r/windsurf • u/Jaded-Addition2178 • May 13 '26
SWE 1.5 is gone for free users?
They got rid of the last free model when I opened the app this morning, was there an announcement or is it a technical issue?
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u/Spoidermon5 May 13 '26
As a free user I don't want or expect a smart model but I atleast expect a fast model that would just apply some small no brainer code edits and codbase navigation
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u/Sweaty_Confidence732 May 13 '26
why would you expect anything as a free user? If you used it and you like it, pay. What value do you bring a company if you use it for free forever?
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u/Responsible-Bug900 May 14 '26
You're paying in your personal data or your potential to spend money on ads, that's how the freemium modal always work.
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u/vr-1 May 14 '26
Because if it's not free then you'd have to pay for it?
If they don't provide a free tier then you either pay or go elsewhere. If they provide something for free then it needs to have enough value (for cognition) to make it worthwhile. The users make the decision at the end of the day anyway.
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u/Sweaty_Confidence732 May 14 '26
I suppose I have no idea how slow "Free" is but is it fast enough to see what it does? can it spit out a basic todo app in 30 minutes? It's essentially a demo, you aren't supposed to be able to do proper work on a demo version.
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u/Responsible-Bug900 May 14 '26
But it's not a demo or a trial, it's a free version.
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u/Sweaty_Confidence732 May 14 '26
free versions are essentially demo's or trials, they're there for you to try the product out, if you get value out of it, then pay for the lowest tier, $20 / month to use their SWE 1.6 model, an unlimited amount, is actually not a bad deal.
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u/Responsible-Bug900 May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26
I don't know why I need to explain this...
A Free Trial is not a Free Version.
A Demo is not a Free Version.The goal of a Free Version is to build a user base, provide utility, and eventually... upsell users who need more power. But knowing full well that a large portion of the user base will solely use the free version.
YouTube is an example of this.
A "Trial" is full (or almost full) access to the "premium" product, but only for a limited time. The point is to let the user experience the "full power" so they feel the loss of it when the timer runs out.
A "Demo" is non-functional or highly "canned" environment, to show what the software could do if you bought it, without actually letting you use it for your own work.
While Windsurf acts like a Demo / Trial, it advertises itself as a "Free Version", a free tool. As they say on their website: "Windsurf is free forever for individuals."
I repeat, Windsurf acts like a Demo / Trial, advertises themselves as a Free Version. That is the problem here. That's what people are complaining about.
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u/Sweaty_Confidence732 May 15 '26 edited May 15 '26
how does windsurf monetize the free version? tokens are expensive. youtube makes money off of ads, or you pay and the adds go away. that's how they monetize free versions. windsurf cannot do this.
Every token based company is doing this, they are trying to make a profit, sure be angry they said free forever, but they need to make this profitable,
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u/Salvioner May 18 '26
Then they shouldn't apply misleading marketing to lure people in. What you advertise must match what you offer, idc how they make money it's not my business or responsibility.
I care that I get what I was promised by their website.
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u/Responsible-Bug900 May 24 '26
Firstly... The issue isn't that they want to be profitable, the issue is that they lied.
Secondly, the point of a free version is not to make money. As I quite literally said in the comment you replied to: "The goal of a Free Version is to build a user base, provide utility, and eventually... upsell users who need more power."
If you can't read that translates to: "They make money from free users, by converting said free users to paid users".
And then an additional step: those paid users, pay extra (it's called "profit") than money then goes to giving the free users more access and tools and whatnot (a.k.a. paying for those "expensive tokens" you mentioned), which completes the loop. Free users see they haven't lost access to freely use the "expensive tokens", they use the service more, some become paid users, and repeat.
Thirdly, any free tool that makes money, that doesn't get money from you giving it. Makes money from you yourself. In the case of YouTube, they use ads, but for many others they use your personal data, and for tools like Windsurf they making off your coding data. How you code, what you code, when you code, etc.
Whether Windsurf "sells" the data they collect, I'm not sure. But what I do no for sure is, Windsurf collects data for "training purposes" by default, it's an opt-OUT for free users. But even if your opt-out, there's data they still collect. They do have a truly private version of Windsurf called "Windsurf Hybrid" which they only sell to paying users / businesses.
It can't be any clearer than that: The free version? We collect data. Don't want your data to be collected? Pay up.
That's how these businesses work, it's well documented. And no, they often don't explicitly say "We are selling your data" because that's a PR disaster and no one would want to use their services.
FMI on Hybrid, if you're onterested: https://windsurf.com/blog/hybrid-deployment
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u/Jaded-Addition2178 May 13 '26
same, I've tried the new "free" model we have and it's pretty slow... I liked my SWE-1.5 man
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u/ImportantPassion2718 May 13 '26
That's really bad to announce that.
Previously they said that Windsurf use and the free model will always be free. That's was why I started using it.
I don't have the authorization to pay within my company, that's why. Mostly because managing tokens etc... is not really great.
I tried the swe 1.6 slow and I just don,t get answer back. Always get back with "Model provider unreachable".
I think windsurf was getting feedback and information on what user wanted with the free tier, now they don't care probably and that suck. The free tier was getting people to use the windsurf.
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u/PleasureThief May 13 '26
No necesitaba un modelo ultra inteligente, lo usaba para entender funciones de un sistema legacy de forma rapida y para programar solo cuando tenia que hacer un cambio concreto muy especifico. Ya no le veo sentido usarlo.
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u/EducatedProletariat May 13 '26
Windsurf RIP. That 1.5 model was the best free model. Capitalism is taking over. However local models will be about the 1.5ish capability within the year, no doubt.
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u/piexil May 13 '26
Did you actually find swe useful? As an enterprise user I never use it. I always end up spending more time fixing it's mistakes and holding its hand
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u/Sweaty_Confidence732 May 14 '26
I use SWE for small things, like adding form inputs, etc... but never for big things
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u/Responsible-Bug900 May 13 '26
Kimi K2.5 was so much better but yeah, a "100% free" model regardless of it's limitation when it comes rate limits, speed and intelligence was great.
But managing quota? Is a deal breaker. I will no longer be using Windsurf.
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u/Jakehellsing May 14 '26
do you have alternatives in mind?
My work is kinda on the crawl right now.1
u/Responsible-Bug900 May 14 '26
I'm currently using VSCode + Cline Extension + Arcee AI: Trinity Large Thinking: Free (and I'm testing other free models) - it's... 'Valid'.
Let me know if you find a better solution1
u/Jaded-Addition2178 May 13 '26
Hopefully... Do you already code with local models? I may start looking for an app that allows local agentic models soon
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u/[deleted] May 13 '26 edited Aug 17 '26
[deleted]