Pick a tool 7 min readUpdated 15 Oct 2026

Is Cursor free?

Yes, Cursor has a $0 Free plan with limited agent and chat requests. Here are the limits, Pro vs Premium, student options and trials.

Yes, Cursor has a Free plan at $0/month with limited agent and chat requests (Cursor pricing, checked Oct 15, 2026).

Below is what the Free plan includes, how its limits work, how it compares to paid plans (including the old Pro plan), what students can get, and which models you can use for free. For our overview of the editor itself, see our Cursor tool page.

One thing to know first: Cursor is now sold as part of The X Subscription, "one subscription for Grok, Cursor, and X", and the plan names changed (Cursor docs: Models & Pricing). Older names like Hobby and Pro are now legacy plans. We cover both below.

What the Cursor free plan includes

Cursor's help center says Free gives you "access to Cursor's core features with limited usage". You can use Agent, Chat and Tab completions with Cursor models (Grok and Composer) (Cursor help: Pricing and plans). The pricing page lists Free as "Limited agent requests" and "Limited Chat requests" (Cursor pricing).

The old free plan, Hobby, still exists for people who already have it. Cursor says it "works the same way for Cursor" as the new Free plan (Cursor help: Pricing and plans).

Cursor free plan limits

Cursor does not publish a number for the Free plan. Both the pricing page and the docs simply call its usage "Limited". Here is what Cursor's own pages do say:

No third-party models. Free does not include models like Claude, GPT or Gemini. The docs list third-party models on Free as "Not available" (Cursor docs).
No cloud features. Cloud agents and automations, code hosting via Origin, AI code reviews via Bugbot, and third-party models at API list price are all marked as not included on Free (Cursor pricing).
Allowances refresh weekly. On the current plans, each paid tier has one usage pool that refreshes weekly and is shared across Cursor and Grok (Cursor help: Usage and limits). Cursor's pricing FAQ says "Your allowance refreshes weekly," and that you can top up or wait for the refresh (Cursor pricing, checked Oct 15, 2026).
When you hit a limit. You'll see a notification in the editor. On The X Subscription you can use prepaid credit, wait for the reset, or upgrade (Cursor help: Usage and limits).
On the legacy Hobby plan, on-demand usage is not available, and "AI features pause until the pool resets" (Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans).
Unused usage doesn't roll over on either kind of plan (Cursor help: Usage and limits).

You can check what you have left in your editor settings, or under Usage at grok.com/dashboard (Cursor docs).

Cursor free vs Pro

If you're searching "Cursor free vs Pro", note that Pro is now a legacy plan. Existing Pro subscribers keep it at $20/month, and Cursor lists Premium ($30/month) as its closest equivalent on The X Subscription (Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans, checked Oct 15, 2026). New customers start on The X Subscription.

Current prices, all from cursor.com/pricing and the Cursor docs, checked Oct 15, 2026. They exclude tax.

Plan	Price	Included usage	Third-party models
Free	$0	Limited	Not available
Plus	$8/month ($80/year)	Base	Not available
Premium	$30/month ($300/year)	4x Plus	At API list price, from prepaid credit
Super	$100/month ($1,000/year)	15x Plus	At API list price, from prepaid credit
Ultra	$200/month ($2,000/year)	50x Plus	At API list price, from prepaid credit
Legacy Pro	$20/month (existing customers)	Two monthly pools	Included via the Other Models pool

What you get beyond Free, per Cursor's docs:

Plus adds a weekly pool for Cursor's own models at fixed settings (Fast off, medium effort), plus Grok apps and Grok API access. It has no Auto, Cloud Agents, Bugbot, third-party models or your own API keys (Cursor docs).
Premium adds 4x the Plus usage, Cloud Agents and Automations, Origin code hosting, Bugbot code review, and third-party models at API list price (Cursor docs).
Legacy Pro includes two monthly pools (Cursor Models and Other Models), unlimited Tab completions, Bugbot, Cloud Agents, Automations and Origin, with optional on-demand usage (Cursor docs: Legacy Cursor plans).

In our view, if you mainly want to try Agent on a side project, Free is enough to find out whether Cursor suits you. If you rely on Claude or GPT models inside Cursor, you'd need Premium or above, plus prepaid credit for those models.

For a deeper look at the new plans, see our guide to Cursor and X Subscription pricing.

Is there a Cursor free trial?

We could not find a free trial on Cursor's pricing page, its Models & Pricing docs, or its help pages on pricing, usage and legacy plans (checked Oct 15, 2026). Cursor's own route to trying it at no cost is the Free plan. If Cursor offers a trial somewhere else, such as in the app or through a promotion, we couldn't verify it from Cursor's published pages.

Cursor for students

Cursor's student page answers "Does Cursor offer discounts to students?" with: "Anyone can get started with Cursor for free. To upgrade your access, look out for promotions at our on-campus and online events starting this fall" (Cursor for students).

Cursor's help center adds more detail (Cursor help: Student discount):

Cursor stopped new sign-ups for its legacy student discount on June 25, 2026. It says the program "had become a target for fraud".
If you already redeemed it, you keep your rate until your plan expires. After that, the subscription continues at the regular rate unless you cancel. On legacy Pro, that's $20/month.
Undergraduates can claim credits and discounts at on-campus and online events this fall.
Master's students, PhD candidates, academic researchers and educators can request credits through a form linked from that help page.

So, for students in October 2026: the Free plan is open to anyone, and extra credits depend on events or an application. There is no automatic student plan.

Free models in Cursor

On the Free plan, you can only use Cursor's own models. Cursor's help center says "Free and Plus include only Cursor's first-party models (Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5, and Composer 2.5)" (Cursor help: Available models).

Third-party models like Claude, GPT and Gemini aren't part of any plan's included pool. On Premium and above, you can use them at the model's API list price, paid from prepaid credit (Cursor docs). Plus doesn't allow your own API keys (Cursor docs). Cursor's docs don't say whether Free accepts your own API keys, so we've left that out.

Other tools to compare

If Cursor's free limits are too tight, see our pages for GitHub Copilot, Cline, Void and Kiro, and our comparisons Cursor vs Claude Code and Cursor vs Devin Desktop. Check each vendor's own pricing page for current prices.

FAQ

Is Cursor free? Yes. Cursor has a Free plan at $0 with limited agent and chat requests (Cursor pricing, checked Oct 15, 2026).

Can I use Claude or GPT on Cursor's free plan? No. Free and Plus include only Cursor's first-party models. Third-party models need Premium or above and are billed at API list price (Cursor help).

How much is Cursor Pro now? Pro is a legacy plan at $20/month for existing customers. Cursor lists Premium at $30/month as its closest current plan (checked Oct 15, 2026).

Does Cursor have a student discount? Not for new sign-ups. Cursor ended new legacy student discounts on June 25, 2026. Students can get credits through campus events or, for graduate students and researchers, an application form.

Does Cursor have a free trial? We found no free trial on Cursor's pricing or help pages. The Free plan is the way to try it.