Cursor
AI-powered code editor forked from VS Code with built-in agents and autocomplete.
Liked for the fast, cheap in-house Composer and Auto models123, easy switching between models from different providers456 and its Cursor Tab autocomplete.789 The most common complaint is confusing and rising pricing10111213, with some users also wary of the xAI/SpaceX ownership.141516
Why people recommend it
Composer and Auto · 3
Cursor's own Composer model and Auto mode are described as fast, cheap and good enough for most tasks.
“I prefer Cursor at this point just because of Composer.”
“I use Cursor daily and almost everything I do, highly complex or high volume, can be handled with Auto mode or Composer 2.5”
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“The best bet is Cursor Ultra ($200)”
Model choice · 3
Users value switching between OpenAI, Anthropic and other models in one tool.
“The thing that keeps me using it is precisely the ability to switch between models”
“the nice thing about Cursor - you can flick between models.”
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“Cursor comes very convenient to have all three in a single interface”
Tab autocomplete · 3
Cursor Tab is called the best AI editor autocomplete, and some users miss it after switching away.
“the Cursor Tab autocompletion is still the best AI-based editor autocomplete I have used.”
“none of them feel nearly as polished as Cursor”
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“the only thing I miss is cursor tab. The vscode implementation just isn’t as good”
Value for money · 3
Some find it cheaper or more token-efficient than Claude Code, especially on the Ultra plan.
“Cursor ultra is great . For 200 you got essentially unlimited capacity vs Claude.”
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“in cursor i wasted less tokens while i do some tasks”
Review and editor UX · 3
In-editor review, quick edits and the agent UI keep users in the flow.
“cursor has just a better UX for AI integration”
“I kinda like cursor, mostly because it provides a nice review UI and I can use whatever model I want.”
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“I use Cursor at work and love it. It's a great IDE, the best IMHO.”
Caveats and dissent
Pricing · 3
Users complain of messy pricing changes, router billing surprises and high monthly costs.
“I had stopped using Cursor since July 2025, because of its mess pricing policy.”
“That assumption is now a financial mishap waiting to happen as of today”
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Token usage · 1
One user says Cursor burns far more tokens than alternatives.
“Orgs need to start getting more visibility into why Cursor burns so many tokens.”
Ownership concerns · 3
Some users are preparing to leave or have left since xAI/SpaceX bought Cursor.
“In general, I am pretty happy with Cursor”
“if you're looking to get off of Cursor since X.ai bought them”
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“Cursor was the market leader in LLM-assisted IDE experience before SpaceX acquisition”
Clunky UX · 3
Some users find it clunky, dislike its shortcut hijacking, or dislike the agent-first V3 update.
“stopped using it due to clunkiness”
“When Cursor hijacked literally every CMD key combo, I got fed up”
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“I used Cursor for a couple of days and then went back to VS Code, largely due to Cursor pushing agentic first approach with V3 update.”
Claude Code integration · 2
No ACP support, and using Claude Code via plugin is a UX downgrade.
“none of them feel nearly as polished as Cursor”
“I use Cursor with the Claude code plugin because Cursors autocomplete is really good”
Unclear value · 2
Some users who now work with CLI agents question what Cursor still adds.
“Can someone help me understand what value cursor offers in 2026?”
“I don't think it offers any.”
Often compared with
3 moved from Claude Code to Cursor
22 moved from Cursor to Claude Code
2 moved from Codex to Cursor
10 moved from Cursor to Codex
1 moved from Cursor to Claude
1 moved from Claude Opus to Cursor
1 moved from Cursor to Claude Opus
6 moved from Cursor to Zed
3 moved from Cursor to Visual Studio CodeGitHub Copilot22 comments mention both
1 moved from GitHub Copilot to Cursor
1 moved from Cursor to GitHub CopilotComposer22 comments mention both
Who recommends it in their own words
From the makers not counted in the ranking
“We recommend using our official AppImage from https://cursor.com/download”
“I used GPT 5.2 Codex in Cursor for decompiling an old game”
Threads where it came up
- SpaceX Is Buying Cursor 21 mentions
- SpaceX to buy Cursor AI coding agent operator Anysphere for $60B 19 mentions
- Cursor 3 16 mentions
- Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX 11 mentions
- Ask HN: How is AI-assisted coding going for you professionally? 9 mentions
- Ask HN: $50 monthly budget, which coding models would you recommend now? 5 mentions
Data: cursor.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 50
“In general, I am pretty happy with Cursor”
“Cursor was the first AI coding tool I used that had a "wow" factor”
“Cursor comes very convenient to have all three in a single interface”
“Cursor was the market leader in LLM-assisted IDE experience before SpaceX acquisition”
“Not surprising that Cursor is better at charging money for something that isn't an ad.”
“we use Cursor at work, so it was just a matter of picking a different model for me”
“Open on my desktop right now: Slack, Outlook, Zoom, Windows Terminal, Edge, Claude, Obsidian, whatever the Windows image viewer is called, Cursor, and VS Code”
“I also made sure Opus controls Grok in Cursor”
“We use cursor and stay mainly in the Agent window crafting prompts and validating functionality.”
“I use quite a few coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, ...)”
“I kinda like cursor, mostly because it provides a nice review UI and I can use whatever model I want.”
“Claude Code and Cursor daily”
“We use coding agents daily (Claude Code, Cursor, and others)”
“I use GPT, Codex, Claude, Cursor and other current tools extensively.”
“you already use Claude Code, Cursor or similar as part of how you work”
“I use Cursor, and in fact, their internal models are more than enough for me.”
“I do like how easy it is to use my work cursor sub and business chat gpt at the same time.”
“Then I use plan mode in tools like Cursor or Claude to generate a detailed technical design.”
“I use Cursor pretty heavily”
“I use cursor and claude”
“that's what I as a Cursor user (what I use for dev, though I use ChatGPT for non-dev stuff) care about.”
“now I’m finding Cursor is even better for my coding stuff.”
“The autocomplete itself is extremely good.”
“I use $20 cursor plan and use the agent UI for prompts”
“I got the cursor subscription because I liked it's cloud coding environment better than the others.”
“I use a lot of coding tools like claude, codex, cursor to code.”
“I prefer Cursor at this point just because of Composer.”
“I could use Cursor & Fable 5.1 to generate a decent text editor of my own”
“I have also used Codex, Cursor and Gemini CLI.”
“Cursor is just killing it every other week.”
“I use cursor so many of my sessions start in GPT and switch to Claude.”
“in cursor i wasted less tokens while i do some tasks”
“MCP is still the main way I use Cursor with enterprise systems like Glean, Jira, and Port.”
“I use Cursor daily and almost everything I do, highly complex or high volume, can be handled with Auto mode or Composer 2.5”
“I use it in Cursor”
“I use it in cursor for work”
“I use cursor, and have been giving them the same prompt and comparing”
“AI coding tool evaluations (Cursor, Aider, Cline, Windsurf, etc.)”
“We use coding agents daily (Claude Code, Cursor, and others) for scaffolding, refactors, code review and test generation”
“I love using it for the chat question style”
“I use Cursor at work and love it. It's a great IDE, the best IMHO.”
“The thing that keeps me using it is precisely the ability to switch between models”
“if you're looking to get off of Cursor since X.ai bought them”
“none of them feel nearly as polished as Cursor”
“That assumption is now a financial mishap waiting to happen as of today”
“now I use it for my personal projects. The plan is good value for accessing different sota models”
“I had stopped using Cursor since July 2025, because of its mess pricing policy.”
“the Cursor Tab autocompletion is still the best AI-based editor autocomplete I have used.”
“the nice thing about Cursor - you can flick between models.”
“Cursor was costing me $10k / month.”