What is Cursor?

Cursor is a fork of VS Code that has been completely redesigned around AI. Instead of just suggesting code snippets, Cursor understands your entire codebase, writes complex features, and helps you navigate code like a senior developer who already knows your project inside out.

🛠️ Key Features

Codebase Context (@ mentions): Ask questions about your entire repository using @codebase, @file, or @docs. Cursor automatically finds the relevant files and logic to answer accurately.
Inline Generation (Cmd+K): Highlight any block of code and press Cmd+K to instruct the AI to refactor, rewrite, or explain it in place.
Composer (Multi-file Edits): Describe a feature in natural language and Cursor’s Composer will plan and apply changes across multiple files simultaneously.
Tab Autocomplete: Predicts your next edit — not just the next token — based on what you were doing moments ago.
Privacy Mode: Ensures your proprietary codebase is never stored on Cursor’s servers or used for model training.
Model Flexibility: Switch between Claude, GPT-4o, and Gemini models depending on the task.

💡 Why Developers Switch to Cursor

Cursor is the go-to choice for developers who want the familiarity of VS Code with a dramatically more capable AI layer. The difference from GitHub Copilot is depth: Cursor reasons about your whole project, not just the file you have open.

🚀 Use Cases

Feature Development: Describe a new endpoint or UI component and let Cursor scaffold the full implementation across all relevant files.
Codebase Onboarding: Ask “how does authentication work in this project?” and get a precise, context-aware answer.
Refactoring at Scale: Rename a pattern, migrate an API, or enforce a new convention across the entire repo in one session.

💰 Pricing

Cursor offers a free tier with 2,000 completions and 50 slow premium requests per month. The Pro plan is $20/month and includes unlimited completions, 500 fast premium requests, and 10 Claude Opus uses. Business is $40/user/month with SSO, centralized billing, and privacy guarantees.

🔄 Best Alternatives to Cursor

Tool	Best For
GitHub Copilot	Deep GitHub integration, enterprise teams
Windsurf (Codeium)	Free alternative with strong autocomplete
Bolt.new	Starting a new project from scratch in the browser
Replit	Cloud-based coding with AI, no local setup
Antigravity	Agentic AI for complex codebase-wide tasks