What is Cursor?
Cursor is an AI-native code editor from Anysphere. It is a fork of the familiar VS Code editor with AI woven through it: predictive multi-line completion, a chat that understands your whole codebase, and an agent mode that can plan and apply changes across many files.
What sets it apart is the agentic editing loop inside a real editor. You describe a change, the agent proposes edits across the files involved, runs commands, and you review and accept the diff, so the AI acts while you stay in control of the merge.
Cursor suits developers who want agentic help without leaving their editor or workflow. It routes to leading models from several providers, so you get frontier capability inside a tool that already feels like home.
What it's best for
- Developers who want agentic editing inside a familiar VS Code-style editor.
- Multi-file changes where the agent proposes a diff you review and accept.
- Fast inline completion and codebase-aware chat during day-to-day coding.
- Teams that want access to several frontier models from one tool.
Where it falls short
- Fully autonomous, unattended work: Cursor keeps you in the editing loop.
- Developers who prefer a pure plugin in their existing editor over a new app.
- Offline or air-gapped environments, since the AI features call hosted models.
Ways in
Install Cursor as a standalone editor and open your project. If you use VS Code, your extensions and settings largely carry over.
Use inline completion as you type, ask the codebase-aware chat about your project, and switch to agent mode for changes that span several files.
Getting the most out of it
Give the agent specific tasks and let it propose a diff, then review carefully before accepting; the review step is where quality is kept.
Add the right files or context to a request so the agent edits with the full picture rather than guessing.
What Cursor costs
Approximate, in USD, as of June 2026. Prices change often. Confirm on the official site before you rely on them.
Hobby
$0
A free tier with limited AI usage. Confirm current limits on the official site.
Pro
~$20 / month
Individual plan with a monthly allowance of fast model requests. Confirm current pricing on the official site.
Business
Per seat
Team plan with admin and privacy controls. Confirm current pricing on the official site.
Example prompts
Copy these into Cursor as starting points, then adapt them to your task.
Add this field to the model, the API, and the form, update the types, and show me the diff across every file you touched.
Explain how this module works, then refactor it for readability without changing behavior, and keep the tests passing.
This function has an off-by-one bug. Find it, fix it, and add a test that would have caught it.
Cursor
common questions.
Direct answers to the questions we get asked the most. If yours isn't covered, write to the team.