Cursor

What is Cursor?

Cursor is a fork of VS Code rebuilt from the ground up around AI assistance. Unlike plugins that add AI on top of an existing editor, Cursor treats the AI as a first-class citizen — it has access to your full codebase, understands the relationships between files, and can edit across multiple files in a single operation. The editor was built by Anysphere and has grown rapidly since its 2023 public launch, attracting serious developer attention as one of the most capable AI IDEs available.

The core Cursor experience centers on three modes: Tab (inline ghost-text completion similar to Copilot), Chat (a sidebar where you can ask questions about your code with full codebase awareness), and Composer/Agent (where you describe a goal and Cursor plans and executes changes across your project). The agent mode is particularly impressive — it can read your docs, search the web, run terminal commands, and iterate on its own output until the task is done. This makes Cursor genuinely useful for large refactors, greenfield features, and debugging complex issues across many files.

Cursor supports all major languages and frameworks, and because it is built on the VS Code foundation, all your existing extensions, themes, and keybindings work out of the box. The free tier includes a limited number of fast model requests per month. The Pro plan at $20/month provides 500 fast requests and unlimited slower completions — a pricing model that suits most individual developers well. Teams looking for centralized billing, SSO, and admin controls can opt for the Business plan.