, but the company, the flagship product, and the marketing all moved on. Anyone searching for Codeium in 2026 is looking for a name that three different owners have now moved past.
Did OpenAI buy Codeium?
No — the deal collapsed, and this is the single most common error in circulation. Bloomberg reported in May 2025 that OpenAI had agreed to pay around $3 billion for Windsurf, formerly Codeium. On July 11, 2025 the deal was reported dead, reportedly because Microsoft's contractual position with OpenAI would have given it access to Windsurf's intellectual property. Plenty of articles published after that date still state the acquisition happened.
So who owns it now?
Cognition, the company behind Devin. After the OpenAI deal fell apart, Google DeepMind hired CEO Varun Mohan, co-founder Douglas Chen and roughly 40 senior staff in a $2.4 billion non-exclusive licensing arrangement. Three days later Cognition acquired the remaining company — product, brand, IP and around 210 employees — along with about $82 million in ARR and 350-plus enterprise customers. Cognition raised at a $26 billion valuation in May 2026.
What happened to Windsurf the editor?
It was renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Cognition had published a post two days after the acquisition titled 'Our Commitment to Windsurf', promising it would stay the product people knew and would remain standalone. That held for about eleven months. Users who opened the editor on or after June 2 found it had renamed itself, and Cognition's own recap described the company as having 'finally unified into one brand'.
Is the free plugin still worth using?
For basic completion in an editor you already like, it's still a reasonable free option — several 2026 comparisons name it as a credible free choice for developers who don't want to pay anything and accept that code is transmitted to the cloud. What you don't get is a roadmap. The company's attention is on Devin and Devin Desktop, so treat it as a working utility rather than a platform to standardise a team on.
I used Codeium's free tier. What should I switch to?
Depends on what you valued. For free completion in your existing editor, GitHub Copilot Free or a BYOK setup with Cline covers it. For unmetered completion with a real roadmap, Copilot Pro at $10 is the obvious default. If you were on Codeium specifically because your code couldn't go to a vendor, that's a different search — Tabnine sells air-gapped deployment and Continue's frozen open-source code can still be self-hosted from a fork.
Why does this matter beyond the name change?
Because it's the clearest case study in the 2026 consolidation. Codeium hit $82 million ARR with 350-plus enterprise customers and more than a million developers — a successful company in any normal software era — and it still didn't survive as an independent. Within 72 hours it was split three ways. If you're choosing an AI coding tool for a team this year, the question of who will own it in eighteen months is a legitimate part of the evaluation.
