I love Cursor. Full stop, unequivocally. It has been truly life-changing for me, and to every dev that made this possible, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. What I am about to say comes from a place of deep respect for the product and the team.
I started using Cursor in October 2024 as a grad student and was immediately hooked. The Pro plan was the best deal out there, and the productivity boost was incredible. By December 2024, I was working solo on a massive graduate project and upgraded to a double-pro subscription ($40/month for 1000 requests) because Cursor enabled me to build something far more complex and coherent than I could have otherwise.
Since that day, I have proudly paid that $40 every single month. I’ve continued paying even during recent months as an unemployed developer with a family, where every dollar counts, and I wasn’t using the service much, if at all (I have gone back and double checked both billing and usage to make sure I was not lying or bsing, would be happy to post (without pii aside from username) if cursor team is skeptical). This wasn’t because I forgot to cancel; it was a conscious decision to support a tool I believe in. I hoped that by demonstrating this kind of loyalty—by putting my money where my mouth is—Cursor would value its earliest, most dedicated supporters. My belief was that you would honor the terms we signed up for, allowing us to keep our grandfathered plans in perpetuity.
This is why the official statements about eventually “sunsetting” these legacy plans feel so disheartening. “Sunsetting legacy pricing plans” is such corpo speak for “gtfo, give us more money”. It feels like the loyalty we’ve shown, paying for thousands of requests we never used in good faith, is being disregarded. For many of us, these grandfathered plans are the only way we can afford to use Cursor long-term, and we invested by continuing to pay for them when we are not getting the full value of them.
I don’t know the backend business details, but I have to ask: How many of us who stayed on these plans can there really be? Is the revenue gained by forcing us onto a new model worth alienating some of your most devout fans and early and continuing evangelists? I still recommend cursor to pretty much anyone…. assuming they can afford it now -_-
Times are hard for a lot of people right now. If this change goes forward and my plan as it is, is terminated, I simply won’t be able to afford Cursor’s new pricing model, and my time using or recommending it will be done. I’m posting this in the hope that you’ll reconsider and see the long-term value in honoring the community that has supported you from the beginning. Whatever revenue wont be worth it, good devs hold grudges and complain all the time (the grumpy programmer is a stereotype for a reason).