Cursor is consuming Anthropic (Claude) usage even when Claude is disabled

Support Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

I’m experiencing what appears to be an issue with Cursor using my Claude subscription in the background.

My setup:

  • macOS
  • Cursor subscription (no API keys configured)
  • Claude subscription
  • Codex subscription
  • OpenUsage installed to monitor model usage

Whenever I use Cursor, both my Cursor usage and my Claude usage increase simultaneously.

This is not an OpenUsage reporting issue. I verified the numbers directly in the Claude web app, and the reported usage matches what OpenUsage shows. In other words, my Claude subscription is genuinely being consumed while I’m using Cursor.

I’ve already tried:

  • Disabling all Anthropic models in Cursor.
  • Disabling Claude Memory (claude-mem).
  • Explicitly selecting a non-Auto model (e.g. Composer or Luna) instead of Auto.
  • Confirming that I’m not using Anthropic API keys or pay-as-you-go billing—only subscriptions.

Despite all of that, using Cursor still increases my Claude usage.

If this is expected behavior, I’d appreciate documentation explaining why. Otherwise, it seems like Cursor is invoking Claude in the background even when Anthropic-related features have been disabled.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. On macOS, log into Cursor using a Cursor subscription.
  2. Have an active Claude subscription.
  3. Disable all Anthropic models in Cursor.
  4. Disable Claude Memory (claude-mem).
  5. Select a non-Auto model (e.g. Composer or Luna).
  6. Ensure no Anthropic API keys are configured (subscription-only usage).
  7. Use Cursor normally for several prompts.
  8. Check Claude usage in the Claude web app (or monitor it with OpenUsage).

Expected Behavior

Expected behavior:
Claude usage should remain unchanged, since no Anthropic models or features are enabled. It should be independent.

Actual behavior:
Claude usage consistently increases while using Cursor, even though Anthropic models are disabled and a different model has been explicitly selected.

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.11.19
VS Code Extension API: 1.125.0
Commit: bf249e6efb5b097f23d7e21d7283429f0760b740
Date: 2026-07-12T21:39:24.175Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Nightly
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 25.2.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

I’ve tried all of them.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Sometimes - I can sometimes use Cursor

5

Hey, thanks for the detailed report. With this setup it’s much easier to see what’s going on.

Short answer: Cursor is not using your personal Claude subscription. Cursor models (Composer, Auto, and others) are billed through Cursor, and there’s no way for Cursor to spend your personal Claude Pro or Max plan. There isn’t even a claude.ai login inside Cursor. On our side, your account shows zero Anthropic model calls in the last 10 days. The Composer you selected was running as Composer. Also, using your personal Claude Max inside Cursor is still just an open feature request: Allow Claude Max / Claude Code Subscription Access in Cursor

The Claude usage you see is almost certainly coming from a separate tool on your machine. Most likely sources:

  1. claude-mem. It has a resident background worker that asynchronously updates memory via the Claude API. Important detail: disabling it in the config doesn’t always stop a process that’s already running. The worker is Bun-managed and can show up as bun in the process list, not claude, so a simple grep claude can miss it.
  2. A Claude Code CLI session. The CLI uses your personal Anthropic Pro or Max plan and can burn quota much faster than the web chat.
  3. An MCP server or an extension configured with an Anthropic API key.

OpenUsage shows your whole Anthropic account, so any of these will look like Claude usage even if Cursor is just open.

What to check, in this order so you don’t get a false clean result:

  • claude-mem worker PID file: cat ~/.claude-mem/.worker.pid
  • By port: lsof -i :37777 (in some versions the port is computed as 37700 + (uid % 100))
  • General process scan: ps aux | grep -iE 'claude|bun' (keep in mind the worker can appear as bun)
  • Make sure the claude-mem daemon is actually stopped, not just disabled in config

Also, anything you run in Cursor’s integrated terminal is your own process on your own subscription. Cursor doesn’t take part in that and doesn’t bill it.

Send what those commands show. If there’s a live worker or a CLI session, that’s your source.