How many tokens can I use per month on the $20 Pro plan before I hit the limit, lose access to Cursor, and have to start paying for individual requests?
Hi @uzytkownik1
The token usage depends on how much context you add to your request. This includes attachments, rules, MCPs,… but also how you use Chat, which models you use and if you use Auto model.
- More context: attached files, rules, MCPs,… means more tokens used in chat and with every chat follow up question
- Long chat: too long chat with a lot of context for unrelated tasks continues to consume tokens it does not need.
- Heavier models: the more capable but also consume more resources.
As there is no simple formula that fits everyones usage since tokens cost differently per token type, provider and model, please use following info.
Here is more information and best practices to reduce token usage and optimize cost.
2 Likes
No one knows the answer to this question, they will just get drained very fast 
“I hit the monthly quota in a few hours of the first day”, that’s what Cursor users have in common
9 Likes
lollll truuueee
I have set “Usage-Based Pricing” as “Off”. And now I have used more than 20$ tokens without any limits. I am not sure how many dollars’ worth of tokens I can use in one month.
1 Like
Hi @CodingAI Cursor 1.2.4 and later versions do notify you in Chat with an approximate date when you would use up the included amount of tokens. We do not cut off at $20 directly as this is the minimum offered amount. Kindly note that the actual amount varies per user and their usage.
Thanks for the clarification . Yeah, Cursor notified me that, at this rate, I’m expected to use up all tokens on a specific day 
.
Does every request need claude 4 sonnet thinking? Certainly some request could have used auto. Sometimes I start a request off with Claude 4 then switch to Auto for the minor fixes within the code Claude 4 created. Also it looks like you’ve made zero Auto requests. Maybe you are not aware it’s an option.
Thanks for the reminder! Auto mode could save tokens, but I mainly use the claude 4 sonnet thinking mode since I think it’s the most powerful model for pro user.
I’m on version Version: 1.2.1 as I’m terrified to upgrade (have had issues upgrading before, and everything’s working great, so not upgrading). I switched back to the original 500/month charging model, as I can’t comprehend the new model. I always use “Agent” and “Claude-4-Sonnet”. The usage and billing pages no longer show me the breakdown of tokens used, but just show a tally, which seems to increment at 1 per question (two if it hits the tool query limit). I’m very satisfied with this behavior.
1 Like
Do you think Cursor’s 20$ plan isn’t worth for a developer who uses cursor almost everyday. Just bought 20$ plan, actually 20$ is huge to me. I think this is kinda unfair. Is Trae a best alternative for Cursor?
It depends on what you do. Are you just using tab completions? If so, its worth it.
Are you making good use of the agent? Then no, the $20 plan doesn’t cut it if you use the agent a lot. Are you looking to really heavily use the agent? Then even Pro+, the $60 plan, isn’t going to be enough.
The agent uses LOTS of tokens! I would say that when I am doing real work, my per-request token usage is over a million. I have had single request token counts top 16 million (this was a marathon run of fixing bad usage of any throughout my project, the 6 million above it is more of that kind of cleanup):
You are not going to get usage like that out of a $20 plan. Its just not realistic.
Anyone looking for a $20/mo unlimited usage plan from ANY LLM provider or agentic ide, has to come to terms with the REAL WORLD FACT that this stuff costs money to run. Not just the salaries of the people at companies like Cursor, or Windsurf, or OpenAI or Anthropic. There is a MONSTROUS infrastructure cost to it all as well.
Its just not free. It will never be “Unlimited for $20” nor will it ever again be “Unlimited for $200” or even for $400. Its just not free. Someone has to pay, and the simple reality has ALWAYS BEEN: The customer pays.
The reality that is catching up to everyone…AI/LLM companies, intermediates like Cursor, and the end users, is that this stuff is not just not free…its not cheap.
At some point the realization has to sink in: REGARDLESS of what you ultimately choose to use in the end (even if its not Cursor, if you go with Claude Code, or Windsurf Cascade, or some other option), it will not be free, nor will it be cheap.
Even considering the option of building a computer (or compute stack) to host your own LLM at home, and use that instead of using a commercial LLM. You are still going to pay for it. You will have to pay for the hardware. You will have to pay for the power to run the hardware. If you want speed, so you run through tokens quickly, then you are probably gonna have to pay for cooling. Cooling the computers, cooling the home (or office) they run in, etc.
Add up all those costs, how much is it? Economies of scale, probably mean that the combination of per-token cost and token rate, are still better if you use a big commercial option rather than a home option. If you accept a slow rate of token processing, then your home grown option might be cheaper dollar-wise….but, there is going to be a time cost, reduction in productivity, loss of velocity, etc.
This stuff WAS cheap. It can’t stay cheap. It won’t be cheap in the future. If you need high volume token usage, then, you will need to pay for it. It can’t be free. Long term, the highly probably reality is, there won’t be plans per-se, other than possibly to access advanced features. Long term, the probably reality is you will just pay API token costs. A company like Anthropic or Cursor or OpenAI, can’t survive by giving away their product for free forever.
Rooster has come home to roost. Twenty bucks barely buys you a coffee these days…
3 Likes
$20 is worth it if you use Cursor everyday. You should try Trae, Windsurf, and the others. But I have found Cursor is the best for actual programmers who want an assistant. Trae is the cheapest, but it was very slow and I could not get it integrated with my project (no C# extensions). But if $20 is a lot, then try out the others. I bought an annual of Cursor, so its only $16/mo, and I get $20 minimum of credits on top of the tool itself with tab completion and unlimited Auto and gpt-5-mini requests. It really comes down to what you need. If you are going to just use prompts and not do much programming, Cursor is probably not the best route.
2 Likes
You’re right, and you explain it well—
but at some point, I think you’ll get tired of explaining it to people! 
People don’t like to think there’s actually a computer doing everything.
And it costs a lot of money, etc.
They like to think everything is free, simple, and easy—the AI model is smart, human-like, goes over their code, and writes things for them.
Tool calls, token counting that starts over after every call—
understanding that the model doesn’t actually remember, but instead gets everything again each time—
that’s really unpleasant to hear.
The solution is use Auto Mode
Come September 15th, save those who are grandfathered in with yearly subscriptions, Auto-mode will bill at normal API rates after the plan usage is up.
Or use GPT-5-mini which as of now doesn’t count towards monthly usage limits. And Auto is free until your next renewal post 9/15, which is why people may want to lock in an annual subscription beforehand.
1 Like