Cursor Background Agent allowing Free Usage without opting in to Usage Based Pricing

Describe the Bug

I decided to try out the Cursor Background agent functionality since Chat GPT 5 is free at the moment to see if I like the workflow.

I am on a paid plan but I am not opted into the pay per use pricing. When I was ready to launch it I get the message saying you need to have that enabled etc… I declined to move forward and the Agent is running without my plan qualifying for its use.

Steps to Reproduce

Make sure you are on a paid account that is NOT opted in for the pay per use max models.

  • Go to the web agent
  • Create a task (i.e. Document this repo)
  • When you go to start the task it will inform you that you need to enable the usage based pricing.
  • Click the x to close the window.
  • Note the agent launches in the background
  • Set up a task

Expected Behavior

I would expect if I declined the agent would not run since I don’t qualify for the agent runs (even if the GPT 5 max agent happens to be free at the moment)

P.S.
Your instructions on this Community Form form should be updated:
From: Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)
To: Current Cursor Version (Menu → Help → About Cursor → Copy)

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 1.4.3 (user setup)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: e50823e9ded15fddfd743c7122b4724130c25df0
Date: 2025-08-08T17:34:53.060Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Windows_NT x64 10.0.26100

Additional Information

I certainly don’t mind if you don’t fix it but you might get people using a lot of compute who are not paying for it.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

hi @Joseph_U and thank you for your bug report.

Could you please clarify, did you use GPT-5 for the Web background agent run? This may then use your GPT-5 testing credits.

@condor
this reddit post

Also very recent reddit post showing the same idea.

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