Ask mode asking for a pro subscription

[user1519 (Hooman Dehghani)]

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I have my own Google AI Studio API key connected. Cursor was working fine until an hour ago but it’s now asking me for a pro subscription to use Ask mode.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Agent Chat with ctrl + L
2. Select Ask mode (if not selected already)
3. Type in a prompt and press enter

Expected Behavior

I get the agent response and the cost is billed to my api key.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.2.20 (system setup)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: b3573281c4775bfc6bba466bf6563d3d498d1070
Date: 2025-12-12T06:29:26.017Z
Electron: 37.7.0
Chromium: 138.0.7204.251
Node.js: 22.20.0
V8: 13.8.258.32-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

[Colin]

Hey there.

The Cursor Token Fee means that even if you BYOK, you still need to have a paid plan for all non-Auto agent requests.

The error message looks horribly outdated, though. This applies to any mode the agent uses. We’ll get that fixed.

[user1519 (Hooman Dehghani)]

Thanks for replying. I get this error for Ask mode which if I understand correctly doens’t need a pro subscription

[Colin]

When using a non-Auto model with a custom API key, it does. That’s the error message we need to update.

[user1519 (Hooman Dehghani)]

Then what’s the point of an API key?

Also was this a very a recent update? Because my key was working until just 2 hours ago.

[Colin]

Hey @user1519

That’s news to me, but turns out you’re right – it has historically worked this way. I’m not sure what changed, and I’ll ask the team to look into it.