Windsurf, the favored vibe coding startup that’s reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, mentioned Anthropic considerably lowered its first-party entry to the extremely well-liked AI fashions Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.
Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan mentioned in a post on X that Anthropic gave Windsurf little discover for this transformation, and the startup now has to seek out different third-party compute suppliers to run Claude AI fashions on its platform.
“We now have been very clear to Anthropic that this isn’t our want – we wished to pay them for the complete capability,” mentioned Mohan on X. “We’re upset by this choice and quick discover.”
In a blog post, Windsurf mentioned this it has some capability with third-party inference suppliers, however not sufficient, so this transformation might create short-term availability points for Windsurf customers making an attempt to entry Claude.
The choice comes just some weeks after Anthropic appeared to move over Windsurf throughout the launch of Claude 4, the corporate’s new household of fashions, which supply trade main efficiency on software program engineering duties. Anthropic gave a number of well-liked vibe coding apps — together with Anysphere’s Cursor, Cognition’s Devin, and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot — quick entry to run Claude Sonnet 4 and Claude Opus 4. These apps began supporting the brand new Claude 4 fashions on launch day.
Windsurf mentioned at the time it didn’t obtain direct entry from Anthropic to run Claude 4 on its platform, and nonetheless hasn’t — forcing the corporate to depend on a workaround that’s costlier and complex for developer to entry Claude 4. Anthropic’s AI fashions have grow to be a favourite amongst builders, and previously, Anthropic has labored with Windsurf to energy its vibe coding instruments.
The AI-assisted coding sector, additionally know as vibe coding, has heated up in current months. OpenAI reportedly closed on a deal to accumulate Windsurf in April. On the similar time, Anthropic has invested extra in its personal AI-coding functions. In February, Anthropic launched its personal AI coding software, 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 e mail to TechCrunch on Tuesday, noting that it’s nonetheless doable to entry Claude 4 on Windsurf through an API key. “Builders may entry Claude via 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 well-liked AI coding instruments resembling Cursor and GitHub Copilot. Nevertheless, Windsurf’s restricted entry to Anthropic’s fashions could also be stunting its progress.
A number of Windsurf customers that 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, instructed 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 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. Nevertheless, builders have famous that this “convey your personal key” resolution is costlier and complex than if Windsurf supplied the fashions itself.
In the case of vibe coders, optionality is the secret. Each few months, OpenAI, Google, and Anthropic launch new AI fashions that appear to outperform the trade on coding duties. Due to that, it advantages vibe coding startups to assist AI fashions from all of the main builders.
Windsurf spokesperson Payal Patel tells TechCrunch through e mail that the corporate has at all times believed in offering optionality for customers. On this case, it appears Anthropic has made {that a} bit tougher.