Cursor Review (2026): Plus at $8, Agents, and the Legacy-Plan Trap

Cursor is an AI code editor: Tab completions, Chat, and agents that can edit a repo, including cloud agents that build and test on their own machines. New customers buy it through The X Subscription, which also covers Grok. Plus is $8/month, or $80/year. That price is real. The usage multiple on the higher tiers (“4× Plus”) is not a promise of a specific number of agent runs.

Prices are from Cursor’s help center and the X Subscription docs, checked October 16, 2026, and they exclude tax. We did not benchmark Cursor against other coding agents. The head-to-head on scope is Cursor vs Claude Code vs Codex.

What the subscription includes

Plan	Monthly	Annual	Included usage, as published
Free	$0	$0	Limited Agent, Chat, and Tab on Cursor models
Plus	$8	$80	Base
Premium	$30	$300	4× Plus
Super	$100	$1,000	15× Plus
Ultra	$200	$2,000	50× Plus
Teams	$30, $100, or $200 per seat	—	Matches the seat

Included usage is one pool for Grok models across Grok and Cursor. Third-party models inside Cursor draw extra credits. If you live on a non-Grok model, the $8 sticker is not your whole bill. Watch a week before you call Plus cheap.

Figure (product diagram, not a product screenshot). Alt: One X Subscription feeds Grok and Cursor. Inside Cursor, Tab completes a line, Chat answers questions about the repo, and Agent edits files. Cloud agents run on their own machines. A warning box says a switch off a legacy Cursor plan is permanent.

Legacy plans still exist for people already subscribed: Hobby (free), Pro ($20), Pro+ ($60), Ultra ($200), Teams Standard ($40/user), and Teams Premium ($120/user). Cursor’s help center says moving from a legacy plan to The X Subscription is optional and permanent, with a prorated refund of the old plan. Do not switch a legacy Pro seat to “try” Plus unless you accept that you cannot go back. Premium, at $30, is the published comparable tier for that old Pro seat, with 4× Plus usage. Comparable does not mean identical.

What you use it for

Cursor is a desktop editor in the VS Code family, plus a CLI, Slack, GitHub pull-request review, and an iOS app. The daily loop for a developer is:

1. Open the repo. Import VS Code settings if you are coming from that editor.
2. Let Tab handle the next edit while you type.
3. Ask Chat how a file works before you ask an agent to change it.
4. Hand Agent a small task with the test command in the prompt.
5. Read the diff. Run the tests. Reject what you cannot explain.

Cloud agents are the step up: they build and test on their own computers so you review a result instead of approving every keystroke. They are still a review step. An agent that opens a pull request has not replaced the person who merges it.

The old Auto router was split into Cost, Balance, and Intelligence modes. Those names are the product’s own tradeoff between price and capability when Cursor picks models. Pick Cost while you learn the bill. Pick Intelligence when a task failed because the router was too thrifty, not because the prompt was vague.

Enterprise features called out for larger teams include pooled usage, SCIM, audit logs, and invoice billing. A solo Plus seat does not include that list. Cursor Router is aimed at Teams and Enterprise.

Who should pay, and who should not

Pay for Plus when you already write code most days, Free’s limit is the thing that stopped a task, and you are willing to share a subscription identity with Grok. Pay for Premium when a measured week of Plus ran out, or when you are comparing it with a legacy Pro renewal you intend to leave for good. Do not buy Super or Ultra from the name. Buy them when the usage page says the smaller pool is the blocker.

Do not buy Cursor for these jobs:

You need	Use instead
A terminal-first agent on a Claude subscription	Claude Code. The beginner path is Claude Code for beginners. Capacity is Claude Pro vs Max
Coding inside a ChatGPT plan	Codex, on Plus at $20. See ChatGPT Go vs Plus vs Pro
The cheapest GitHub-native seat	GitHub Copilot Pro at $10/user/month
Several model vendors in one IDE	Devin Desktop Pro at $20/month
An app from a prompt, without owning the code	Lovable, Bolt, or Replit

Stacking Cursor on top of Claude Pro and ChatGPT Plus is three coding surfaces. The reason to keep one is which AI subscription is worth paying for.

Fit, from the price sheet

	Free	Plus $8	Premium $30	Super or Ultra
Learn Tab and Chat	Strong	Strong	More than a first week	No
A known number of agent runs	Not published	Not published	“4× Plus” only	A larger multiple, still not a count
Grok included in the same subscription	Limited	Yes, shared pool	Yes	Yes
Third-party models at no extra credit cost	No	No	No	No
Admin, SCIM, pooled usage	No	No	No. That is Enterprise	Teams seats exist at $30 / $100 / $200. Enterprise is separate
Safe to switch into from legacy Pro	—	Only if you accept a one-way move	The documented comparable tier, still one-way	One-way

FAQ

Is Cursor free?

Yes. Free includes limited Agent, Chat, and Tab on Cursor models. It is enough to see the editor. It is not a team plan.

What happened to Cursor Pro at $20?

It is a legacy plan. Existing subscribers can keep it. New customers use The X Subscription. Switching off legacy is permanent. Premium at $30/month is the published comparable tier.

Does Plus include unlimited coding?

No. Plus is the base usage pool. Premium, Super, and Ultra are multiples of that pool. The help center does not translate “4× Plus” into a number of requests. Third-party models draw extra credits on top.

Last verified

October 16, 2026.

Sources: Cursor pricing, Cursor, X Subscription pricing.

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