Cursor

Short verdict: Cursor was acquired by SpaceX (announced 14 August 2026) and is now sold in The X Subscription, a bundle with Grok and X. That changes what a plan buys: included usage covers only Cursor's own Grok and Composer models, while Claude, GPT and Gemini cost their API list price from prepaid credit on Premium ($30 a month) and up and are unavailable on the Free and $8 Plus plans. The product itself is a desktop code editor built around agents, with a terminal CLI, a pull-request review bot and cloud agents that work in parallel on their own virtual machines. It suits developers happy to work mostly with Grok or Composer and teams that want cloud agents and code review from one vendor; if you want Claude or GPT inside a flat subscription, look at the alternatives below.

How we reviewed it: We did not sign up for Cursor or run it against a model. On 21 October 2026 we read Cursor's pricing page, its docs on models, usage limits, legacy plans, API keys, cloud agents, Projects and Bugbot, the changelog and release notes, the Data Use page and Privacy Policy, and the post announcing the SpaceX acquisition. Plans and limits change often; check the pricing page before you pay.

What Cursor costs and includes

Where Cursor goes beyond the editor

Cloud agents on their own machines

Cloud agents run in isolated virtual machines, and Cursor says you can run as many as you want in parallel without keeping your computer online. They build and test their change, can drive a desktop and browser, and return a pull request with screenshots, videos and logs; you can also take over the remote desktop to try the result. You start them from the editor, the web or iOS app, Slack, a GitHub or Bitbucket comment, Linear, the API, or the CLI by starting a message with &.

Projects for work that outlasts a chat

Projects, in beta since 10 September 2026, put a coordinator agent in charge of a feature, migration or app: it plans and delegates instead of writing code, and Cursor says it keeps context over months and can hand work to thousands of subagents. It can act on a Slack channel, a schedule or your pull requests without a prompt, and it needs Premium or higher.

Review bots and a Git host

Bugbot reviews pull requests on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps and Origin, Cursor's own code hosting, on every update or when someone comments bugbot run. Teams and Enterprise plans add Security Review, which reports exploitable bugs, and Rollouts, which watches each change as it deploys (both since 23 September 2026).

What The X Subscription changes, and other costs to watch

• Claude, GPT and Gemini cost extra. On Premium and up you pay their API list price from prepaid credit from the first request (Claude Opus 5.5: $4 input and $20 output per million tokens). Your own key avoids that on individual plans, but its requests still pass through Cursor's servers, outside its zero data retention terms.

• The pool is shared with Grok. Grok Chat, Imagine, Voice and Grok Bot draw from the same weekly allowance as coding. Unused usage doesn't roll over, and prepaid credit expires 365 days after purchase.

• A one-way switch from legacy plans. Existing Pro ($20) and Pro+ ($60) customers keep their plans; the nearest new tiers are Premium ($30) and Super ($100). Cursor says each new plan includes at least twice the coding usage with Cursor models, but switching drops the included third-party models and cannot be undone.

• A per-token fee for teams. Teams and Enterprise pay $0.25 per million tokens on eligible third-party models, even with their own keys.

• Privacy Mode default. The docs say it is on by default for team members and Enterprise but don't state the default for individuals. Cloud agents keep encrypted copies of your repositories while they run.

Pros and cons

Pros

• Cloud agents run in parallel on their own machines and return pull requests with screenshots and videos.

• From Premium ($30 a month), one plan covers the editor, CLI, cloud agents, Bugbot and Origin hosting.

• Desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux on x64 and ARM64, plus web, iOS and JetBrains access.

• Privacy Mode comes with zero data retention agreements and is on by default for teams.

Cons

• Claude, GPT and Gemini are billed at API list price on top of the plan and are unavailable on Free and Plus.

• The weekly pool is shared with Grok's chat, image, video and voice apps.

• The $8 Plus plan lacks cloud agents, Bugbot and your own keys.

• Closed source, and leaving a legacy plan for The X Subscription is permanent.

How Cursor compares

• Devin Desktop (formerly Windsurf) also pairs an editor with local and cloud agents, but its $20-a-month Pro plan includes OpenAI, Anthropic and Google models within a daily and weekly quota, plus Devin Cloud. Choose it if you want Claude or GPT inside the plan price.

• GitHub Copilot works inside VS Code, Visual Studio, JetBrains IDEs, Xcode and Zed; Pro costs $10 a month for 1,500 AI credits ($15 of usage) on Claude, GPT and Gemini models (no Opus on Pro), and its cloud agent turns an issue into a pull request. Choose it to keep your editor and pay less.

• Zed is an open-source (GPL-3.0) editor, free with your own keys, local models or outside agents such as Claude Agent and Codex, or $10 a month for hosted models; it doesn't keep or train on your code by default, but has no cloud agents. Choose it for an open editor where you pick the agent.

For more options, see all AI coding tools.

Who should use Cursor

Use Cursor if you want an editor, a CLI and cloud agents under one account and are comfortable doing most work with Grok 4.7 or Composer 2.5, buying credit for Claude or GPT when a task needs them; teams that want pull-request review and enforced Privacy Mode get the most from it. Look elsewhere if you want Claude, GPT or Gemini inside a flat subscription, would rather not tie your editor to an X and Grok bundle, or need an open-source editor.

FAQ

Is Cursor free?

Yes. As of 21 October 2026 Cursor's Free plan includes Agent and Chat with limited usage of Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer). Claude, GPT and Gemini are not available on the Free plan or the $8 Plus plan.

How much does Cursor cost?

As of 21 October 2026: Plus $8 a month (Grok models only), Premium $30, Super $100 and Ultra $200, or $80, $300, $1,000 and $2,000 a year. Teams cost $30, $100 or $200 per seat a month and Enterprise is custom. Prices exclude tax, and Claude, GPT and Gemini are paid separately at API list price.

Can I still use Claude or GPT in Cursor?

Yes, but not from the plan's included usage. Since Cursor moved to The X Subscription, third-party models are billed at their API list price from prepaid credit on Premium and above, or you can add your own OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Azure OpenAI or AWS Bedrock key on Premium, Super or Ultra. The Free and Plus plans cannot use them.

Does Cursor train on my code?

Not with Privacy Mode on: Cursor says code data is then not used for training by Cursor or its model providers, under zero data retention agreements. With Privacy Mode off, Cursor may use code data to train its models. Privacy Mode is on by default for team members and Enterprise; Cursor's docs tell individuals how to turn it on in Settings but do not state their default.