Cognition launches SWE-2: Cheaper AI model for software development

The US company Cognition, which is behind the coding assistant Devin and owns Windsurf, has presented a new AI model for software development. It's called SWE-2 and was announced on September 10, 2026 in the post "Introducing SWE-2: Pushing the Pareto Frontier."

What's new?

According to the sources I have found, SWE-2 is built on Kimi K3. It's an open model from the Chinese company Moonshot AI with 2.8 trillion parameters. Parameters are the settings an AI model learns during training, and the more there are, the larger the model. Cognition then further trained the model specifically to work as a software developer.

SWE-2 is Cognition's first model with a selectable effort level: medium, high and max. This is like being able to ask the AI to think quickly and cheaply or thoroughly and more expensively. All three levels were trained in one combined training run with reinforcement learning. That means the model learns by trial and error and gets points for good results. According to the coverage, the model is penalized for high costs along the way.

The Pareto frontier

The headline's "Pareto frontier" is a technical term for the best possible balance between two things, here quality and price. It's hard to improve one without sacrificing the other. Cognition believes SWE-2 pushes the frontier so you get more for your money.

Figures from Cognition

On the FrontierCode 1.1 Main test, SWE-2 scores 50.0 percent according to Cognition. That's less than one point behind Claude Fable 5.1, which gets 50.9 percent, but SWE-2 is said to cost 64 percent less. Remember that these are the company's own figures and that they have not been independently verified in anything I have been able to find.

What does it mean for you?

If you or your workplace use AI to write code, cheaper models can make it more affordable to let AI handle bigger tasks. SWE-2 is available in Devin Desktop and in the command-line version. Rollout to Devin Web and Fusion is underway.

What it means for you

If you or your workplace have developers who use AI to write code, SWE-2 may be worth trying, because according to Cognition it can deliver nearly the same quality as a leading competitor at a 64 percent lower price. You can already try it in Devin Desktop and in the command-line version, while Devin Web and Fusion will follow. Remember that the figures come from Cognition itself, so test it on some of your own tasks before you switch. If you don't use AI for code, the news has no significance for your daily life right now.