Cursor

What Is Cursor?

Cursor is an AI-native code editor built as a fork of VS Code. While GitHub Copilot is an IDE plugin, Cursor re-architected the editor itself around AI — meaning every feature, from file navigation to terminal integration, is designed with AI context in mind. The result is a notably more capable AI coding experience than plugin-based alternatives.

The key differentiator is Cursor ability to understand and reason about your entire codebase in a single context. Where Copilot sees the current file and immediate neighbors, Cursor can index and search your entire repository, answer questions about how the system works, and make changes that span dozens of files with full awareness of dependencies.

Key Features

Cursor Composer is the standout feature for complex work. Describe a feature or change in natural language — including which files to touch, which patterns to follow, and what behavior to achieve — and Composer generates a complete multi-file edit that you can review and apply in one click. This dramatically compresses the time from specification to working implementation.

The chat interface in Cursor has file attachment, symbol lookup, and @ mentions for specific code references. You can ask it about a function definition, paste an error, reference a pattern from another file, and receive precise answers grounded in your actual codebase rather than generic training data.

Since Cursor is a VS Code fork, all VS Code extensions work unchanged. Switching from VS Code to Cursor is typically a five-minute migration with no workflow disruption.

Pricing

Cursor Hobby (free) includes 2,000 completions and 50 slow-speed premium requests per month. Cursor Pro at $20/month provides unlimited completions, 500 fast premium requests, and access to the latest models (GPT-4o, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, and others). Teams plans add usage analytics and centralized billing.