Windsurf, the favored vibe coding startup that’s reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, stated Anthropic considerably diminished its first-party entry to its Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI fashions.
Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan stated in a publish on X that Anthropic gave Windsurf little discover for this variation, and the startup now has to search out different third-party compute suppliers to run a number of of Anthropic’s hottest AI fashions on its platform.
“We have been very clear to Anthropic that this isn’t our want – we wished to pay them for the total capability,” stated Mohan on X. “We are upset by this choice and quick discover.”
In a weblog publish, Windsurf stated it has some capability with third-party inference suppliers, however not sufficient, so this variation could create short-term availability points for Windsurf customers attempting to entry Claude.
The choice comes just some weeks after Anthropic appeared to cross over Windsurf throughout the launch of Claude 4, the corporate’s new household of fashions, which supply business main efficiency on software program engineering duties.
On launch day, Windsurf stated it didn’t obtain direct entry from Anthropic to run Claude 4 on its platform, and nonetheless hasn’t. This pressured the corporate to depend on a workaround that’s dearer and sophisticated for builders to entry Claude 4. Meanwhile, different widespread AI coding instruments — together with Anysphere’s Cursor, Cognition’s Devin, and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot — appeared to have direct entry to Claude 4 fashions at launch.
The AI-assisted coding sector, additionally know as vibe coding, has heated up in current months. OpenAI reportedly closed on a deal to amass Windsurf in April. At the identical time, Anthropic — whose AI fashions are a favourite amongst builders — has invested extra in its personal AI-coding functions. In February, Anthropic launched its personal AI coding utility, Claude Code, and in May, the startup held its first Code with Claude developer convention.
“We’re prioritizing capability for sustainable partnerships that permit us to successfully serve the broader developer neighborhood,” stated Anthropic spokesperson Steve Mnich in an electronic mail to TechCrunch on Tuesday, noting that it’s nonetheless potential to entry Claude 4 on Windsurf through an API key. “Developers can even entry Claude by our direct API integration, our accomplice ecosystem, and different improvement instruments.”
Windsurf has grown shortly this 12 months, reaching $100 million ARR in April, in an try and meet up with extra widespread AI coding instruments comparable to Cursor and GitHub Copilot. However, Windsurf’s restricted entry to Anthropic’s fashions could also be stunting its development.
Several Windsurf customers who spoke with TechCrunch have been annoyed by the dearth of direct entry to Anthropic’s finest AI coding fashions.
Ronald Mannak, a startup founder that makes a speciality of Apple’s programming language, Swift, advised TechCrunch that Claude 4 represented a major soar in capabilities for his workloads. While Mannak has been a Windsurf buyer since late 2024, he’s switched to utilizing Cursor in current weeks in order that he can vibe code extra simply with Claude 4.
As a short-term resolution to assist Claude 4, Windsurf permits customers to attach their Anthropic API keys to their Windsurf accounts. However, builders have famous that this “carry your personal key” resolution is dearer and sophisticated than if Windsurf offered the fashions itself.
When it involves vibe coders, optionality is the secret. Every few months, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic launch new AI fashions that appear to outperform the business on coding duties. Because of that, it advantages vibe coding startups to assist AI fashions from all of the main builders.
Windsurf spokesperson Payal Patel tells TechCrunch through electronic mail that the corporate has all the time believed in offering optionality for customers. In this case, it appears Anthropic has made {that a} bit tougher.
