Cursor Router vs "normal" auto balanced mode

Ideas Feedback
1

Having Cursor Router active in balanced mode it chooses way more expensive models compared to auto balanced mode without cursor router active.

Since today I noticed that Cursor Router is choosing bigger models for the same tasks I did earlier, it loops multiple times through my code it wrote for me and makes even more mistakes than earlier, loses connections and restarts the jobs burning through tokens. usage increased 5 times compared to last week for similar requests.

normal auto blanced mode (cursor router deactivated) gives reasonable results and uses way less tokens.

biggest difference: I created a plan for a development and let both modes develop the module.
cursor router about 4$ usage, cursor router disabled about 0,4$ usage. I deleted the module in between and open a new agent window.

6

Hey @Thore_Baden,

That gap is expected, not a glitch: with the Router on Balanced, each request bills at whichever model it picks (hard tasks reach for Opus 5), while classic Auto (Router off) bills a flat, lower rate. For lower/predictable spend, switch the Router to Cost, turn it off, or pin a model like Grok 4.6.

The disconnects/restarts aren’t routing. That’s the elevated model-provider demand today (you flagged it here too: Disconnection and Agent error) - retry or switch models and it should settle, the restarts are part of what ran up today’s usage.

Passing along your point that Balanced leans too hard into expensive models.