Skip to content
Cursor · free tier

Cursor Hobby free vs Pro plans

Yes, Cursor has a free Hobby plan with no credit card required. It is meant to evaluate the editor. Heavy daily agent use usually needs Pro. Exact Hobby allowances change; confirm on Cursor's pricing page.

Checked August 11, 2026Installs in Cursor
01

What you get, and what you do not

Included on the free side, then the limits that usually push people to paid.

Included

  • Full Cursor editor (VS Code-compatible) on Hobby
  • Limited Tab completions and limited Agent / premium requests on Hobby
  • Extensions and themes from the VS Code ecosystem

Limits

  • Hobby AI quotas are small relative to full-time coding; third-party writeups often cite roughly 2,000 Tab completions and about 50 slow premium requests, but Cursor's live pricing card is the source of truth
  • After Hobby limits, Tab and Agent features throttle until you upgrade or wait for any reset Cursor documents
  • Pro's premium chat and agent usage is a credit-style pool, not an infinite frontier-model allowance

Confirm current details on the vendor page: official pricing.

02

Plans at a glance

Approximate public list prices. Annual discounts and team seats vary; the vendor page wins.

PlanPriceWhat it is for
Hobby$0Free evaluation plan. Limited Tab and Agent usage. No card required.
ProAbout $20/monthUnlimited Tab completions plus a monthly premium model credit pool for chat and agents.
Pro+ / UltraHigher monthly tiersLarger credit pools for heavy agent users. Only needed if Pro's pool runs out regularly.
TeamsPer-seatShared billing and admin controls on top of paid individual features.
03

How to get more from the free tier

Practical habits before you upgrade - and when paying is the honest move.

Spend Hobby on hard problems

Turn off noisy autocomplete for trivial typing. Save Agent and premium requests for refactors and unfamiliar code.

Watch the usage meter

Cursor shows remaining usage in-product. Upgrade when the meter, not a blog post, says you are out.

Add Awaitful in Cursor

Install Awaitful from Open VSX inside Cursor. Claude Code is still the deepest live agent integration; Cursor is a working install path while more surfaces land.

04

Earn while your coding agent thinks

Optional. If you already run a supported coding agent, the wait can pay you - you keep 70% of what advertisers bid for that line.

You keep 70% of every dollar advertisers pay for the line. Not a promise that it covers Cursor Pro each month.

You already wait while the agent works. Awaitful can show one sponsored line on a surface you choose during that wait, and you keep 70% of what the advertiser paid for the line. Earnings depend on verified thinking time and whether advertisers are bidding that day. Payouts are available for United States bank accounts only today. Awaitful never reads your code, prompts, or files - you can verify that in the source, the egress manifest, and the CI test.

This does not replace a paid plan from the tool vendor. Earnings can help with cost over time when the auction has demand; they do not guarantee any monthly amount.

The buttons open the editor itself and do nothing if it is not installed. In a browser instead: VS Code Marketplace or Open VSX for Cursor, Devin, and VSCodium.

05

Common questions

Straight answers. If a price or limit looks wrong, send a correction below and we will re-check the vendor page.

Is Cursor free?

Yes. Cursor Hobby is free. AI features on Hobby are limited; Pro is the usual plan for daily professional use.

Is Cursor IDE free forever?

The Hobby plan remains a free tier. Limits and model access can change; check cursor.com/pricing for the current card.

Cursor free vs Pro - what changes?

Pro removes the tight Tab cap and adds a monthly credit pool for premium models in chat and agent workflows. Hobby is for trying the product.

Can Awaitful pay for Cursor Pro?

No promise of that. Awaitful may pay you while a supported agent thinks. Earnings vary with demand and verified wait time. US payouts only today. It is earnings from wait time, not a coupon for Cursor.

Does Awaitful work inside Cursor?

Yes - install Awaitful in Cursor from Open VSX. The richest live agent integration today is Claude Code; Cursor-specific surfaces continue to expand.

06

Related

Spotted a change on Cursor's pricing page? Tell us and we will update the checked date.

Was this page helpful?