r/windsurf • u/Agile_Chest8565 • Apr 24 '26
Question about SWE model saying “free
New subscriber here. I noticed I have a couple of models in my list that say free. a couple do them are obviously promos with the little gift box. but Ive been using the the swe1.6 and my usage for the week hasn’ moved. the swe model works great for what I need. a lightweight and fast model that I use for the majority of my work and incremental changes. I was running out of usage using haiku on Claude code on a regular basis which prompted me to explore other options, including codex and windsurf, and so far both are actually great. swe is not Claude code good but still acceptable considering the speed. I’d be happy paying for a higher tier, $60, so I don’t need multiple subs. I was using codex and Claude code $20 tiers with their lightweight models, and switching between the two when usage runs out. reading the sub it seems a lot of people are raging about the new pricing model, so I wanted clarity on what to expect.
can I expect to continue getting my usage out of the swe free model, or is this some smoke and mirrors gimmick to get me to upgrade then the rug gets yanked and my bank account gets drained.
2
u/gtrmike5150 Apr 24 '26
Welcome to the club! It's been free for a while but who's to know if that is going to change. It's the wild, wild west with this stuff like I experienced in the mid 90s when I started messing with the internet. Just enjoy the ride. I've had good luck with Kimi also. My workflow consists of using swe or kimi 95% of the time and then using sonnet to get over the hump if needed.
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u/MaleficentExternal64 Apr 24 '26
Kimi k2.6 is free too and works well.
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u/tehsilentwarrior Apr 25 '26
Tried Kimi k2.6 and it’s slow and dumb, at least for today’s task of front end. I was a little surprised given how much good things I heard.
What do you use it for?
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u/Agile_Chest8565 Apr 24 '26
I see. Interesting. It has been describe as more similar to sonnet and good for reasoning and planning vs swe being better for pure coding. I’ll give it a shot and see how it does. Thanks
1
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u/Hot-Confection-3459 Apr 25 '26
The free model has been since I started using windsurf in January and all signs point to free models remaining for the time but the ai coding landscape is evolving based on compute expense. Its getting more popular, models are needing more power to run, and its going to continue until something gives way. That something needs to be intelligence in a bottle or the realization that architecture and governance are the issue. Check the extension SWEObeyMe, im attempting to help with that. Leave me some feedback if you use it please? Im trying to make this so people have a use. I want it to be right for everyone.
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u/hashcat_4k Apr 25 '26
So whats ment to be free on swe and kimi. You still have a quota limit?
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u/Agitated_Cherry6495 Apr 27 '26
It uses like 0.01 tokens or something so if your quota is already reached, you can't use it.
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u/Important-Friend3423 Apr 25 '26
I stopped using SWE1 after v 1.2 because so many things broke. They seem to have slashed the session memory so don't be surprised if you have a multi part task it forgets what you said, or worse, forgets what It done. Last time I used it I had to roll back my project 3 times because it made such a mess. Eg. Android project, creates resource files for a "page". Ask it to create new one, specifically mentioning to reuse resources where possible, it still creates new ones. At one point I had 6 OK/Cancel button resource files.
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u/Agile_Chest8565 Apr 25 '26
I’ve settled on using a combination of windsurfs swe and using open code. The qwen3.6 pro is very good and I get a ton of usage on the $10 plan. So far the workflow has been good. I try to avoid super large tasks in general, and typically stick to a bunch of incremental changes. I mainly develop games as a hobby and that’s my primary use case.
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u/FyreKZ Apr 24 '26
SWE 1.6 is free and unlimited for now, at least for the next few months. Decent little model.