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Getting started

To get started, complete Windsurf’s onboarding and authenticate into Windsurf. Upon authenticating into Windsurf, your 2-week Free Trial starts.

One premium User Prompt credit is consumed whenever a message is sent to Cascade with a premium model (e.g. GPT-4o, Sonnet) while one premium Flow Action credit is consumed when a premium model is used by the AI in Write and Chat mode for a tool call (e.g. search, analyze, write, terminal command, etc.).

Upon using all of your credits, premium models will no longer be accessible but you will still be able to use our Cascade Base model. To resume access with premium models, upgrade to a Pro or Pro Ultimate plan.

The Free Trial includes:

  • 50 User Prompt credits

  • 200 Flow Action credits

The Pro plan includes:

  • 500 User Prompt credits

  • 1500 Flow Action credits

The Pro Ultimate plan includes:

  • Infinite User Prompt credits

  • 3000 Flow Action credits

And the Free plan includes:

  • 5 User Prompt credits

  • 5 Flow Action credits

If you run out of credits on the Pro or Pro Ultimate plans, you will have the option of purchasing additional credits.

After upgrading, your paid plan will start immediately and you’ll have access to premium models again. To learn more about the quotas and features per pricing plan, click here.

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User Prompt and Flow Action credits

User Prompt credits are usage credits that get consumed for each message sent with a premium model (e.g. Sonnet or GPT-4o). Every message sent counts as 1 user prompt credit.

Flow Action credits are a usage credit that get consumed for each tool call (e.g. View file, Search, Write, Terminal, etc.). Every tool call counts as 1 flow action credit.

For Flow Action credits, depending on the prompt, Cascade might not need to take any actions (e.g. explaining a block of code), while for others, Cascade might need to take a series of actions.

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Tool calls

One of the things that makes Cascade so powerful is its ability to use tool calls. Here’s are a few examples of tool calls that are currently supported:

  • Search: Cascade will intelligently search through your codebase for snippets relevant to the task that it’s trying to accomplish.
  • Write: Cascade will write changes for you in your file. Only available in Write mode which can be configured under and to the right the prompt input box.
  • View file: Cascade will analyze a file to gather more context to help it accomplish the task requested.
  • Terminal: Cascade has the ability to run both synchronous and background terminal processes. For example, it can generate and run install commands to set up a project as well as a background process to run the project.

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Errors

If a tool call errors or a user message is unsuccessful, flow action and User Prompt credits will not be consumed. For example, if Cascade attempts to write to a file but that file has unsaved changes, the tool call will fail and it will not consume a credit.

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Viewing your usage

There are a few ways to view your usage.

Go to the Cascade usage directly by clicking on the overflow menu, and then selecting “Cascade Usage”.

View the settings panel by clicking on “Windsurf Settings” on the status bar, followed by selecting the “Plan Info” tab.

You can also view it on your plan page at codeium.com/plan after you’re authenticated.

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Upgrading to a paid plan

To learn more about paid features or to upgrade to a paid plan, click here. Paid plans include Pro and Pro Ultimate options for individuals as well as for teams.

We accept all major credit cards, Apple Pay, Cash App Pay, Google Pay, Link, WeChat Pay, and Alipay. If you have a payment method not listed, please reach out to us at support. You may need to disable your VPN to view the relevant payment methods for your region.

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What happens when you run out of premium Flow Action credits but not premium User Prompt credits?

If you no longer have premium Flow Action credits, you have three options:

  • You can purchase premium Flex credits to continue using Write and Chat mode with premium model tool calls (the premium Flex credits will be used as if premium Flow Action credits)

  • You can use Legacy mode to continue to use your premium User Prompt credits without any additional premium Flow Action credits (i.e. premium model usage but no tool calls)

  • You can use Write or Chat mode with the Cascade Base model. Note that no premium User Prompt credits will be used when on Cascade Base model

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What happens when you run out of premium User Prompt credits but not premium Flow Action credits?

If you no longer have premium User Prompt credits, you have two options:

  • You can purchase premium Flex credits to continue using Write and Chat mode (the Flex credits will be used as if premium User Prompt credits)

  • You can use Write or Chat mode with the Cascade Base model for prompts. In this case, perhaps unexpectedly, no premium Flow Action credits will be used either! This is because, at a technical quality level, it actually does not make sense to use premium models for tools if the original user prompt is not handled by a premium model, so we will automatically prevent you from burning premium Flow Action credits. Another way of putting it is that there is no way to spend premium Flow Action credits without using a premium User Prompt credit, which is one of the reasons why we give significantly more premium Flow Action credits than premium User Prompt credits at every tier.

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Purchasing additional Flex credits

If you run out of User Prompt or Flow Action credits, you can purchase Flex credits in the billing website. Flex credits are a credit that can be used as both User Prompt and Flow Action credits. For example, if you run out of tool calls but still have remaining User Prompt credits, your Flex credits will be consumed as Flow Action credits. If you run out of both User Prompt and Flow Action credits, Flex credits will be consumed as both. For example, if you are out of both User Prompt credits and Flow Action credits, send a message to Cascade with a premium model, and it performs tool calls as part of the response, you would consume 5 Flex credits, the equivalent of 1 User Prompt and 4 Flow Action credits.

For Team plans, Flex credits are purchased within and treated as a pool amongst all members of the team. Please contact your Teams admin to purchase more Flex credits to increase your amount of Flex credits. For more on the cost of Flex credits, visit our pricing page.

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Usage examples

To explain how credits work, here are a few examples.

In this first example below, the user has both User Prompt and Flow Action credits available. In the scenario illustrated, 1 User Prompt credit was consumed and 4 Flow Action credits were consumed.

In this second example below, the user has User Prompt credits but no Flow Action credits available. They purchased additional Flex credits that can be used as a backup to Flow Action credits. In the scenario illustrated, 1 user action credit was consumed and 4 Flex credits were consumed.

In this third example below, the user has no user prompt but has Flow Action credits available. They purchased additional Flex credits that can also be used as a backup to User Prompt credits. In the scenario illustrated, 1 Flex credit was consumed and 4 Flex credits were consumed.

In this final example below, the user has no user prompt or Flow Action credits available but they’ve purchased Flex credits. Since Flex credits can be used for both User Prompt and Flow Action credits, they both count as Flex credits. In the scenario illustrated, 5 Flex credits were consumed.

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Plan Usage

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Using a Free Trial

The Free Trial comes with:

  • 50 User Prompt credits

  • 200 Flow Action credits

When you’re on a Free Trial, you’ll be given user prompts and flow actions credits for free! To get started, ask Cascade a question. In Write and Chat mode, Cascade is optimized to fully understand your codebase and leverages tool calls to assist you. By default, all of your requests will use premium models until you run out of credits.

If you end up low on credits, you’ll be warned ahead of time so that you can upgrade and have access to more credits. Upon upgrading, your credits will reset to the monthly quota of the respective paid plan.

If you run out of credits, you’ll still be able to use our Cascade Base Model in Write or Chat mode while in the Free Trial. If you didn’t upgrade in the 2-week Free Trial, you’ll be downgraded to our Free plan.

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Using Pro Plan

The Pro plan comes with:

  • 500 User Prompt credits

  • 1500 Flow Action credits

While on Pro, you’ll have access to a monthly quota of User Prompt and Flow Action credits. Cascade usage will consume credits. You can view how many credits you have remaining in the Windsurf Settings panel that’s accessible in the status bar.

If you’re running low on credits, Cascade will notify you so that you can purchase additional Flex credits. To purchase additional Flex credits, visit the billing website and select “Purchase flex credits”. The Flex credits purchased will rollover to the following usage month if there are any remaining.

If you want to reduce your usage of Flow Action credits, you have two options:

  • Use Legacy mode with a premium model. This will still consume User Prompt credits but will not consume any Flow Action credits. Legacy Chat does not use any tools.

  • Use Cascade Base model in Write or Chat mode. Using Cascade Base model does not consume any user prompt or Flow Action credits.

If you want to reduce your consumption of User Prompt credits, select Cascade Base model in the model selection dropdown. Using Cascade Base model does not consume any user prompt or Flow Action credits.

In addition to increased Cascade credits, Pro comes with unlimited Fast Autocomplete and unlimited premium model requests with Command.

If you’d like to have access to unlimited prompt credits, more flow actions and better Flex credit pricing, you can upgrade to the Pro Ultimate plan. Upon upgrading to Pro Ultimate, your billing cycle will reset, you’ll be refunded a pro-rated amount of your payment for Pro and your monthly quota will also reset. Any Flex credits will transfer over.

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Using Pro Ultimate Plan

The Pro Ultimate plan comes with:

  • Infinite User Prompt credits

  • 3000 Flow Action credits

While on Pro Ultimate, you’ll have access to a monthly quota of Flow Action credits and an unlimited number of User Prompt credits. Tool calls within Cascade will consume your Flow Action credits. You can view how many credits you have remaining in the Windsurf Settings panel that’s accessible in the status bar.

If you’re running low on Flow Action credits, Cascade will notify you so that you can purchase additional Flex credits. To purchase additional Flex credits, visit the billing website and select “Purchase flex credits”. The Flex credits purchased will rollover to the following usage month if there are any remaining.

If you want to reduce your usage of Flow Action credits, you have two options:

  • Use Legacy Chat mode with a premium model. On Pro Ultimate, you have unlimited prompt credits so Legacy Chat usage does not consume any credits.
  • Use Cascade Base model in Write or Chat mode. Using Cascade Base model also does not consume any credits.

In addition to increased Cascade credits, Pro Ultimate comes with unlimited Fast Autocomplete and unlimited premium model requests with Command.

If you’d like to downgrade to Pro, visit the billing website. Upon downgrading, you’ll remain in Pro Ultimate until the end of your billing cycle. At the end of your billing cycle, your plan will change to Pro. Any Flex credits will transfer over.

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Using a Free plan

The Free plan comes with:

  • 5 User Prompt credits

  • 5 Flow Action credits

Windsurf can still be used for free! While in Cascade, you’ll be given limited number of User Prompt and Flow Action credits and have access to our Cascade Base model in read mode to ask questions. When editing code, you’ll have access to unlimited autocomplete suggestions and AI command instructions. To learn more about features in Free and in paid tiers, click here.

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Canceling your paid plan

To cancel your paid plan, visit the billing website. Upon canceling your paid plan, you’ll still have access to all of your credits from your monthly quota and Flex credits until the end of the usage month. After the usage month, all Flex credits will be expired and you’ll be downgraded to the Free plan where you’ll be provided a limited number of User Prompt and tool action credits. If you change your mind and decide not to cancel before the end of the usage month, you can renew your plan by visiting the billing page.

AdvancedGetting Started