What is Cursor?
Cursor has rapidly become the favourite editor of AI-forward developers. Unlike GitHub Copilot (a plugin), Cursor is a standalone editor forked from VS Code that puts AI at the centre of everything. The 'Composer' feature lets you describe a multi-file change in plain English and Cursor writes it — including creating new files and modifying existing ones. It has access to your full codebase for context. The free tier gives you 2,000 completions and 50 slow requests. Pro ($20/month) unlocks fast requests across multiple frontier AI models. Many developers report writing 2-3x faster with Cursor compared to standard Copilot.
Pros & Cons
What works well
- Full codebase context for accurate suggestions
- Composer writes multi-file changes from descriptions
- VS Code familiar — imports your extensions and keybindings
- Inline chat and edit directly in the editor
- Supports multiple frontier AI models (OpenAI, Anthropic, and others)
Things to know
- Pro plan needed for fast, reliable responses
- Occasional hallucinations on complex refactoring
- Separate app from VS Code (migration step required)
What people use Cursor for
- Writing new features from scratch
- Refactoring large codebases
- Onboarding to unfamiliar repositories
- Debugging complex issues
- Pair programming with AI
Pricing
FreemiumStarting at: Free
Free tier with 2,000 completions. Pro $20/month for fast access across multiple frontier AI models.
See current pricing