Last updated: 2026-08-26
Cursor, Anysphere's AI code editor, became part of SpaceX's SpaceXAI division after an all-stock acquisition that closed in August 2026, giving it access to SpaceX's GPU fleet. Composer handles autonomous multi-file edits and test iteration, and native version control now spans GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps alongside the existing MCP integrations.
About Cursor
Cursor is an AI-powered code editor built by Anysphere (founded 2022, Cambridge MA), a fork of VS Code that replaces the extension layer with deep, system-level AI integration. As of mid-2026, it is used by roughly two in three Fortune 500 companies, including 20,000+ developers at Salesforce alone, and reached an estimated $4 billion in annualized revenue by mid-2026, up from $2 billion in February 2026. Every VS Code theme, keybinding, and extension works in Cursor without reconfiguration. The core product advantage over Copilot and other AI extensions is architectural access: by forking VS Code rather than running as an extension, Cursor controls the editor's rendering pipeline, file system, and extension host. This enables the Shadow Workspace for semantic codebase indexing, speculative suggestions that render in real time, and Background Agents running in isolated VMs on Cursor's cloud infrastructure. Agent Mode lets a developer describe what they want in plain English, and Cursor autonomously carries out the work end to end, from editing source files to running commands and fixing its own failures. Benchmarks show Tab completions responding well ahead of GitHub Copilot's own completion speed. In late 2025 and early 2026, Cursor expanded beyond the IDE. Cloud Agents run autonomously on Cursor's infrastructure and can be triggered from a browser, mobile device, or Slack, editing code, running tests, and filing pull requests while the developer is away from the desktop. Cursor v3.0 introduced Background Agents for parallel work and Composer for coordinated multi-file changes trained with scaled reinforcement learning. Native MCP (Model Context Protocol) integration connects agents directly to GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Azure DevOps, Linear, Jira, Postgres, Supabase, and Slack without context-switching. Cursor offers several pricing tiers, from a free Hobby plan up through individual and team plans for heavier agentic usage, with invoice billing, SCIM seat management, an AI code tracking API, and granular admin controls on the team tiers; see the pricing summary for exact figures. Privacy Mode with Zero Data Retention terms is available on all plans; neither Cursor nor its LLM providers train on customer code in Privacy Mode. Cursor's primary weakness is context at scale: repositories with hundreds of thousands of lines or more force the AI to make tradeoffs on what to include in context, sometimes choosing wrong. AI operations increase CPU and memory usage noticeably, and latency spikes are common on large codebase tasks. Anysphere does not currently sign HIPAA BAAs, making Cursor unsuitable for healthcare organizations handling PHI. On August 14, 2026, SpaceX completed an all-stock acquisition of Anysphere, the largest startup acquisition on record, after exercising an option agreement from April 2026. As part of the deal, Cursor joined SpaceX's SpaceXAI division, gaining access to SpaceX's large GPU fleet; Anysphere's prior $29.3 billion Series D valuation from November 2025 reflects its value before the deal closed. Version control support also expanded in 2026: GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps joined the existing GitHub integration on July 29, 2026, alongside a new iPad app and Cursor Origin, a self-hosted code-hosting product launched August 17, 2026.
Screenshots
Pricing
Hobby (free) with limited completions and agent requests. Pro at $20/month ($16/month annual) with a $20 monthly credit pool and unlimited Tab completions. Pro+ at $60/month. Ultra at $200/month. Teams Standard at $40/user/month (invoice billing, SCIM, admin controls). Teams Premium at $120/user/month ($96/user annual) for 5x Standard usage, designed for heavy agent users. Annual billing saves 20% across all paid tiers. Auto mode is unlimited on all paid plans; credits apply only to manually selected frontier models. Composer 2.5 credit-based add-on: 1 credit per agentic action (multi-file edit with 3+ files), $0.02-$0.08 per action depending on model.
Feature Comparison by Tier
| Feature | Hobby | Pro | Pro+ | Ultra | Teams Standard |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Base monthly price | Free | $20 | $20 base (3x Pro usage) | $20 base (20x Pro usage) | $40/user |
| Agent request usage | Limited | Extended | 3x Pro limits | 20x Pro limits | Extended, pooled |
| Tab completion | Limited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Cloud Agents | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ priority | ✓ shared |
| Native MCP / skills / hooks | — | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Privacy Mode (Zero Data Retention) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM, invoice billing | — | — | — | — | ✓ |
| Priority access to new features | — | — | — | ✓ | — |
Key Features
- Agent Mode: Given a plain-language instruction, Cursor plans the change, edits every file it touches, runs the necessary shell commands, installs any missing dependencies, and keeps retrying until the test suite is green, all without further prompting.
- Tab Completion: Project-aware multi-line autocomplete that predicts the next 3 lines based on surrounding context, running at roughly 200ms latency, approximately 50ms faster than GitHub Copilot.
- Cursor Automations (v3.8, June 2026): Always-on background agents that automate repetitive tasks on schedule. Use /automate to describe a workflow in plain language; agents respond to GitHub and Slack triggers, and cloud agents can now use computer use to produce demos or artifacts of their work.
- Cloud Agents & Fast Environments: Agents run on Cursor's cloud infrastructure rather than the local machine, supporting up to 10 parallel workers per user. Version 3.7 (June 2026) delivers cloud environments that spin up in under 10 minutes via reusable snapshots, with /in-cloud for isolated subagents and a smooth local-to-cloud session handoff.
- Composer (Multi-File Editing): Edits many files simultaneously with coordinated changes, presenting visual diffs to review file by file, trained with large-scale reinforcement learning over prior versions.
- Native MCP Integration: Connects agents directly to GitHub, Linear, Jira, Postgres, Supabase, and Slack via Model Context Protocol, letting agents open issues, query schemas, and file PRs without leaving the IDE.
- Privacy Mode with Zero Data Retention: Enabling Privacy Mode activates contractual ZDR terms with all LLM providers so no customer code is stored or used for training, available on all plans including Hobby.
- Cursor Router (Auto Mode): Cursor Router launched July 22, 2026, an intelligent model router that classifies each request by complexity and domain and routes it to the right model automatically. Trained on 600,000+ live requests, Cursor says it delivers frontier-quality results at lower cost, with Intelligence, Balance, and Cost modes available across desktop, web, iOS, CLI, and SDK.
- Cursor Origin & Expanded Version Control: Cursor Origin, a self-hosted code-hosting platform with repo management and CI integrations for Vercel, Depot, and Buildkite, launched August 17, 2026; native GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps support joined GitHub on July 29, 2026, both with Cloud Agents and Bugbot.
Pros
- Cursor is one of the most widely adopted AI code editors among large enterprise engineering teams, including 20,000+ developers at Salesforce alone.
- Tab completions respond faster than GitHub Copilot, and Agent Mode reduces boilerplate and feature-scaffolding tasks from an afternoon to minutes.
- Every VS Code extension, theme, and keybinding migrates in one click, eliminating the learning curve and tool switching cost entirely.
Cons
- Large codebases hit context limits, forcing the AI to choose what to include and sometimes choosing wrong, producing confident but incorrect edits.
- As of August 2026, Anysphere was acquired by SpaceX and now operates inside the SpaceXAI division; enterprises that prefer editor vendors independent of a large aerospace and AI conglomerate may want to watch how product priorities evolve over time.
- Anysphere does not sign HIPAA Business Associate Agreements, making Cursor unsuitable for any healthcare organization handling Protected Health Information.
Product Information
- Cloud
- Yes
- Self-Hosted
- Yes
- On-Premise
- No
- Languages
- English
- Training
- Documentation, Changelog, Community Discord
Data Handling
- Training-data policy
- Does not train on customer code. Privacy Mode enables contractual Zero Data Retention terms with all LLM providers (Anthropic, OpenAI) so no code is stored or used for training.
- Data retention
- Zero retention
- Compliance
- SOC 2 Type II · GDPR · CCPA · Zero Data Retention (Privacy Mode)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cursor and who built it?
Cursor is an AI code editor built as a fork of Visual Studio Code by Anysphere, Inc., a company founded in 2022 by MIT students Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, and Aman Sanger. Anysphere raised roughly $3.3 billion through a Series D at a $29.3 billion valuation in November 2025, before SpaceX exercised an option to acquire the company outright in an all-stock deal that closed August 14, 2026, the largest startup acquisition on record. The Cursor team is now folded into SpaceX's SpaceXAI division, working alongside Grok. Its native version control support also expanded to GitLab, Bitbucket, and Azure DevOps in July 2026.
How much does Cursor cost?
Cursor has six pricing tiers: a free Hobby plan, and paid Pro, Pro+, Ultra, Teams Standard, and Teams Premium tiers with progressively larger credit pools and usage limits. Pro starts at $20 a month and unlocks a monthly credit pool for agent requests plus unlimited Tab completions; annual billing lowers the effective monthly cost on every paid tier. Teams Standard adds invoice billing, SCIM, and admin controls, while Teams Premium multiplies the usage pool for heavy agent users with separate allotments for Cursor-native and third-party API models. Cursor's own Composer model is also billed per token for agentic actions once a plan's included credit pool runs out.
What does Cursor do that other code editors don't?
Cursor's Agent Mode plans out a coding task from a single natural-language instruction, then works across the codebase: touching multiple files, running terminal commands, adding dependencies, and retrying until tests pass. Composer coordinates changes across many files at once with visual file-by-file diffs, and its most recent version raised SWE-Bench Multilingual from 73.7% to 79.8% and Terminal-Bench from 61.7% to 69.3% over the prior release. Cloud and Background Agents run on Cursor's own infrastructure rather than the local machine, supporting several parallel agents triggered from a browser, mobile device, or Slack. Native MCP integration links agents to project-management and infrastructure tools without leaving the editor, and the Zero Data Retention terms of Privacy Mode are included on every plan, even the free one.
How does Cursor compare to GitHub Copilot and Claude Code?
Cursor's Tab completion responds meaningfully faster than GitHub Copilot's, and its Agent Mode and Composer handle multi-file, repo-wide edits with autonomous test iteration that goes well beyond Copilot's largely completion-focused model. Cursor is model-agnostic, routing tasks to Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus, GPT-4o/4.1, Gemini 2.5 Pro, or SpaceXAI's Grok models, while also offering its own proprietary Composer model for agentic edits. Claude Code, Anthropic's terminal-based coding agent, is often favored for deep reasoning on large refactors, while Cursor's full IDE replacement and roughly $4 billion in annualized revenue by mid-2026 reflect its strength as an everyday editor for individuals and large engineering teams alike. Both offer free entry tiers and similarly priced paid plans, with Cursor adding higher tiers for heavier agentic workloads.
Does Cursor have a free tier?
Yes, Cursor's Hobby tier is free and includes limited Tab completions, limited agent requests, and Privacy Mode, which provides contractual Zero Data Retention with the underlying LLM providers, even without a paid plan. It does not include the larger credit pool, unlimited Tab completions, or the higher usage limits of the paid tiers. Auto mode, where Cursor automatically selects an appropriate model, is unlimited on paid plans but more limited on Hobby. Individual developers who need unlimited Tab completions and a working credit pool for agentic tasks typically move up to the Pro plan.
Who is Cursor best for, and who should be cautious?
Cursor suits individual developers and engineering teams doing repo-wide, multi-file work, since Agent Mode and Composer can edit many files at once, run tests, and iterate on failures; about two in three large public companies already use it. Teams needing SCIM, invoice billing, and admin controls should use the Teams plan. Developers working in very large repositories, many hundreds of thousands of lines of code, should be aware indexing can occasionally miss files or make incorrect cross-file connections, and should rely on .cursorignore and explicit @-file references. Organizations on networks with proxies that block HTTP/2, such as Zscaler, may see degraded AI streaming and should request an exception, since Cursor depends on HTTP/2 for chat, completions, and agent responses.
What is the Cursor code reversion bug and how do I avoid it?
In March 2026, Cursor's team confirmed that code changes could silently revert due to file-locking conflicts between three sources: the Agent Review Tab, cloud sync tools like OneDrive or iCloud, and the editor's Format On Save feature. To avoid it, close the Agent Review Tab before using 'Fix in Chat', exclude your project folder from any cloud sync service, and disable Format On Save while running Agent Mode. For general problems such as startup crashes, a frozen chat panel, or broken autocomplete, clearing Cursor's local cache resolves most cases. Before troubleshooting locally, check status.cursor.com to rule out a platform-wide outage, since AI streaming issues caused by HTTP/2-blocking proxies (like Zscaler) can look similar to a local cache problem.
Does Cursor train on my code, and is it compliant for regulated industries?
Cursor does not train its models on customer code by default. Enabling Privacy Mode, available on every plan including the free Hobby tier, activates contractual Zero Data Retention terms with all underlying LLM providers (Anthropic, OpenAI, Google), so none of those providers store or train on the code either. Cursor maintains SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA compliance, but Anysphere does not advertise HIPAA compliance, so healthcare organizations handling protected health information should isolate Cursor from PHI-containing repositories or evaluate alternatives. Cursor's underlying LLM providers have been subject to EU AI Act general-purpose AI model obligations since August 2025, which indirectly extends to models accessed through Cursor.
Top Alternatives
- Windsurf: Choose Windsurf if you want Cognition's Cascade agent and Codemaps in a lighter, VS Code-based IDE at a comparable entry price.
- Claude Code: Pick Claude Code if you want a terminal-native agent loop with no editor to switch into.
- Devin: Pick Devin if you want an autonomous engineer that owns tickets end-to-end rather than an IDE copilot you drive yourself.
HokAI guides covering Cursor
- Cursor Isn't Just an Editor Anymore: Cursor built its own git host, unattended agents and self-hosted execution in three weeks. Here is what that shift actually means for teams comparing editors.
- Best AI Coding Assistants in 2026: Pick the Job, Not the Brand: Cursor, Claude Code, Devin Desktop, Tabnine and Trae compared by job, not brand: which coding tools to skip, verified against vendor pricing in August 2026.
- Cursor Composer 2.5 vs. Claude Code: Which AI Coding Agent Should You Use in 2026?: Cursor Composer 2.5 vs Claude Code compared on 2026 pricing, benchmarks, and context windows now that Claude Code defaults to Sonnet 5 and Opus 5, not Opus 4.6.
- What Tabnine Is Actually For: Tricentis bought Tabnine on July 30, 2026, for its context engine, not its coding assistant business. Here is what that leaves unanswered for buyers today.
- The Top AI Tools in 2026: How to Actually Choose One: ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor, Gemini, and Perplexity all cap out near $200 a month in 2026. A practical framework for matching the right AI tool to your actual job.
- Fireworks AI vs Together AI: Which Should You Use in 2026?: Fireworks and Together AI now charge the identical per-token rate on DeepSeek V4 Pro, so price no longer separates these two open-model inference platforms.