Chat blocked with free plan even if other model provider is selected

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#Problem
Free plan blocks chat even if other model provider is chosen. In my case it is Ollama, what used OpenAI api for it models. Is it correct behaviour of chat?

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Looked inside ide, same thing, chat is locked

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Hey, thanks for the request. Yep, this is expected behavior. There are two things going on.

  1. The banner “You’re paused until your usage resets in 31 days” means you’ve used up the included usage on the Free plan. You can burn through it in a single day. Until the limit resets, chat is paused at the account level.

  2. Using your own API keys (BYOK), including Ollama via an OpenAI-compatible base URL, for Agent and Chat requires a paid subscription on all plans, including Free. Just selecting an Ollama model won’t unlock a Free account. That’s by design. It used to work on Free as an undocumented option, but the behavior changed.

We covered the same thing before here:

One more important detail: the custom base URL is called from Cursor’s servers, not your local machine. So a localhost Ollama endpoint won’t work even on a paid plan unless it’s publicly reachable.

Let me know if you’ve got any other questions.