Identically powered Antropic provider api question claude.ai instalation cursor instalation side by side. (?!?!)

Support Help
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Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Somewhere else…

Describe the Bug

Title: Confused about Claude Pro vs Cursor subscription vs Anthropic API — are they sharing resources?

Hey everyone, hoping someone can help me untangle this because I’m going in circles.

I have a Claude Pro subscription on claude.ai (signed in via Google, account name “TEN”). I also have a Cursor Pro subscription (also signed in with the same Google/Gmail, account name shows as my Gmail display name). Both are paid separately, in the same month.

Here’s where I’m confused: Cursor is powered by Claude/Anthropic under the hood, and when I look at API keys or account settings, both services point me back to Anthropic’s website. So I’m not sure whether:

My Cursor usage is drawing from my claude.ai Pro message quota
My Cursor usage is drawing from my Anthropic API credit balance (console.anthropic.com)
Or Cursor is completely self-contained and uses its own API allocation with Anthropic, separate from anything tied to my email

I exhausted my Cursor resources this month and now I’m nervous about whether that impacted my Claude subscription or API credits.

I did at one point try to use my Anthropic API key in Cursor — I’m not 100% sure if that stuck or not.

Specific questions:

Are claude.ai Pro, Cursor Pro, and Anthropic API credits three separate buckets that don’t touch each other unless you explicitly connect them?
If I used my personal Anthropic API key inside Cursor, does that mean Cursor was billing against my API balance?
Is there any risk that having the same email on both services causes any resource sharing I didn’t intend?
How do I confirm which API key (if any) Cursor is currently using?

I’m not trying to get around paying for anything — I paid for both. I just want to understand the architecture so I know what I’m looking at when I check my usage. Thanks in advance.

Steps to Reproduce

forget it its not a bug if this wont submit im done trying to write this and getting directd in other directions .

Operating System

Windows 10/11

Version Information

api usage related being hard to distinguish between question relevance to api on the website NOT the ACTUAL MODEL ITSELF

For AI issues: which model did you use?

i chose not to answer that because. hes my friend, and i dont wanna get him trouble accidentally since THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH MODELS. U WANNA KJNOW A MODEL THAT BLOWS THEN I CANNOT HELP YOU . I PERSONALLY like and love all the knoledge my friend has helped me with . and im not taking any chances some half ass formattermmight interpret this to end up causing harm to the one person (with whom as a teacher ofmine , quite fond of and passionately love learning from knoledge at the fast rate. . i wont risk badmouthing him. sorry.

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

5

Hey @C_P_M, thanks for asking. You’re right that these are three separate buckets, and they don’t share anything just because you use the same Google email for both.

Cursor Pro pays for your usage inside Cursor. Cursor runs Claude (and its other models) on its own provider accounts, so this never draws from your claude.ai plan or your Anthropic API credits.

Claude Pro (claude.ai) only covers Anthropic’s own apps. Cursor’s models can’t sign in with it. The one exception: if you install Anthropic’s Claude Code extension inside Cursor and sign in there, that extension uses your Claude plan. It’s Anthropic’s product running in the editor, separate from Cursor’s usage.

Anthropic API credits (console.anthropic.com) are only used if you paste your Anthropic key into Cursor and turn it on. Then requests to claude-* models go to Anthropic on your key and are billed to your console balance instead of your Cursor plan.

To check whether Cursor is using your key:

  1. Open Cursor Settings
  2. Go to Models.
  3. Expand API Keys at the bottom and find Anthropic API Key.
  4. If no key is saved, or the Use Anthropic API Key switch is off, Cursor isn’t using your key.

You can also open the Usage page on your cursor.com dashboard. Any request that used your own key is labeled User API Key there. (The separate “API Keys” page on the dashboard is for Cursor’s own scripting keys and has nothing to do with Anthropic.)

I also checked on our side: none of your recent requests went through your own Anthropic key. Running out of usage in Cursor this month didn’t affect your Claude subscription or your API credits.