Windsurf Claims Anthropic Limits Direct Access to Claude AI Models

Windsurf, a vibe coding startup reportedly being acquired by OpenAI, has stated that Anthropic has significantly reduced its direct access to Claude 3.7 Sonnet and Claude 3.5 Sonnet AI models. This change impacts Windsurf’s ability to offer these popular AI models on its platform.

Windsurf CEO Varun Mohan announced via a post on X that Anthropic provided minimal notice for this adjustment. Consequently, Windsurf is now seeking alternative third-party compute providers to host Anthropic’s AI models.

“We have been very clear to Anthropic that this is not our desire – we wanted to pay them for the full capacity,” Mohan stated on X. “We are disappointed by this decision and short notice.”

In a blog post, Windsurf acknowledged having some capacity through third-party inference providers, but indicated it’s insufficient. This situation may lead to temporary disruptions for Windsurf users attempting to access Claude models.

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 (@_mohansolo) June 3, 2025

This decision follows Anthropic’s launch of Claude 4, where Windsurf reportedly did not receive direct access. Windsurf has been relying on a less efficient workaround to provide access to Claude 4. Several competitors, like Cursor, Devin, and GitHub Copilot, seemingly had direct access to Claude 4 at launch.

The AI-assisted coding sector has been rapidly evolving, with OpenAI reportedly finalizing the acquisition of Windsurf in April. Anthropic has also increased investment in its AI-coding applications, including Claude Code, and recently hosted its first Code with Claude developer conference.

Anthropic spokesperson Steve Mnich stated, “We’re prioritizing capacity for sustainable partnerships that allow us to effectively serve the broader developer community,” also noting that Claude 4 remains accessible on Windsurf via an API key.

Windsurf experienced rapid growth, reaching $100 million ARR in April, but limited access to Anthropic’s models might impede future expansion.

Ronald Mannak, a startup founder specializing in Swift, noted that Claude 4 offered enhanced capabilities. He switched to Cursor to streamline his coding with Claude 4, citing frustrations with Windsurf’s limited access.

Windsurf is temporarily allowing users to connect their own Anthropic API keys, although developers find this solution more complex and expensive. Windsurf spokesperson Payal Patel emphasizes the company’s commitment to providing optionality for users, which Anthropic’s decision has complicated.

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