I’ve been a happy Cursor user for a while now, and I’m on the Ultra plan ($200/mo). As I’m approaching my monthly API limit more frequently, I wanted to start a thoughtful discussion about what makes the most sense when we hit that ceiling.
The Situation
When you exhaust your Ultra plan’s ~$200 API credit, you have two main options:
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Enable pay-as-you-go and continue in Cursor at raw API rates (losing the 2x value bundled in the plan)
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Switch to Claude Code Max 20x ($200/mo) for the remainder of the month, which gives you 200-800 prompts per 5-hour window with access to Opus 4.5
Why This Matters
With the recent release of Claude Opus 4.5 (now available in both platforms), this question has become more relevant. Opus 4.5 is 3x cheaper than the previous Opus 4.1 and performs exceptionally well in Cursor. However, when we exceed our Ultra allocation and pay-as-you-go kicks in(I get to the ceiling roughly within the 1/3rd days in a months), we’re essentially paying full price without the subscription discount.