Compare AI tools

	Windsurf A	Cursor S	Perplexity S	Khanmigo S
Tagline	Codeium's agentic IDE. Cascade agent + strong free tier.	VS Code fork that made AI coding actually work.	AI search done right. Cited answers, not chat theater.	Khan Academy's AI tutor. Socratic method, built for learning.
Category	coding	coding	research	education
Pricing	Free + $15/mo Pro	Free + $20/mo Pro + $40/mo Business	Free + $20/mo Pro	$4/mo (free for teachers)
Best for	Developers who want Cursor-like power for less money.	Developers. Non-developers who want to ship working code.	Replacing Google for any question where you want a cited answer in seconds.	Students K-12. Parents helping with homework. Teachers prepping lessons.
Strengths	Cheaper than Cursor Cascade agent for multi-file tasks Solid free tier	Tab completion feels like mind-reading Composer for multi-file edits Runs Claude, GPT, Gemini — you pick	Sources every claim Fast, current answers Pro Search runs multi-step research Spaces for persistent context	Socratic — doesn't give answers, asks questions Trusted by schools + parents Integrated with Khan Academy curriculum
Weaknesses	Smaller community Model selection more limited	Can feel overwhelming for non-coders Expensive at scale	Not a general chatbot Answers can be shallow on complex topics	K-12 focus (not deep for adults) Slower than general chatbots
Kai's verdict	A-tier. Close second to Cursor. If $5/mo matters, start here.	S-tier for coding. If you write code of any kind, this pays back the $20 in a day.	S-tier for search. I use it before Google now. If you're still Googling everything, try this for a week.	S-tier for kids learning. The tutoring UX is legit — not a generic chatbot dressed up.
Link	Open →	Open →	Open →	Open →