Anthropic Keys not working

Support Bug Reports
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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Unable to use my Anthropic Key in combination with a Free Cursor plan.

I’ve successfully added my Anthropic API Key, however, when trying to manually select a model it says I can only use “Auto” mode because I have a free Cursor plan. It’s also no possible to add Claude models manually.

Steps to Reproduce

  • On the free plan
  • Add Anthropic API key in Cursor Settings
  • In chat, Turn Off Auto mode and select Claude model such as Opus 4-6
  • A warning is then showed that only Auto mode is supported on Free cursor accounts.

Expected Behavior

  • Expect to be able to use my paid Anthropic API key

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 2.6.19
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 224838f96445be37e3db643a163a817c15b36060
Date: 2026-03-12T04:07:27.435Z
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.4.0
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.0
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 25.3.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Opus 4-6, Opus 4-5, Sonnet 4-5

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

4

Hey, this isn’t a bug. On the Free plan, only Auto mode is available, even if you use your own API keys (BYOK). Manually selecting a model requires a Pro subscription.

This used to work as an undocumented option, but the behavior changed. More details here: Ask mode with my own API Key required Pro Subscription

Options:

  • Upgrade to Pro to use BYOK with specific model selection
  • Stay on the Free plan with Auto mode

Let me know if you have any questions.

5

Thanks for clarifying.

This wasn’t clear to me from the Cursor Settings pane not on the cursor help page where it explains how to use API keys. Maybe it can be added there in a footnote.

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