Cursor AI Review
Cursor is an AI-first code editor built on VS Code. It's the most-used AI coding tool among professional developers in 2026, with a genuinely useful free tier.
What is Cursor?
Cursor is a fork of VS Code with AI capabilities built into the core editor — not bolted on as a plugin. It's developed by Anysphere and has become the dominant AI coding tool for professional developers.
The key difference from GitHub Copilot or other extensions: Cursor treats the entire codebase as context, not just the file you're editing.
Core Features
Tab Completion — Predicts your next edit across multiple lines. Unlike Copilot's single-line suggestions, Cursor often predicts multi-step code changes correctly.
Cmd+K (Edit Mode) — Select code, describe what you want changed in plain English, Cursor rewrites it. Works well for refactoring, adding error handling, or translating code patterns.
Chat (Ctrl+L) — Ask questions about your codebase. "Where is the authentication middleware?" gives you a direct answer with file references. Cursor indexes your project so it can answer codebase-specific questions.
Composer — Multi-file editing. Describe a feature, Cursor drafts changes across multiple files simultaneously. This is the feature that separates it from simpler AI editors.
Agent Mode — Tell Cursor to implement a feature end-to-end: it writes code, runs tests, reads error output, and iterates. Still experimental but useful for well-defined tasks.
Pricing
| Plan | Price | What You Get | |------|-------|--------------| | Free (Hobby) | $0 | 2,000 completions/month, 50 slow premium requests | | Pro | $20/month | Unlimited completions, 500 fast premium requests | | Business | $40/user/month | Team features, centralized billing |
The free tier is enough to evaluate it properly. You'll hit the limit in a week of regular use.
What Model Does It Use?
Cursor uses Claude 3.7 Sonnet and GPT-4o as its primary models (your choice in settings). The Pro plan also includes access to Claude Opus 4 and o1. The quality of the underlying model matters — Cursor with Claude 3.7 is noticeably better at reasoning about code than earlier versions.
Pros
- Best context window of any coding tool — indexes your entire project, not just open files
- Familiar VS Code interface — your existing plugins mostly work
- Composer handles multi-file changes — Copilot still can't do this well
- Free tier is genuinely usable for evaluation
Cons
- $20/month is real money if you're on the fence
- Latency on complex requests — multi-file Composer edits can take 30-60 seconds
- Privacy trade-off — your code is sent to Cursor/Anthropic/OpenAI servers (Business plan has better privacy controls)
- Struggles with very large codebases — indexing works well up to ~50k files, degrades beyond that
How It Compares
vs GitHub Copilot: Cursor wins on multi-file editing and codebase-aware chat. Copilot wins on IDE integration if you use JetBrains.
vs Windsurf: Windsurf is a newer competitor with similar features and a slightly more generous free tier. Worth comparing directly.
vs Claude/ChatGPT in browser: Those tools require copy-pasting code. Cursor's in-editor integration with file context is significantly faster for real development.
Who Should Use It
Any developer writing more than a few hundred lines of code per week will see a productivity gain from Cursor Pro. The free tier is the right starting point — if you hit the limits consistently, the paid plan is worth it.
For solo developers and indie hackers building products, Cursor is probably the highest ROI AI tool available in 2026.
Rating: 5/5 — The best AI coding tool available. The $20/month price is justified if you're writing code regularly.