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diff --git a/cursor-pricing-research.md b/cursor-pricing-research.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fe8f114 --- /dev/null +++ b/cursor-pricing-research.md @@ -0,0 +1,187 @@ +# Cursor: Models & Pricing Research + +Research compiled 2026-06-03. Sources: cursor.com/pricing, +cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing, Morph, CloudZero, Vantage, Apidog, +eesel AI, devtoolsreview, beyondtmrw.org (Composer 2.5 release coverage). + +--- + +## 1. What Cursor is + +Cursor is an AI-native code editor (VS Code fork) made by Anysphere. +It bundles frontier models (Claude, GPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, plus its own +Cursor Composer) into agentic editing, multi-file Composer edits, Tab +autocomplete, and cloud/background agents. As of early 2026 Anysphere +reportedly crossed $2B ARR with >1M paying subscribers, used by 64% of +Fortune 500. + +--- + +## 2. Subscription plans (cursor.com/pricing, May 2026) + +| Plan | Price | Annual (~20% off) | Credit pool | Notes | +|-------------|------------------|-------------------|-----------------|------------------------------------| +| Hobby | Free | — | None | Limited Agent + Tab, ~1 wk Pro trial | +| Pro | $20 / mo | ~$16 / mo | $20 | All frontier models, Cloud agents | +| Pro+ | $60 / mo | ~$48 / mo | $60 (3× Pro) | Heavy daily coding | +| Ultra | $200 / mo | ~$160 / mo | $400 (20× Pro) | Power users, priority features | +| Teams | $40 / user / mo | ~$32 / user / mo | $20 / seat | SSO, admin, analytics | +| Enterprise | Custom | Annual only | Pooled usage | SCIM, audit logs, SLA | + +Key shift: in June 2025 Cursor moved from "500 fast requests / month" +to a credit-based system — your subscription buys a $ pool of API +credits. After the pool is gone, overages are billed at the underlying +model's API rate (no penalty markup), or you can upgrade. + +--- + +## 3. Models Cursor exposes + +Per the docs and 2026 coverage, the model picker includes roughly: + +- **OpenAI**: GPT-5.4, GPT-5.4-mini, GPT-5.5, o3-mini, GPT-4.5 +- **Anthropic**: Claude 4 Sonnet, Claude 4 Opus, Claude 4.6 Opus +- **Google**: Gemini 3 Pro +- **xAI / DeepSeek / others** appear intermittently +- **Cursor Composer 2.5** — Cursor's own agentic coding model + (built on Moonshot Kimi K2.5 with Cursor's own RL post-training), + released 2026-05-18, default in Agent mode +- **Auto** — Cursor's router that picks a cost-efficient model for you + +Exact availability shifts frequently; the docs page +(cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing) is the live source. + +--- + +## 4. Per-model cost (per million tokens, May 2026 list prices) + +Cursor charges the underlying provider's API rate. A representative +slice (numbers from Cursor docs and third-party reports): + +| Model | Input $/MTok | Output $/MTok | Relative cost in Cursor pool | +|-----------------------------|--------------|---------------|------------------------------| +| Cursor Composer 2.5 Standard| $0.50 | $2.50 | cheapest frontier agent | +| Cursor Composer 2.5 Fast | $3.00 | $15.00 | default in product, low-latency | +| Cursor Auto (router) | $0.25 cache read / $1.25 input / $6.00 output | — | "included" on paid plans — does **not** drain the credit pool | +| GPT-5.4 (typical fast) | $2.50 | $15.00 | 1× base | +| GPT-5.4-mini | ~ | ~ | 0.5× (cheapest non-Auto) | +| Claude 4 Sonnet | ~$3 / $3-5 | ~$15 | ~1× base | +| Gemini 3 Pro | ~$1-2 | ~$6-12 | ~1× base | +| o3-mini | ~$3 | ~$12 | ~2× (reasoning) | +| Claude 4 Opus | $5.00 | $25.00 | 5–10× — drains the pool fast | +| GPT-4.5 | ~$5-10 | ~$15-30 | 5–10× | + +These are public-list / community-derived numbers; Cursor does not +publish a single tidy table, but Settings → Account → Usage shows your +real per-request burn. + +Approximate requests per $20 Pro pool (community reports, late 2025 / 2026): + +- ~500 with GPT-5.4 / GPT-5.4-mini +- ~225 with Claude 4 Sonnet +- ~45–90 with Claude 4 Opus or GPT-4.5 +- **Unlimited** with Auto (no pool deduction) + +Cursor does **not** charge a markup on Auto on paid plans, but adds a +"Cursor Token Rate" of $0.25 / MTok on top of API pricing for non-Auto +agent requests on Teams plans. + +--- + +## 5. The two modes (Normal vs Max) + +| | Normal mode | Max mode | +|---|---|---| +| Pricing | Fixed per-request, drawn from credit pool | Token-based: API rate + 20% margin | +| Tool calls / interaction | 25 | 200 | +| Context | Truncated to ~10–15K | Full model context (up to 200K, 1M for some) | +| Slow fallback | Yes (10/day after fast is out) | No — requires usage-based billing | + +Max Mode is where the surprise bills come from: a single complex +session with 150 tool calls, 200K input, 20K output can cost $3–8; +three of those per day = $180–500 / month on top of the subscription. + +--- + +## 6. How the price relates to Auto + +This is the single most important thing to understand about Cursor's +pricing in 2026. + +**Auto mode is the only "free" path on a paid plan.** When you let +Cursor pick the model, the request is included — it does not consume +your credit pool. Auto is priced by Cursor at roughly: + +- $0.25 / MTok cache read +- $1.25 / MTok input +- $6.00 / MTok output + +…but on a paid plan those amounts are absorbed into the subscription +(per the Vantage breakdown). You only pay from the pool when you +**manually pin** a frontier model (Claude Sonnet, GPT-4.5, Opus, +etc.) or when you switch to **Max Mode** (which is always metered). + +Practical effect: + +- **Auto-only workflow** → $20 Pro feels essentially "unlimited" for + chat/agent; same as the old 500-request plan, possibly more + generous. +- **Hand-picked Sonnet for everything** → ~225 requests / month from + the $20 pool, then overages at API rate. +- **Hand-picked Opus / Max Mode for heavy work** → $20 pool can be + gone in a single session; $200–500 / mo bills are reported. + +So the relationship is: + +> The credit pool is the *budget for explicit model choices*. Auto is +> the *included, pooled* tier. The more you let Auto pick, the closer +> Cursor behaves to flat-rate; the more you pin a frontier model or +> use Max Mode, the more it behaves like raw metered API spend with a +> small Cursor markup. + +--- + +## 7. Hidden cost traps to watch + +- **Overage billing** — past the pool you can opt into pay-as-you-go + at API rate. $0.04 / "premium request" was the old rule; under the + credit system it's straight token cost. Set a hard cap. +- **Max Mode** — turns off after fast requests run out; needs + usage-based billing. Big-billed silently. +- **Tab completions** — unlimited on paid plans, but model-powered + ones still draw from the pool. +- **Background / Cloud Agents** — metered per task, often Max-Mode + pricing. +- **No credit roll-over** — unused pool evaporates each month. +- **Composer vs Auto** — Composer 2.5 Standard at $0.50 / $2.50 is + dramatically cheaper per task than Opus ($5 / $25) at near-parity + coding intelligence (79.8% vs 80.5% on SWE-Bench Multilingual), so + pinning the cheapest agent model is often the best $/quality trade. +- **BYOK** — Bring Your Own OpenAI / Anthropic key is supported; + bypasses the pool entirely, you pay the provider directly. Useful + for users with negotiated enterprise API pricing. + +--- + +## 8. Quick "what should I expect to pay" guide + +| Usage pattern | Plan that fits | Realistic monthly cost | +|---|---|---| +| Hobby / evaluate | Hobby | $0 | +| Individual dev, mostly Auto + occasional Sonnet | Pro | $20 | +| Heavy agent / pinned-Sonnet | Pro+ | $60 | +| All-day Opus / Max Mode | Ultra | $200 + likely overages | +| 3-person team, mostly Auto | Teams | $120 ($40×3) | +| 25-person engineering org | Enterprise | Custom, pooled; budget ~$12K–$30K/yr | + +--- + +## TL;DR + +Cursor charges a subscription that includes (a) a dollar pool of API +credits and (b) **unlimited Auto-mode usage**. Picking a frontier model +by hand burns the pool at 1× (cheap models) to 10× (Opus / GPT-4.5) the +base rate. Max Mode is always metered at API rate + 20% and is where +unexpected bills hide. The cheapest competitive path is Auto + Cursor +Composer 2.5 Standard ($0.50 / $2.50 per MTok), which is roughly 10× +cheaper than Opus at near-parity coding benchmark scores. |