Cloud Agents (web): blocked by on-demand spend limit even when included Cursor Models capacity remains

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cloud Agent (GitHub, Slack, Web, Linear)

Describe the Bug

On cursor.com Cloud Agents (web), starting a Cloud Agent / creating a new environment is blocked with “You hit your on-demand spend limit” / “Increase the limit to continue using Cloud Agents” even when Included Cursor Models capacity is still available.

Observed usage at the time (Ultra):

  • Cursor Models (Cursor Grok / Composer): ~49% used — plenty of first-party included capacity left
  • Other Models: 100% used
  • On-Demand: had hit a $20 on-demand spend limit ($20.46 shown); UI forced increase-limit or cancel

Workaround that should not be required: set On-Demand Monthly Limit to Disabled. After disabling on-demand, Cloud Agents could be used again. That implies Cloud Agent start is incorrectly gated on on-demand / third-party capacity rather than (or in addition to) included first-party Cursor model capacity.

Public report / screenshots also posted: John Solly on X: "@cursor_ai it looks like you can't start cloud agents if you have no on-demand or third party model capacity? Am I forced back into my local IDE? I have plenty of 1st party capacity." / X

Steps to Reproduce

  1. On an Ultra (or similar) plan, use enough Other Models / on-demand spend to hit the configured on-demand spend limit, while Cursor Models included usage is still well under 100%.
  2. In the web Cloud Agents UI, try to start a Cloud Agent / create a new environment (e.g. “Create a New Environment” → Start Agent).
  3. Observe the modal: “You hit your on-demand spend limit” requiring Increase Limit to continue using Cloud Agents.
  4. In Settings → Usage, set On-Demand Monthly Limit to Disabled and Save.
  5. Retry starting a Cloud Agent — it proceeds without raising the on-demand limit.

Expected Behavior

Cloud Agents that can run on included first-party Cursor model capacity should start when that pool still has headroom. Hitting an on-demand / third-party spend limit should not hard-block Cloud Agents if first-party included capacity remains (or the product should clearly say Cloud Agents always bill on-demand and why).

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

tweet2.jpg
tweet2.jpg1121×699 63.5 KB
spend-limit-modal.png
spend-limit-modal.png506×412 25.3 KB

Operating System

Other

Version Information

Cursor Cloud Agents / web (cursor.com). Plan: Ultra. On-demand limit at time of failure: $20.

For AI issues: which model did you use?

Not applicable — Cloud Agents web; no specific model selected

For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

Gap — not captured from web UI.

Additional Information

  • Distinct from promotional-credits vs on-demand billing UI questions (e.g. forum 171851) and spend-limit persistence across billing cycles (171574).
  • Request ID: Gap — not captured from web UI.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey @jsolly, thanks for the detailed report, and sorry for the confusion here.

What you hit is specific to the environment setup agent (the “Create a New Environment” → Start Agent flow). That setup agent currently runs on a fixed model, Claude Opus 4.8, regardless of the model you have selected, and it is billed against your Other Models pool and then on-demand. Your first few setup runs are free; after those, setup runs are charged like any other Opus run.

Since your Other Models pool was at 100% and on-demand had reached your $20 limit, the setup run was blocked, even though your Cursor Models pool still had plenty of room. Regular Cloud Agents you start on Cursor Grok or Composer are not affected by this, which is why they kept working.

Two ways around it right now:

  1. Create the environment without the setup agent. In the New Environment dialog, choose “Skip & Save” instead of “Start Agent” (or commit a .cursor/environment.json to the repo and point the environment at it). You can then start Cloud Agents on that environment with Cursor Grok or Composer, and those run entirely from your Cursor Models pool.

  2. If you do want the setup agent to generate the install/start scripts for you, temporarily raise the on-demand limit for that one run, or wait for your billing cycle to reset.

I have passed along the feedback that the setup agent should either respect your model choice or fall back to a Cursor model when only the Other Models / on-demand budget is used up, and that the dialog should make it clear which model setup uses. Let us know if the Skip & Save route works for you.

11

Thanks @Colin …kind of wild Cursor locks setup agents to an old opus model (4.8) instead of your own Cursor/Composer family!

The environment setup agent should NOT be tightly coupled to third parties.