Is Cursor free? What the free plan includes in 2026
Yes, but with limits. Cursor's Free plan costs $0 and only runs Cursor's own models. Below: what you get for free, what each paid plan adds, and the free tiers of five alternatives, all checked on vendor pages on Oct 17, 2026.
Facts and prices checked Oct 17, 2026 · no paid placements
Short answer: Yes. Cursor has a Free plan ($0) with Agent, Chat and Tab completions on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer), with limited usage. Cursor doesn't publish the exact limit. Free doesn't include third-party models like Claude or GPT, cloud agents, Bugbot or Origin. Paid plans start at $8/mo (Plus) and go up to $200/mo (Ultra); Claude and GPT need Premium ($30/mo) or higher.
Cursor plans and prices (checked Oct 17, 2026)
| Plan | Price | Included usage | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited | Agent, Chat and Tab completions on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer). No third-party models, cloud agents, Bugbot or Origin. |
| Plus | $8/mo or $80/yr | Base weekly pool | Cursor's own models (Grok 4.7, 4.6, 4.5 and Composer 2.5) at fixed settings: Fast off, medium effort. No Auto, cloud agents, Automations, Bugbot, Origin, third-party models or your own API keys. Adds Grok Chat, Voice, Imagine, Build and Grok API access. |
| Premium | $30/mo or $300/yr | 4x Plus | Cloud agents and Automations, Bugbot code reviews, code hosting on Origin, third-party models (Claude, GPT, Gemini) at API list price from prepaid credit, and Grok Bot. |
| Super | $100/mo or $1,000/yr | 15x Plus | Everything in Premium, plus priority model access at peak times. |
| Ultra | $200/mo or $2,000/yr | 50x Plus | Everything in Super, plus earliest access to new products and models. |
| Teams | $30, $100 or $200 per seat/mo | Matches the seat (Premium, Super or Ultra) | Centralized billing, usage analytics, team-wide privacy settings, SAML/OIDC SSO, and mixed seat tiers. Plus isn't available for teams. |
| Enterprise | Custom | Pooled | Invoice billing, SCIM, granular spend controls, audit logs and priority support. |
Prices exclude tax. Each paid plan's usage pool is shared across Cursor and Grok and refreshes weekly; unused usage doesn't roll over. Third-party model usage is billed on top of the plan price.
What you get free vs paid
Cursor is now sold as part of The X Subscription, one subscription for Grok, Cursor and X. Free gives you the core editor features (Agent, Chat and Tab completions) with limited usage on Cursor's own Grok and Composer models. Paying gets you a weekly usage pool, shared with the Grok apps: Plus is the base, Premium 4x, Super 15x and Ultra 50x. Plus ($8/mo) still runs only Cursor's own models at fixed settings. For Claude, GPT and Gemini, cloud agents and Automations, Bugbot code reviews and Origin code hosting, you need Premium ($30/mo) or higher, and third-party models are billed at API list price from prepaid credit on top of the plan. Plus doesn't support your own API keys. On individual Premium, Super and Ultra plans, requests made with your own key are billed by your provider and don't use your pool. Tab completion always uses Cursor's built-in models.
What happens when the free usage runs out
Cursor shows a notification in the editor when you hit a limit. It doesn't publish how big the Free allowance is or how often it refreshes. On paid plans you can wait for the weekly reset, keep going on prepaid credit, or upgrade. If you hit the Free limit regularly, that's the sign to try Plus ($8/mo) or one of the free alternatives below.
Is there a free trial or a student discount?
Cursor's pricing page and docs don't list a free trial of paid plans, so the Free plan is the way to try it. The student discount closed to new sign-ups on Jun 25, 2026. People who already redeemed it keep their rate until the plan expires. Undergraduates can get credits and discounts at Cursor's on-campus and online events this fall, and master's students, PhD candidates, researchers and educators can request credits through a form.
Already on Hobby or Pro?
Plans sold before The X Subscription keep working as they are: Hobby (free, works the same as Free for Cursor), Pro ($20/mo), Pro+ ($60/mo), Ultra ($200/mo) and legacy Teams seats. They include separate monthly pools for Cursor models and third-party models. Switching to The X Subscription is optional and permanent.
Free AI coding tools compared, if Cursor Free isn't enough
- 01
CursorCursor Free: Agent, Chat and Tab completions with limited usage on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer). No Claude or GPT, and no published limit. Best if you want to try the Cursor editor before paying. Plus is $8/mo; Premium, which adds third-party models and cloud agents, is $30/mo.
- 02
GitHub CopilotGitHub Copilot Free: up to 2,000 code completions a month plus limited chat and agent usage, including agent mode and Copilot CLI, on auto model selection only. Verified students get Copilot Student for free. Pro is $10/mo, and on paid plans code completions and next edit suggestions are unlimited and don't use AI credits.
- 03
Google AntigravityGoogle Antigravity Individual ($0): a range of agent models, unlimited Tab completions and unlimited command requests, with basic weekly rate limits. Google AI Pro ($19.99/mo in the US) raises the limits and adds a flexible AI credit pool.
- 04
Windsurf (Devin Desktop)Windsurf / Devin Desktop Free: a light agent quota with limited model availability, plus unlimited Tab completions and inline edits. Pro is $20/mo, with frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and SpaceXAI and cloud agents (Devin Cloud).
- 05
ZedZed Personal ($0, free forever): the fast open-source editor, with unlimited AI use through your own API keys or external agents like Claude Agent and Codex CLI (you pay those providers). Pro is $10/mo with unlimited edit predictions and $5 of tokens, and the 14-day Pro trial needs no credit card.
- 06
ClineCline: free and open source (Apache-2.0, about 70,000 GitHub stars) for individual developers, in VS Code, the terminal or a desktop app. You pay only for inference: bring your own API keys, pay Cline at cost, or run local models through Ollama or LM Studio.
Frequently asked questions
Is Cursor free?
Yes. Cursor's Free plan costs $0 and includes Agent, Chat and Tab completions with limited usage on Cursor's own models (Grok and Composer). It doesn't include Claude or GPT, cloud agents, Bugbot or Origin. Paid plans run from $8/mo (Plus) to $200/mo (Ultra).
Is Cursor free for students?
Not anymore by default. Cursor closed its student discount to new sign-ups on Jun 25, 2026. Students can still use the Free plan, undergraduates can get credits and discounts at Cursor's campus and online events this fall, and graduate students, researchers and educators can request credits through a form.
Does Cursor Free include Claude or GPT?
No. Free and Plus run only Cursor's own models. Third-party models like Claude, GPT and Gemini are available on Premium ($30/mo) and up, billed at API list price from prepaid credit on top of the plan price.
Does Cursor have a free trial?
Cursor's pricing page and docs don't list a free trial of paid plans as of Oct 17, 2026. The Free plan is the way to try it. (If you want a trial, Zed Pro has a 14-day trial with no credit card.)
What's the cheapest paid Cursor plan?
Plus at $8/mo, or $80/yr billed annually. It only includes Cursor's own models at fixed settings. For Claude or GPT, cloud agents and Bugbot, you need Premium at $30/mo ($300/yr).
What's the best free alternative to Cursor?
GitHub Copilot Free if you want to stay in VS Code. Google Antigravity or Windsurf / Devin Desktop Free if you want another agentic IDE. Zed or Cline if you'd rather pay a model provider directly for exactly the tokens you use.
Facts and prices checked on vendor pages on Oct 17, 2026: Cursor pricing, Cursor docs: Models & Pricing, Cursor help: Pricing and plans, Cursor help: Usage and limits, Cursor help: Bring your own API key, Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans, Cursor help: Student discount, Cursor for students, GitHub Copilot plans, Copilot plans (docs), Google Antigravity pricing, Google AI plans, Devin Desktop pricing, Zed pricing, Cline pricing, Cline on GitHub. Plans and limits change often, so confirm before you buy.