Feedback on Cursor Billing Transparency

Feedback
1

:bullseye: Key Issues

Core Problems Identified

  • Conceptual confusion: The distinction between “free,” “included,” and “limited included” services isn’t clear

  • Invisible billing threshold: Users can’t tell when they’ve hit the plan limit and billing kicks in

  • Complex token counting: The mix of free, included, and paid tokens creates uncertainty

  • User anxiety: Not knowing when charges will start affects the overall experience

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Problem Analysis

Confusing Terminology

The mixing of concepts creates ambiguity:

  • “Free” vs “Included” vs “Included with limits”

  • Tokens that count toward limits but are marketed as “included”

  • Complex pricing structures that obscure the real cost

User Experience Impact

Typical scenario:
1. User sees "tokens included" in their plan
2. Uses the service assuming it's covered
3. Unclear transition: When does plan coverage end and billing begin?
4. Result: Anxiety and uncertainty about when charges start

:clipboard: Improvement Proposals

1. Clear Terminology

  • Free Services: No cost, no hidden limits, no counters

  • Included Services: Part of the plan, no additional costs within clearly specified limits

  • Pay-per-use Services: Charged from the first token/request

2. Real-time Transparency in Dashboard

Example of clear indicator:
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ Tokens this month: 45,231/100,000 │
│ ✅ Included in your plan        │
│ ⚠️  Next tokens: $0.02/1k       │
│ 🔄 Billing starts at: 100,001   │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

3. Proactive Communication

  • Alerts before reaching plan limits

  • Clear breakdown in monthly billing

  • Simplified pricing model documentation

  • Visual threshold indicators showing exactly when billing begins

:bullseye: Expected Benefits

For Users

  • Predictability: Know exactly when charges will start

  • Confidence: Transparency builds long-term loyalty

  • Better planning: Ability to budget tool usage effectively

  • Reduced anxiety: Clear visibility into billing thresholds

For Cursor

  • Reduced support load: Fewer billing-related inquiries

  • Higher satisfaction: Happier users with less churn

  • Enhanced credibility: Positioning as a transparent company

  • Trust building: Clear communication fosters user confidence

:light_bulb: Final Recommendation

Billing transparency isn’t just a UX improvement—it’s fundamental to maintaining developer community trust. A clear and predictable pricing model allows users to make informed decisions and plan their usage effectively. The key is making the transition point from included to paid crystal clear.

This feedback stems from community experience with Cursor’s current billing complexity, particularly around the handling of free, included, and paid tokens, and the unclear transition between plan coverage and billable usage.

1 Like
2

Have you seen any progress on this at all. This constantly drives me nuts when I’m working on a project as I expect Cursor to simply stop working any minute - every minute.

3

Yesterday, I had $119 stolen. From October 1st to October 28th, they initially charged me $57 above my Pro account. From October 28th to November 1st, I used my 500 requests (they said that was equivalent to $119) within the PRO account (I still have the old annual account pricing from March 2024).
After that… they took those $119 from my card :slight_smile: I wrote to their tech support, but they’re still silent.

4

The In app usage limit is by far more clear then the web dashboard. The “free usage” can still be confusing, but it does make it clear how much of your “included usage” is left this month. They just need to bring that clarity to the dashboard and like you said, make a clear distinction between the sum of these different usages.

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5

Confusing pricing and token usage is beneficial to Cursors business.
If users aren’t sure how much additional usage they have left they will naturally lean towards being more conservative in their usage in fear of suddenly hitting their vague or unknown limit.

Because the subscription plans do not carry over unused quota it means that users not utilizing the full value of their product is more profitable, meaning there is a direct benefit in maintaining a balance of user uncertainty and confusion.

Lets say we have a example user on the $20 plan:

  • Because there is no “if you reach your limit you can still use model for free or model [Y] at restricted daily frequency etc. the user will generally be conservative in fear of reaching their limit. They will keep track of their usage to try to maintain a decent % usage split by / 30, so at day 15 they would want to be around 50% usage.
  • Because the dashboard, the In-Editor usage, the unclear use of “included” and “free”, the user are not even sure if they are actually at the % they think they are, so they will strive to be on the safer side, maybe 40%.
  • There is also the possibility of them needing more work later in the billing period, they can’t know for sure, so let’s bring it down to 30%, because they aren’t sure if 30% is actually 50%?
  • Because they have learnt the habit of being conservative, they actually never spend that much more on the later part of the billing period, in the end they only used 50% of their whole quota.
  • In the end, they paid $20 for $10 usage, meaning Cursor gained a neat $10 profit.

They can even declare things such as “More usage than you pay for!”, knowing well that cautious users will still never go above their actual plan limit because working in the unknown where you might suddenly get “You have reached your usage limit” would be disruptive to their workflow.

TLDR:
How about “No” :blush: