Windsurf is facing backlash after Anthropic slashed its first-party access to the Claude 3.7 and 3.5 Sonnet AI models. CEO Varun Mohan revealed this shocking change in a post on X, stating the decision came with less than five days’ notice.
The new limits put Windsurf in a tough spot, forcing the startup to scramble for third-party compute providers to run key Anthropic models on its platform. Mohan expressed clear disappointment, saying, “We have been very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire – we wanted to pay them for the full capacity.”
In a blog post, Windsurf noted it has some access to third-party inference providers but highlighted potential availability issues for users trying to access Claude. 
With less than five days of notice, Anthropic decided to cut off nearly all of our first-party capacity to all Claude 3.x models. Given the short notice, we may see some short-term Claude 3.x model availability issues as we have very quickly ramped up capacity on other inference…
— Varun Mohan, CEO of Windsurf
This development follows a rocky launch for Claude 4, which Windsurf did not have direct access to, leading to costly workarounds for developers. Meanwhile, competitors like Anysphere’s Cursor and Microsoft’s GitHub Copilot have established direct partnerships with Anthropic.
Anthropic maintains it’s prioritizing capacity for "sustainable partnerships" but noted that Claude can still be accessed on Windsurf via an API key. Anthropic spokesperson Steve Mnich stated, “Developers can also access Claude through our direct API integration, our partner ecosystem, and other development tools.”
Windsurf has seen rapid growth, reaching $100 million ARR in April. However, this limitation on Anthropic’s models could hold it back against rivals.
Feedback from Windsurf users is already pouring in, with many expressing frustration over the lack of direct access to Claude’s latest models. Ronald Mannak, a developer using Swift, switched to Cursor after finding Claude 4 critical for his workflows but unavailable through Windsurf.
Windsurf offers a temporary "bring your own key" solution for Claude 4, but it’s proving to be a more complex and expensive option for developers. As the vibe coding scene heats up, Windsurf’s ability to support top models is more crucial than ever.
Windsurf insists on providing optionality for users, but with Anthropic’s latest move, it’s clearly a tougher climb ahead.
