Hi team,
I think the title is self-explanatory but the Cursor Plugin’s CPU usage is very heavy. Not sure if there is a fix to it?
Version: 0.29.1
VSCode Version: 1.86.0
Node.js: v20.10.0
OS: macOS Sonoma 14.4
Chip Apple M2 Pro
Memory: 32 GB
Cheers,
Marvin
Hey, this may not be a Cursor problem at all, perhaps a some-kind plugin, try opening “Open Process Explorer” in the editor (cmd + shift + p) and look there.
There’s no such thing in Cursor? Is there a way to get it somehow?
You can open the process explorer from the “Help” menu inside the menu bar. In my case, uninstalling a few plugins resolved the issue.
i did solve the problem by remove eslint extension.
cause when i checked cpu by Open Process Explorer, eslint server.js using a lot.
after remove that i can use as before
But is there any way I can keep using the eslint extension? It’s sort of an important one used by me and everyone on my team.
I’m curious about this as well. The ESLint extension is impossible to use, but is a normal part of our workflow.
I have the same issue. I’m currently on a Pro trial and was going to continue after it ends, but I am now inclined to reconsider. M1 Pro gets hot when using Cursor and eats a lot of power.
Any tips here?
I’ve been suffering a lot with CPU usage and notebook heating.
I opened the same project I’ve been working on with the Cursor on the Visual Code, and I have no trouble.
My settings:
Apple M2 Pro
16 GB
I too have this problem on a M2 Mac. For me however it’s the Cursor Helper (Renderer) process that is crushing the CPU.
When I first start Cursor everything is fine, but after using Composer to make changes then it goes haywire. I killed the process and it had to reload the window and the CPU went back to normal, but this is a serious drawback.
I only have 1 extension installed, so I doubt it’s that.
MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Pro) Overheating While Using Cursor IDE
This is exactly what happened on my end—both Cursor Helper (Renderer) and Cursor Helper (extension-host) are the ones causing my CPU to spike, making my Mac overheat.
My MacBook Pro 16-inch (M2 Pro) is getting extremely hot, and the keyboard becomes almost too hot to touch. This happens even when I’m just doing my usual coding tasks in Cursor IDE.
I’ve tried restarting, closing apps, and keeping it on a flat surface, but the overheating issue persists. The fans don’t seem to ramp up much, and the heat remains the same.
Has anyone else experienced this? Any solutions to fix it?
Mac Details:
Would really appreciate any advice! Thanks in advance.
Same hardware and software setting and it’s been a week since this happened. Tried to remove all extension but it’s still not working… Are you able to find the fix?
I have this too, but on Linux (openSUSE Tumbleweed). It’s very frustrating that this is impossible to debug because Cursor’s process explorer shows 0% CPU for all processes!
I tried disabling the Eslint extension and restarting Cursor, but the high CPU usage and fan noise immediately appeared. This is super disappointing.
Also an issue for me (Apple M1, 16 GB).
What works for me is to delete agent chats - this just took my CPU from 500% to 10%
EDIT - doesn’t always work 
I’ve isolated this (in my case) to the “Rainbow CSV” (mechatroner.rainbow-csv) extension:
cursor .)toml & yml files to test)Cursor Helper (Renderer) process)I can then re-enable the extension, open another file (I always need to open a file to trigger it) & it will spike back up.
It should be noted that it’s not just this extension - it’s the combination of the extension AND Cursor. The behaviour doesn’t happen with VSCodium or Visual Studio Code.
Also, I trashed my application settings & reinstalled, and it’s still a problem.
Version: 1.2.4 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.99.3
Commit: a8e95743c5268be73767c46944a71f4465d05c90
Date: 2025-07-10T16:55:16.443Z
Electron: 34.5.1
Chromium: 132.0.6834.210
Node.js: 20.19.0
V8: 13.2.152.41-electron.0
OS: Darwin arm64 24.5.0
Hey, thanks for the report. We’ll investigate it.
Thanks deanrie. I’ve isolated it further. There’s a bunch of TSV files in the project; when I delete them, the problem goes away. I can see from the Extension Host process in Output that the following event is fired:
[info] ExtensionService#_doActivateExtension mechatroner.rainbow-csv, startup: false, activationEvent: 'onLanguage:tsv'
It appears that whenever any file is opened Cursor reads the other files in the repo & extensions for those types are triggered.
I reduced the number of files such that the processing completes within 20 secs or so. I can now see that it happens every time I open a file, not just the first time.
If it’s scanning the entire codebase for LLM context, should it happen only once and not trigger extensions?
Thanks!
I also have high CPU on my M2 macbook when Rainbow CSV is installed and I have opened a CSV file in the present or past (not a problem for me anymore because I don’t need that extension).