Do free AI coding assistants train on your code?
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The Short Answer
- GitHub Copilot — GitHub states that free, Pro and Pro+ interactions may be used to train its models "unless they have opted out", and puts that opt-out in account settings at no cost.
- Cursor — Cursor's security page says Privacy Mode is "available to anyone (free or Pro)" and guarantees code is not used for training when it is on — without saying it is on to begin with.
- Amazon Q Developer — AWS marks data collection "Opt-out available" on the Free tier and "Automatically opted out" on Pro, which puts a $19 monthly price on not having to remember.
- Windsurf — Cognition's security page states that data is used for training "By default" and that "If you're on a paid plan, you can opt out at any time" — which leaves free users with no opt-out at all.
| Product | Best for | From | Free plan | Free-tier training |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Copilot | Published numbers, published opt-out | $10/mo | Yes | Free opt-out |
| Cursor | Privacy Mode, stated to include free users | $20/mo | Yes | Free opt-out |
| Amazon Q Developer | The free-versus-paid gap, printed in the price table | $19/mo | Yes | Free opt-out |
| Windsurf | The one place the opt-out costs money | $20/mo | Yes | Paid plan to stop |
What we checked, and what we did not test
The free tier of a coding assistant is not free in the way a sample is free. You pay in completions, and the question worth asking before you install one is whether you are also paying in code — whether what you type into the editor becomes training data, and what it costs to stop that.
We opened each vendor’s own documentation on 6 August 2026 — GitHub’s plans page, Cursor’s security page, the Amazon Q Developer pricing page, and whatever windsurf.com/pricing resolved to — and read the sentence that answers it. We quote that sentence and link the page. We did not install the tools or inspect network traffic, so nothing here is a hands-on finding.
We expected this axis to split the field, and it did not. The hypothesis was that some free tiers train on your code and others do not. Every vendor that addresses the question describes the same arrangement instead: training happens unless you go and turn it off, and turning it off is free. What actually varies is smaller and more useful — whether the vendor documents the question at all, and whether paying converts the switch from manual to automatic.
Published numbers, published opt-out
1. GitHub Copilot — Published numbers, published opt-out
Copilot is the most legible of the four: the free tier’s limits are numbers, and the training behaviour is a sentence with an “unless” in it.
Best for A free tier with published numbers and a published opt-out
From $10/mo. Free plan: Free — 2,000 code completions and 50 chat requests a month.
- Pro — $10/mo · 1 seat
- Pro+ — $39/mo · 1 seat
- Max — $100/mo · 1 seat
GitHub's own plans page says it "may also use interactions from users with a Copilot Free, Copilot Pro, and Copilot Pro+ subscription … to train and improve our AI models unless they have opted out", and that "individual subscribers can opt out of having their data used for AI model training at any time through … GitHub account settings". The opt-out is free; it is also something you have to go and do.
Pros
- The free tier's limits are stated as numbers — 2,000 completions and 50 chat requests a month — not as the word "limited".
- The training opt-out is in account settings and costs nothing.
Skip it if
- Free, Pro and Pro+ interactions feed model training until you opt out; the default runs against you.
- No annual price is published on the plans page for any tier.
Privacy Mode, stated to include free users
2. Cursor — Privacy Mode, stated to include free users
Cursor is the only one here that puts free users and paying users on the same line of its privacy guarantee, in writing.
Best for A privacy switch that free accounts are explicitly allowed to use
From $20/mo. Free plan: Hobby — "Limited Agent requests" and access to Composer, with no number attached.
- Pro — $20/mo · 1 seat
- Teams — $40/mo (Per user)
Cursor's security page states that "Privacy Mode is available to anyone (free or Pro)" and that when enabled "we guarantee that code data is not used for training by us or our model providers". The same page does not say Privacy Mode is on by default, so on a fresh free account it is a setting you have to find rather than one you inherit.
Pros
- Privacy Mode is stated in writing to be available to free users, not just paying ones.
- The guarantee names model providers as well as Cursor itself.
Skip it if
- The free plan's limits are published as the word "limited" with no number, so you cannot size it before installing.
- Nothing on the security page says what happens to your code when Privacy Mode is off.
The free-versus-paid gap, printed in the price table
3. Amazon Q Developer — The free-versus-paid gap, printed in the price table
Amazon Q is unusual for stating the free-versus-paid privacy difference in the pricing table itself, where a buyer will actually see it.
Best for Seeing the free-versus-paid privacy gap written into the pricing table itself
From $19/mo. Free plan: Free tier — 50 agentic requests a month and 1,000 lines of code transformation a month.
- Pro — $19/mo · 1 seat
AWS's own pricing table marks data collection "Opt-out available" on the Free tier and "Automatically opted out" on Pro. It is the same product and the same setting; the row that changes is who has to go and switch it off.
Pros
- The free tier's monthly allowances are published as numbers: 50 agentic requests, 1,000 transformed lines.
- The difference between free and paid data handling is stated on the pricing page rather than buried in a policy document.
Skip it if
- On the free tier the opt-out is yours to perform; paying makes it automatic.
- Only one paid consumer tier is listed, at $19 per user per month.
The one place the opt-out costs money
4. Windsurf — The one place the opt-out costs money
Windsurf is the counter-example that makes the other three legible: the same switch, behind a paywall.
Best for The only assistant here where opting out costs money
From $20/mo. Free plan: Free — $0 a month with a "light quota to code with agents", unlimited inline edits and unlimited tab completions.
- Pro — $20/mo · 1 seat
- Max — $200/mo · 1 seat
- Teams — $40/mo ($80 a month base plus $40 per seat)
Cognition's security page answers it in two sentences that decide the whole category: "By default, we may use your data for model training purposes to improve and enhance the Services. If you're on a paid plan, you can opt out at any time on the Data Controls settings page." Opting out is a paid-plan feature — a free user has no switch to find. It adds that after opting out "Zero Data Retention will be enabled with our model providers", and that "On the Teams plan, only an administrator can exercise the opt-out".
Pros
- Unlimited tab completions and inline edits are listed on the $0 plan.
- Opting out is described precisely, including that it enables zero data retention with model providers.
Skip it if
- The training opt-out is reserved for paid plans — free users cannot turn it off at all.
- On Teams, only an administrator can exercise the opt-out, so individual engineers cannot.
- The pricing page you land on is Devin's — windsurf.com/pricing redirected to devin.ai/pricing when we checked.
What this means if you are choosing today
Treat “free tier” as “opted in until you say otherwise”. On Copilot and Cursor the first thing to do after installing is open settings and turn the training control off, before the first file is indexed. That takes a minute and costs nothing.
On Windsurf you cannot do it at all without paying, which makes its free tier the wrong place to open a client’s repository or anything under an NDA — not because the policy is unusual, but because it is the only one here where the remedy is priced.
If you are choosing for a team where nobody will reliably flip a switch, Amazon Q’s arrangement matches the risk: $19 a month per user converts the setting from something a person must remember into something the account arrives with. Windsurf’s converts it from unavailable into available, which is a different purchase entirely.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does GitHub Copilot train on your code on the free plan?
By default, yes, on your interactions. GitHub's plans page says it "may also use interactions from users with a Copilot Free, Copilot Pro, and Copilot Pro+ subscription … to train and improve our AI models unless they have opted out". The opt-out is free and lives in GitHub account settings, so the cost is attention rather than money.
Is Cursor's Privacy Mode available on the free plan?
Yes. Cursor's security page states plainly that "Privacy Mode is available to anyone (free or Pro)", and that with it enabled "we guarantee that code data is not used for training by us or our model providers". What the page does not say is whether it is switched on for you, so on a new free account treat it as a setting to find.
What is the difference between "opt-out available" and "automatically opted out"?
It is the difference between a switch you have to flip and one that arrives flipped. Amazon Q Developer's pricing table uses the first phrase for its Free tier and the second for its $19 Pro tier. Same product, same control, and the paid row is the one where forgetting costs you nothing.
Can free Windsurf users opt out of training?
No, and the wording is unusually explicit. Cognition's security page states "By default, we may use your data for model training purposes to improve and enhance the Services. If you're on a paid plan, you can opt out at any time on the Data Controls settings page." The conditional is the whole finding. It adds that opting out also enables zero data retention with model providers, and that on Teams "only an administrator can exercise the opt-out". This page first published Windsurf as unconfirmed because its pricing page says nothing; the security page does.
Is any free tier private by default?
None of the four. What separates them is what the free tier lets you do about it. Copilot and Cursor give free users a switch they must find themselves. Amazon Q gives free users the switch and paying customers an account that arrives with it flipped. Windsurf gives free users nothing: its opt-out is conditioned on being on a paid plan.
How We Keep This Updated
Prices move and vendors rewrite their plan tables, so every value on this page carries the date we read it. When a page changes, the change lands here rather than being edited away quietly. The procedure is on the methodology page. tell us and we will re-check it.
- 2026-08-06 — Corrected, and the conclusion changed. Windsurf was first published as unconfirmed because its pricing page says nothing about training. Its security page does: data is used "By default" and "If you're on a paid plan, you can opt out at any time." This page originally concluded that the axis did not split the field; with Windsurf read, it does — three vendors give free users a free opt-out and one sells it.
- 2026-08-06 — First published. Training and opt-out language read on GitHub's plans page, Cursor's security page and the AWS pricing page.