Disabling Auto Model Disables Agent (Cursor Pro Required)

Bug Reports
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

When I try to use the Agent with a manual model selected, I receive an error saying “Agent and Edit rely on custom models that cannot be billed to an API key. Please use a Pro or Business subscription and/or disable API keys. Ask should still work.” I wonder if maybe model selection is disabled for free users, but the error says nothing about that, so I’m guessing this is a bug instead of intended behavior.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Have a free account?
  2. Turn off Auto.
  3. Submit any prompt to the Agent.

Screenshots / Screen Recordings

Screenshot From 2025-11-01 20-05-41.png
Screenshot From 2025-11-01 20-05-41.png453×344 20.8 KB

Operating System

Linux

Current Cursor Version (Menu → About Cursor → Copy)

Version: 2.0.43
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: 8e4da76ad196925accaa169efcae28c45454cce0
Date: 2025-10-30T18:49:27.589Z
Electron: 34.5.8
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.1
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Linux x64 6.14.0-35-generic

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

2

Hey, thanks for the report. This is expected behavior on the free plan.

The free tier includes:

  • Auto mode
  • GPT-4.1

Manual model selection (Claude, Gemini, and others) is only available on Cursor Pro ($20/month).

Agreed, the error message is a bit confusing, it would be clearer if it said “this model requires a Pro subscription” instead of mentioning API keys. Keep using Auto mode, it should work fine on the free plan.

If you need access to specific models like Claude Sonnet, you’ll need to upgrade: Pricing · Cursor