Windsurf, the favored vibe coding startup that’s reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, mentioned Anthropic considerably decreased its first-party entry to its Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI fashions.
Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan mentioned in a submit on X that Anthropic gave Windsurf little discover for this variation, and the startup now has to seek out different third-party compute suppliers to run a number of of Anthropic’s hottest AI fashions on its platform.
“We’ve got been very clear to Anthropic that this isn’t our want – we needed to pay them for the total capability,” mentioned Mohan on X. “We’re upset by this choice and quick discover.”
In a weblog submit, Windsurf mentioned it has some capability with third-party inference suppliers, however not sufficient, so this variation might create short-term availability points for Windsurf customers attempting to entry Claude.
The choice comes just some weeks after Anthropic appeared to move over Windsurf through 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 mentioned it didn’t obtain direct entry from Anthropic to run Claude 4 on its platform, and nonetheless hasn’t. This compelled the corporate to depend on a workaround that’s costlier and complex for builders to entry Claude 4. In the meantime, 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 latest months. OpenAI reportedly closed on a deal to accumulate Windsurf in April. On 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 Could, 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,” mentioned Anthropic spokesperson Steve Mnich in an electronic mail to TechCrunch on Tuesday, noting that it’s nonetheless attainable to entry Claude 4 on Windsurf through an API key. “Builders may entry Claude by way of our direct API integration, our companion ecosystem, and different improvement instruments.”
Windsurf has grown shortly this 12 months, reaching $100 million ARR in April, in an try to meet up with extra widespread AI coding instruments equivalent to Cursor and GitHub Copilot. Nevertheless, Windsurf’s restricted entry to Anthropic’s fashions could also be stunting its development.
A number of Windsurf customers who spoke with TechCrunch have been annoyed by the shortage of direct entry to Anthropic’s finest AI coding fashions.
Ronald Mannak, a startup founder that focuses on Apple’s programming language, Swift, informed TechCrunch that Claude 4 represented a major bounce in capabilities for his workloads. Whereas Mannak has been a Windsurf buyer since late 2024, he’s switched to utilizing Cursor in latest weeks in order that he can vibe code extra simply with Claude 4.
As a short-term answer to help Claude 4, Windsurf permits customers to attach their Anthropic API keys to their Windsurf accounts. Nevertheless, builders have famous that this “carry your personal key” answer is costlier and complex than if Windsurf offered the fashions itself.
Relating to vibe coders, optionality is the secret. Each few months, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic launch new AI fashions that appear to outperform the business on coding duties. Due to that, it advantages vibe coding startups to help 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. On this case, it appears Anthropic has made {that a} bit tougher.
