I’ve been using Cursor for several months straight without a break, and right now, as I’m talking to you, I have six agents in different chats working nonstop.
What you’re saying doesn’t match their documentation, what their representatives say, or the reality I’m experiencing — there’s no limitation with any model on any plan.
Am I the only person that has been experiencing excessive usage invoices, regardless of the limits I’ve got set on my account. I’ve reached out to cursor through email numerous times now with no success for even a response.
In the past 30 days, I’ve spent 361.55$. Not the mention the 2-3 months I used cursor, i was using around 30-40$/month.
Keep in mind, my speeding limit has been set to 200$/month, even though I’ve been sent over 200$ of invoices in the past 10 days.
Either way, what I’m trying to prove here is that Cursor is just expensive (as the reason why this thread initially started). It was cool a year ago, but we are slowly seeing its downfall.
You can get a lot better tools for the price of Cursor Ultimate (which costs $200!). For example, $200 can get either:
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ChatGPT Plus with OpenAI Codex for $20
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Claude Max with Claude Code for $100
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Devin for $20
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VSCode with optional Copilot for $0-$10
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Supermaven for exact cursor-style tab completions for $0
all of that with extremely small rate limits, basically do whatever you wantor
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Cursor Ultimate
request few claude calls on a large codebase and it’s over
The winner is clear.
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How big is “pretty big”?
I’ve greenfielded a bunch of projects over the last 6 weeks. Each project now has a (couple) hundred thousand lines of code? They are all in a single workspace, and all of it is loaded into Cursor via a single root folder, where I have my rules and MCP config and whatnot. I was on the Cursor Pro plan for several months before I upgraded to Pro+ and then just a week+ ago Ultra. I can’t say that I ever ran out of the $20 worth of usage with Cursor in just 10 requests… I created entire portal websites, multiple, for different aspects of the overarching project here, on the Pro plan. Not all at once, not all in one day, but…tens of thousands of lines of code were generated over the span of I would have to say, dozens of requests each per app. This was on PRO!
I eventually did exhaust the allotment of requests for the Pro plan (it is not unlimited!), and went to pay as you go. At the time, they were not showing other plans, or at least, I couldn’t direct-upgrade from Pro to Pro+, and I wasn’t aware of how paygo usage would pan out. Once I realized paygo would be more expensive than Pro+, I upgraded. I managed to perform some very large refactors on some critical code with Pro+. I ultimately switched to Ultra, as the way we are working, we have to move fast, and produce tremendous value, to be able to sustain our goals with this startup. With Ultra, I really don’t have to worry about running out of usage each month, even though I am now a HEAVY agent user.
Since switching to Ultra, I’ve made SIGNIFICANTLY MORE requests, and I have barely made a dent. A coworker of mine is burning through a billion tokens a week on his ultra plan! BILLION PLUS tokens a week. He is a far more prolific agent user than I am, which is mind boggling.
I don’t know what you are doing…but, I think you might be doing something wrong, if your Cursor Ultra plan is over in just 10 requests. You might want to contact Cursor for a refund, because something is definitely wrong there. As in, not what the plan intended. So either, you weren’t on the Ultra plan, or you shoved WAY too much context into each and every request, or your requests were WAY too expansive (it is not a good practice to have any agent/model work on HUGE swaths of code anyway…you wanna make it hallucinate, there is no better way!)
Billion tokens a week, thousands of requests a month, is what you should be getting with Ultra. If you aren’t, truly, contact Cursor, because you need help sorting that out. Something is definitely not right there.
Anyway, I am aware of how Claude allots its messages (see my previous post…where I mention you can use all 45 messages in the first 10 minutes, then have to wait the full five hours to get any more.) This is exactly what I was trying to say before, about never having been actually cut off with Cursor.
Ok. I’m having a hard time with your facts here. Claude Max has two plans: 5x and 20x. The 5x plan is $100/mo, and is more like Cursor Pro+. If you really want MAX, you are talking about the $200/mo plan which is more like Cursor Ultra.
Claude Code Max 20x does not proclaim that you get unlimited usage. It says you get 20x more usage than a Claude Code Pro, which itself has 5x more usage than FREE. The FREE plan, barely offers anything. Claude Code Pro, might offer a little bit more than Cursor Pro…but based on my experience with it, not enough to warrant what you are saying.
Claude Code Max 5x & 20x would be akin to Cursor Pro+ and Cursor Ultra. Cursor, IS probably a bit more expensive, however…Cursor is also offering more in terms of an integrated agentic IDE experience as well. Claude Code is a CLI tool, it is not an agent integrated into a fully featured and rich IDE. For me, things like the doc indexing, hierarchical rules, and even the multi-model support, are valuable additional features of Cursor that Claude Code doesn’t offer, on either the Pro, 5x or 20x plans.
Anyway. I feel the disingenuous bitter taste of manipulative dishonesty here, so I’m just gonna move on.
How big is “pretty big”?
Never counted, though I would guess 10k lines of code.
You might want to contact Cursor for a refund, because something is definitely wrong there
Trust me, I’ve tried multiple times. They never respond. At this point, I’m wondering if they even have a support team.
Anyway. I feel the disingenuous bitter taste of manipulative dishonesty here, so I’m just gonna move on.
I wish this was not real either.
———–
Anyways, it looks like the new billing will be here forever, and convincing $500M ARR company to change something is near impossible, especially considering that they (Cursor’s support) don’t even bother responding here anymore.
It was a fun ride, but it’s time to move on. If you like Cursor, never said you can’t use it, though, for someone with a small budget, I can’t afford whatever this is now. And again, I’m not the only one. Numerous people on X say the same thing. Michael, Cursor CEO is probably on a yacht right now not giving a f about anything.
Looking at other threads, they will probably shadow ban this thread anytime soon and no one will remember a thing about it. 
First, 10k lines is not a lot of code. Not even remotely.
Second, my complaint about dishonesty was you, not Cursor. I don’t think you are being honest with what you are saying about cost or usage, either for Claude Code or Cursor.
I have no idea how to prove it then. I’m using the internet and Cursor’s dashboard as a source of reference.
Then again, I’m not the only one complaining (heck, read the title of the thread you are on!). I just don’t want to burn cash for a slightly better DX, especially now that there are thousands of competitors, which surprisingly can keep up with the fixed pricing.
It’s all for profits (they up-charge us per token because, for sure, they got better Claude pricing than an average developer).
Keep defending Cursor if you really like, I don’t care, I’m not their user anymore. (nor will probably respond no more, not worth it)
I’m not really defending them. I think their pricing model is a bit obfuscated rather than transparent. I don’t quite know what to think of that, really, since they seem to give additional usage…supposedly. The lack of real transparency is a problem though.
What I’ve tried to do here, is offer an honest breakdown of the costs across options. There has been a lot of disingenuousness in this thread. The guy who said he could pay a real programmer $17/hr, is what spurred me on to respond, and my responses were to show that the cost model, when you are considering how much software development costs with real humans involved, is NOT that bad.
You yourself have made a lot of highly suspect claims in this thread. You mentioned that it would cost you $600/mo to use Cursor when VSCode+Copilot costs just $10. You don’t seem to consider the VAST difference in token/request allotment between those two options. VERY DISINGENUOUS.
My entrance into this thread was to try and bring some honesty and hard facts into the mix. I don’t exactly like Cursor’s pricing model, but at the same time, FACTUALLY, the Cursor $200 plan costs a third of the $600 of raw pay as you go usage that you were complaining about earlier in the thread, and you never even mentioned it, nor the Pro+ or Pro plans. You have been disingenuous about the allowances offered by other plans, when comparing them to Cursor’s maximal offering.
You have been very disingenuous this entire thread. I’m not here shilling for Cursor, I’m here to bring some honesty and some facts to the debate here. Copilot at $10 is not going to give you anywhere near the usage that Cursor Ultra would. Or for that matter Claude Code Pro or Max.
Cursor has plenty of issues right now. I don’t think cost is the most egregious of them, though, even though I dislike the lack of transparency (which they seem to be improving, the recent updates to the cost status are improving transparency…still needs work though.) Cursor has some SEVERE issues, bugs, that I don’t think they are giving enough attention to, that make the product UNUSABLE in certain circumstances. I can’t use Cursor on a PC right now due to debilitating issues with the terminal integrations there. These issues have made me seriously consider alternatives, especially for windows usage.
The thing that bugs me, is the disingenuousness. Run the math, man! Everyone in this thread. Do the basic math, and consider the right plan. If you are burning $17/hr on Cursor with the pay-as-you-go plan, you are choosing to waste money. If you need to burn that much every hour, every day, then you should be using the Ultra plan. Your hourly cost would drop to $1.25/hr if you did.
That’s the disingenuousness here. I don’t care if you like the product or not. You can use it or not, it doesn’t matter to me. But be honest, don’t manipulate the facts to try and push a false agenda. 
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I understand perfectly. Yes, Claude was interesting when we had 500 requests, but I would never go back to the previous situation for anything in the world. I am at 0.28 cents for 211 requests.
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What model do you use now?
IMO Cursor is very cheap for the value 
I pay $200 a month.
Let’s say average software engineer yearly salary in my country is $80000.
Personally, and this is my experience with how I use Cursor, Cursor feels like having an extra 2 developers (maybe more, but lets keep it at 2 for now). So $200x12 = $2400 a year for 2 developers.
So if I needed to hire x2 developers, that would be $160000.
And also, Cursor isn’t just filling the “Software Engineer” role in my use case, it is also the SRE, database expert, etc, etc.
Just using Cursor, I am saving $160000-$2400 = $157600
Anyway, this is my way of looking at it whenever I see these types of remarks.
… and at the beginning of the 19th century, the average car could move 4 persons but still was cheaper than the average horse at that time.
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Personally, I use Kimi v2, and honestly, it does exactly what I need it to do. For the price of the tokens, it’s more than reasonable.
It’s amusing. Research consistently shows that the real impact of integrating LLMs and agents into development ranges from slightly negative (!) to about a 5–25% boost in speed. Yet for some idealists, adopting LLMs is like hiring two full-time developers at $80k a year each. In fact, studies note that some developers tend to overestimate the value LLMs bring. This is a perfect example of that — though admittedly a somewhat cartoonish one.
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This is adorable! You’re essentially telling me ‘research shows most people are bad at this, therefore you must be imagining your success.’
But hey, here’s a wild idea - instead of citing studies about what other people can’t do, maybe check out the 25+ hours of YouTube recordings I have documenting exactly how I achieve these productivity gains? You know, actual evidence of the workflows, techniques, and results you’re claiming are statistically impossible? Let me know if you want the link 
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And thank you. Really. These sort of comments just make me want to prove my point even harder
Yet for some idealists, adopting LLMs is like hiring two full-time developers at $80k a year each.
Just for the record, this is not what I was doing at all. Not sure if you were referring to me or not. I was responding to people saying they could hire a developer to write code instead for $17/hr, or that Cursor would cost $600/mo vs. Copilots $10/mo. Both ridiculous claims, either extremely naive or purposely disingenuous.
I just wanted to address the blatant agenda that was apparent in this thread previously, and provide some concrete facts as to the COMPARATIVE cost of Cursor (even on the Ultra plan) vs. hiring a dev, or using some of the alternatives.
That said, I’m a senior engineer & architect, hired by a company that is paying my salary. I in turn, am using Agentic IDEs (both Cursor and Claude Code, actually). We are getting a lot better than a 25% boost. I myself find I get about a 3-5x boost consistently. One of my coworkers, though, is way beyond me, and consistently produces volumes of new code that just blow my mind (I don’t have concrete statistics for his work, but he is pushing tens of thousands of lines of code every couple of days.)
Anyway. I just got sick of the disingenuous nature of this thread. Use what you want, fine, but don’t be dishonest.
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There’s a good chance that you are paid by cursor to defend them, since almost everything is disingenuous for you now , and you’re saying it like Cursor is not just a VSCode + Continue.dev wrapper.
Anyways, I just sent Cursor a final request to provide me with a refund to comply with my local laws. If that won’t work, probably dispute the charge. Had anyone else successfully received a refund from them?
Do you get the weird typing each word horizonally when using it?