Cursor Review
Reviewed by Carlos Gil · Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Updated 8 min readEditorially reviewed
Quick facts
- Starting price
- Free; Plus $8/mo (Grok models only); Premium $30/mo
- Free plan
- Yes
- Best for
- Developers who want AI agents in their editor and can estimate weekly agent usage
- Platforms
- macOS, Windows, Linux desktop; cloud agents via web and iOS app
Pricing checked against the official Cursor pricing page on . See every plan or the pricing tracker.
BestStacked Score
Weighted average of 5 categories. Methodology below.
Quick answer
Should you pay for Cursor, and which plan?
Cursor is a VS Code-based editor for developers who want AI agents to write and change code across a repository, not just autocomplete lines. Its plans changed on October 12, 2026: new customers now buy Cursor as part of The X Subscription, one plan that also includes Grok and X Premium benefits. On October 14, 2026, Cursor's pricing page and docs listed Free, Plus at $8 a month (Cursor's own Grok and Composer models only), Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200, with Teams seats at $30, $100 or $200. Each paid plan includes one weekly usage pool for Cursor's own models, shared with Grok. Claude, GPT and Gemini are no longer included: on Premium and above they're billed at API list price from prepaid credit. Existing Pro, Pro+, Ultra and Teams customers can keep their old plans.
- Using Claude, GPT or Gemini
- Premium: $30/mo, or $300/yr per Cursor's docs. Third-party models are paid separately at API list price from prepaid credit.
- Grok and Composer only
- Plus: $8/mo ($80/yr). Agent with Cursor's own models at fixed settings; no cloud agents, Bugbot or third-party models.
- Team of five (calculation)
- Five Premium seats cost $150/mo. Teams adds SSO and admin controls, and third-party model requests carry a $0.25 per million token Cursor Token Rate.
- Cursor or Copilot?
- This review asks whether Cursor is worth buying. If you're choosing between the two, our Cursor vs GitHub Copilot comparison covers the head-to-head.
The Verdict
Cursor is a fork of VS Code built around agents: it plans and edits across files, runs terminal commands, offers Tab autocomplete and runs cloud agents you can start from the desktop, the web or your phone. The product is the same; the way you buy it changed on October 12, 2026. New customers get Cursor through The X Subscription, where each paid plan includes a weekly pool for Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer) and third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini cost extra at API list price. Premium at $30 a month is the realistic starting plan if you want third-party models, cloud agents or Bugbot; Plus at $8 is a cheaper way in if Grok and Composer are enough. Skip Cursor if your company mandates JetBrains, or if the SpaceX ownership and the X bundling raise questions your procurement team needs answered first.
Best for
Developers who want agents working across their repo inside a VS Code-style editor and are comfortable with usage-based billing.
Skip if
You're contractually required to use JetBrains, or your codebase has compliance restrictions that block external AI inference.
AlternativesGitHub Copilot, Windsurf, Replit
The Background
What Is Cursor?
Cursor is an AI code editor built by Anysphere, a startup founded in 2022 by Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark and Aman Sanger. It's a fork of Microsoft's VS Code, so most extensions, themes and keybindings carry over, wrapped in a product layer that puts AI agents at the center: Tab autocomplete, inline edits, an Agent that plans and executes multi-file changes, and cloud agents that keep working after you close your laptop. On August 14, 2026, Cursor announced that SpaceX had completed its acquisition of the company; TechCrunch reported the deal as a $60 billion all-stock transaction when it was announced in June. On October 12, 2026, SpaceX's AI unit introduced The X Subscription, which bundles Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium. Cursor's docs now say Cursor "is sold as part of The X Subscription": paid plans share one weekly usage pool between Cursor and the Grok apps, covering Cursor's own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6 and 4.5, and Composer 2.5), while third-party models from Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and others are billed separately at API list price.
The Product
Cursor Features: What You Actually Get
Cursor Tab (predictive autocomplete)
Cursor says Tab is trained on real multi-file code edits rather than plain next-token prediction, so it can suggest the next edit, including a related change in another file. Cursor's legacy-plan docs list unlimited Tab completions on the old Pro, Pro+ and Ultra plans; the X Subscription pricing page and docs don't mention Tab limits, so check before you switch.
Rename a TypeScript interface property and have Cursor Tab predict and stage the corresponding edits across 14 files in your codebase, one accept at a time.
Inline Edit (Cmd-K)
Highlight code, press Cmd-K, describe the change in plain English, and Cursor rewrites the selection in place with a clean diff view. The model sees the surrounding file context, recent edits, and any rules you've defined in `.cursorrules`. Faster than chat for surgical edits.
Highlight a 60-line React component, type 'extract the form state into a custom hook,' and review the diff before accepting it.
Agent mode (multi-file planning)
Agent mode plans and executes changes across multiple files in your repo — think 'add a Stripe checkout endpoint, the React form to call it, and a passing test.' You see the plan, accept or reject each step, and Cursor handles the file edits, terminal commands, and lint fixes inline.
Ask the agent for a full 'add Google sign-in' feature (backend route, frontend button, auth config and migration) and review each step before it lands.
Codebase chat with deep context
The chat panel indexes your entire repo (with respect for `.gitignore` and a `.cursorignore` file) so questions like 'where do we handle Stripe webhook signature verification?' get answered with file references and code snippets you can open and check.
Onboard to a large codebase by asking a handful of architectural questions and reading the cited files.
Model choice and what it costs
Cursor's own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 from SpaceXAI, and Cursor's Composer 2.5) draw from the weekly pool included with paid plans. Third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini aren't included: on Premium and above they're available from the first request at the model's API list price, paid from prepaid credit, and Plus and Free can't use them. On Teams and Enterprise, third-party and bring-your-own-key requests also carry a Cursor Token Rate of $0.25 per million tokens.
Use Composer or Grok from the weekly pool for routine edits and switch to a third-party model for the hardest problems, with a monthly spending cap set on your prepaid credit.
Cloud agents, Automations and Bugbot
Cloud agents run on Cursor's infrastructure, so you can start a task, close your laptop and come back to a pull request. You can also start and follow them from cursor.com/agents or the Cursor iOS app. On The X Subscription, Cloud Agents, Automations, Origin code hosting and Bugbot code review start on Premium; Plus doesn't include them.
Hand a tedious typing migration to a cloud agent overnight and review the resulting pull request in the morning.
Feature recap
- Predictive multi-file autocomplete (Cursor Tab)
- Inline AI edits with diff view (Cmd-K)
- Agent mode for multi-file changes
- Codebase-aware chat with citations
- Cursor models (Grok, Composer) in a weekly pool; Claude, GPT and Gemini at API price
- Cloud agents (desktop, web, iOS), Automations and Bugbot from Premium
- VS Code extensions, themes and keybindings carry over
- Sold through The X Subscription with Grok and X Premium benefits
The Numbers
Cursor Pricing: Every Plan Explained
These are the X Subscription plans new customers buy, from cursor.com/pricing and Cursor's Models & Pricing docs, checked October 14, 2026. Prices exclude tax. The pricing page shows monthly prices only; the docs list the annual prices. Existing customers on the older plans (Hobby, Pro $20, Pro+ $60, Ultra $200, Teams Standard $40 and Premium $120 seats) can keep them.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual | Included Features | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | $0 | Agent and Chat with limited usage; no third-party models | Trying the editor before paying |
| Plus | $8 | $80/yr | Agent with Cursor's own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5, Composer 2.5) at fixed settings; Grok Chat, Voice, Imagine, Build and Grok API access; no Auto, cloud agents, Automations, Bugbot, Origin, third-party models or own API keys | Light use on Grok and Composer |
| PremiumBest value | $30 | $300/yr | 4x Plus usage; cloud agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot code review, Grok Bot; third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit | Most developers starting out |
| Super | $100 | $1,000/yr | Everything in Premium with 15x Plus usage and priority model access at peak times | Developers who use agents every day |
| Ultra | $200 | $2,000/yr | Everything in Super with 50x Plus usage and earliest access to new products and models | Power users running several agents |
| Teams | $30, $100 or $200 per seat | Not listed | Premium, Super or Ultra seats, mixable; central billing and admin, team marketplace, usage analytics, team-wide privacy mode, custom Chat data retention, SAML/OIDC SSO; $0.25/1M Cursor Token Rate on third-party models | Teams that self-serve |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Everything in Teams plus pooled usage across Grok and Cursor, invoice/PO billing, SCIM, granular spend controls, repository, model and MCP access controls, audit logs, priority support | Organizations that need invoicing, pooled usage or advanced security controls |
Pricing verified . Tools change pricing frequently — confirm at Cursor before purchasing.
Pricing scenarios (calculations from Cursor's published prices, checked October 14, 2026; tax excluded). Developer who wants Claude, GPT or Gemini in the editor: Premium at $30/month ($300/year per the docs) plus whatever those models cost at API list price, since none of that usage is included any more; set a monthly additional usage limit. Developer happy on Grok and Composer: Plus at $8/month covers Agent at fixed settings, but not cloud agents or Bugbot. Daily agent user: Super at $100/month ($1,000/year) gives 15x Plus usage. Power user running several agents: Ultra at $200/month ($2,000/year) with 50x Plus usage. Team of five on Premium seats: $150/month; moving two seats to Super makes it $290/month (3 × $30 + 2 × $100). Legacy Pro customers ($20) are mapped to Premium ($30) if they switch; Cursor says each new tier includes at least twice the Cursor-model usage of the plan it replaces but drops the included third-party model allowance, so heavy Claude or GPT users should compare carefully before switching, because the switch can't be undone.
What changed
Cursor and The X Subscription
SpaceX's AI unit announced The X Subscription on October 12, 2026: one plan for Grok, Grok Bot, Cursor and X Premium, available to new customers that day and rolling out globally over the following days. Cursor's pricing page now sells only these plans, payment goes to X Subscription Corp., and billing and usage are managed at grok.com/dashboard rather than cursor.com.
Three things changed for buyers. Usage resets weekly instead of monthly, and the pool is shared with Grok. Third-party models are no longer part of any plan's included usage; they're billed at API list price from prepaid credit, on Premium and above only. And every paid plan bundles X benefits, such as the Premium checkmark and fewer ads, which you pay for whether you use X or not.
Existing customers on Hobby, Pro, Pro+, Ultra or legacy Teams seats keep their plan, price and features unless they change or cancel. Cursor's docs call switching optional and permanent: Pro maps to Premium, Pro+ to Super and Ultra to Ultra, Teams Standard to Premium seats and Teams Premium to Super seats.
Read before you buy
Where Cursor's pages differ
Ultra: the pricing page's plan cards show Free, Plus, Premium and Super only, while the comparison table on the same page and the Models & Pricing docs list Ultra at $200 a month.
Plus models: the pricing page says "Only Grok models are available on this plan", while the docs say Plus includes Agent with Cursor's own models, Grok 4.7, 4.6 and 4.5 and Composer 2.5.
Annual billing: the pricing page shows monthly prices only, while the docs list annual prices of $80 (Plus), $300 (Premium), $1,000 (Super) and $2,000 (Ultra).
Teams usage: the docs say each seat gets the same weekly usage as the matching individual plan (Super 15x and Ultra 50x Plus), while the pricing page's Teams tab describes Super seats as 3.5x and Ultra seats as 12x Premium usage, slightly less than those ratios imply.
The Tradeoffs
Cursor Pros and Cons
What we love
- VS Code fork, so most extensions, themes and keybindings carry over
- Agent plans and edits across multiple files with step-by-step review
- Plus at $8/mo is a low-cost way into Agent on Grok and Composer
- Weekly usage resets, so one heavy day doesn't use up the month
- Cloud agents you can start from desktop, web or the iOS app
- Privacy Mode: Cursor says code data isn't used for training by it or its model providers
- Existing Pro, Pro+ and Ultra customers can keep their plans
- Free plan available
What could be better
- Claude, GPT and Gemini are no longer included in any plan; they're billed at API list price
- Cloud agents, Bugbot and third-party models need Premium ($30), up from Pro's $20
- Plans are bundled with Grok and X perks whether you want them or not
- Cursor's pricing page and docs disagree on Ultra, Plus models and annual billing
- Teams and Enterprise add a $0.25 per million token rate on third-party models
- Switching from a legacy plan is permanent
The Audience
Who Should Use Cursor?
Best for: working engineers shipping production code
If you code most of the day and use agents daily, start on Premium, set a monthly cap on third-party model spending, and move to Super if you keep running out of the weekly pool.
Best for: indie hackers and solo founders
Agents handle scaffolding and multi-file changes while Tab and inline edits cover the small stuff. Plus is enough if Grok and Composer suit you; Premium adds cloud agents and Claude or GPT on demand.
Skip if: your work is in JetBrains or web-only environments
Cursor's editor is a desktop VS Code fork. JetBrains shops should look at Junie or GitHub Copilot's JetBrains plugin. If you live in CodeSandbox or Replit, stay there.
The Methodology
How We Reviewed Cursor
This is an editorial review, not a documented hands-on test. On October 14, 2026 we re-checked cursor.com/pricing in a browser (Individual and Teams tabs, plan cards, comparison table and FAQ), Cursor's Models & Pricing docs, the Legacy Cursor plans page, the X Subscription help article, Cursor's changelog and blog, and the October 12, 2026 X Subscription announcement on x.ai. Cloud agent and iOS details come from Cursor's docs as checked on October 8, 2026, and the ownership change from Cursor's August 14, 2026 announcement. Pricing scenarios are calculations from those published prices. Where Cursor's pages differ, we report both. We haven't run benchmark or productivity tests, so this page makes no speed or output claims. Competitor prices come from their BestStacked reviews.
Our editorial evaluation considers product information, official documentation, pricing, features and professional experience. It is not a claim of documented hands-on testing.
Our review methodology →What changed
- : Score update: pricing sub-score 9.5 to 8.8, so the overall moves from 9.6 to 9.4. Since October 12, 2026 the plan with third-party models, cloud agents and Bugbot is Premium at $30 a month (it was Pro at $20), and Claude, GPT and Gemini usage is billed at API list prices from prepaid credit instead of being included.
- : Substantive update. Replaced Hobby, Pro $20, Pro+ $60, Ultra $200 and Teams Standard/Premium seats with the X Subscription plans Cursor now sells to new customers (since October 12, 2026): Free, Plus $8, Premium $30, Super $100, Ultra $200, Teams at $30/$100/$200 per seat and Enterprise. Explained the weekly pool shared with Grok, third-party models at API list price from prepaid credit, and what happens to legacy plans. Added a section on where Cursor's pricing page and docs differ. Re-checked October 14, 2026 on cursor.com/pricing, Cursor's Models & Pricing and Legacy plans docs, and x.ai. Score unchanged.
- : Substantive update. Replaced the old request-based plans (50 slow / 500 fast requests, Business $40) with Cursor's current usage-based plans: Hobby, Pro $20 ($16 yearly), Pro+ $60 ($48), Ultra $200 ($160), Teams Standard $40 ($32) and Premium $120 ($96) seats, and Enterprise. Added the two usage pools, Cursor's typical-usage guidance and the Cursor Token Rate. Added SpaceX's completed acquisition (announced by Cursor on August 14, 2026) in place of outdated funding and ARR figures. Corrected the desktop-only claim (cloud agents on web and iOS), model lists and the privacy answer. Added labelled pricing scenarios and a method note; removed invented time savings, cycle-time figures and unchecked competitor prices.
The Field
Cursor vs The Competition
Cursor's real competitors are other AI-native editors. Copilot is the incumbent it's eating; Windsurf is the most credible challenger.
| Tool | Starting Price | Free plan | Best Feature | BS Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cursor | Free; Plus $8/mo (Grok models only); Premium $30/mo | Yes | Cursor Tab (predictive autocomplete) | 9.4/10 |
| GitHub Copilot | Free; Pro $10/mo | Yes | Works inside the editor you already use | 8.8/10 |
| Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) | Free; Pro $20/mo; Max $200/mo; Teams $80/mo + $40 per seat | Yes | Agent command center for local, cloud and third-party agents | 8.4/10 |
| Continue.dev | No longer sold (acquired by Cursor) | Yes | Open-source code, now read-only | —No BestStacked review yet |
GitHub Copilot: Copilot plugs into VS Code and other editors instead of replacing your editor. If you're deciding between the two, our Cursor vs GitHub Copilot comparison is the better read.Read our GitHub Copilot review →See Cursor vs GitHub Copilot →
Windsurf (now Devin Desktop): Windsurf (formerly Codeium) was bought by Cognition in 2025 and renamed Devin Desktop on June 2, 2026. Its Devin Local agent replaced Cascade, and it can run third-party agents such as Codex and Claude Agent alongside Cognition's own.Read our Windsurf (now Devin Desktop) review →
Continue.dev: Continue was acquired by Cursor: continue.dev says recurring billing has been disabled, and its GitHub repository is read-only and no longer maintained after a final 2.0.0 release. The Apache 2.0 code remains available, but expect no updates or hosted plans. BestStacked won't review it while it's unmaintained.
Use cases
Example setups by buyer type
A solo founder shipping an MVP in 4 weeks
Use the agent to scaffold auth, billing and an admin dashboard, then use inline edits and Tab for product work. Watch the weekly pool: heavy agent weeks on Premium may need top-ups or a move to Super.
A senior engineer migrating a 200-file codebase to TypeScript
Run a cloud agent to convert the first batch of files with consistent patterns, review the pull request, then handle the remaining edge cases interactively with Tab and inline edits.
An engineering team of 8 evaluating AI tooling
Pilot Teams with eight Premium seats ($240/month, calculation), set a team cap on third-party model spending, measure PR throughput and cycle time against your current baseline, and use the admin usage analytics to decide who needs a Super seat.
The Ecosystem
Cursor Integrations
Cursor inherits most of the VS Code extension ecosystem. The AI layer adds its own integration surface for models, MCP servers, skills and pull request review.
- →VS Code-compatible extensions, themes and keybindings
- →Pull request reviews (Bugbot, Premium and above)
- →Anthropic Claude models (API list price, Premium and above)
- →OpenAI GPT models (API list price, Premium and above)
- →Google Gemini models (API list price, Premium and above)
- →SpaceXAI Grok models and Cursor Composer (weekly pool)
- →MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers
- →Skills, hooks and plugins
- →Bring-your-own API keys (not on Plus; Cursor Token Rate applies on Teams/Enterprise)
- →Cursor for iOS and cursor.com/agents
- →Cloud agents and Automations (Premium and above)
- →Origin code hosting (Premium and above)
- →Privacy Mode (no training on code data)
Teams adds a shared marketplace for internal rules, skills and plugins, and Enterprise adds repository, model and MCP access controls.
Common Questions
Cursor FAQ
The Final Word
Should You Use Cursor?
Cursor is the right buy for developers who want agents working across their codebase inside a familiar VS Code-style editor. We score it 9.4/10. Start on Premium at $30/month if you want third-party models, cloud agents or Bugbot, or on Plus at $8 if Grok and Composer are enough, and let the weekly usage meter tell you whether you need Super or Ultra. Three things to watch: Claude, GPT and Gemini now cost extra at API list price, every plan is bundled with Grok and X, and SpaceX ownership is a new item for procurement reviews. Skip it if your team is required to use JetBrains or your codebase can't be sent to external AI services.
Yes, if
you write code regularly in a VS Code-compatible environment and can live with usage-based billing
No, if
you're contractually required to use JetBrains or your codebase blocks all external AI inference
Cursor Is Part Of These Stack Packs
About the reviewer
Carlos Gil
Founder & Editor, The Best Network
Carlos Gil is the Founder & Editor of The Best Network, bestselling author of The End of Marketing, and a LinkedIn Top Voice. His digital marketing career began in 2008 and spans corporate roles at LinkedIn and BMC Software, consulting for global brands, creator partnerships, and building his own businesses.
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