Running Out of Ultra Plan Credits Before Renewal

Support Help
1

Hello,

I am currently on the Ultra plan, but I have exhausted all of my credits within about 20 days.

Beside from purchasing additional credits on demand or using my own API key, I would like to ask:

  1. Is there any way to continue using the premium AI models after running out credit?

  2. Is it possible to renew or restart the Ultra plan earlier than the scheduled billing cycle?

  3. Is on-demand credit more expensive than the Ultra plan?

  4. Would it be cheaper to use my Claude Opus 4.5 API key instead?

Thank you for your help.

Best regards,

3

Cursor charges a markup of i think 20%, so the cheapest option would be to use the api key or use claude code inside cursor ( i think you have a anthropic subscription, so there you have more free credits to spend )

4

You can keep using premium models after you run out of credits in two ways:

  1. Use free models that sometimes appear under bonus usage (for example, Grok Code). Otherwise, enable On-Demand usage.

  2. For early renewal or restarting the Ultra plan before your billing cycle, please contact [email protected]. Billing changes are handled there.

  3. On-Demand pricing is the same as usage-based billing shown in the billing page.

  4. Using your own Claude Opus 4.5 API key is usually not cheaper. With Ultra, the $200 plan gives about $400 worth of API-token value plus bonus usage. With On-Demand or your own API key, you pay as you go (so $200 spend equals $200 value).

Takeaway to avoid burning tokens too fast:

  • Use Opus for planning, better yet. Try other models such as GPT 5.2 High / GPT5.2 xHigh

  • Use Composer-1, Sonnet 4 or Cheapest for execution

  • New Task, or different task, make new chat to avoid Context (more context, more token)

  • Check MCP, make sure only use MCP that u need, since more MCP, more tools and more token

Reference :

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5

Cursor charge base on API Provider.So, pricing using API its same but take a not if we use Cursor Subscribe we get:

Each plan includes usage charged at model inference API prices:

  • Pro includes $20 of API agent usage + additional bonus usage

  • Pro Plus includes $70 of API agent usage + additional bonus usage

  • Ultra includes $400 of API agent usage + additional bonus usage

Reference : Models | Cursor Docs

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1 Like
6

There is still nothing described how mich max actually cost and why

7

Hi all,
Thank you so much for quick response. I contacted the Cursor support team and I only have two options: 1) using on-demand and 2) using the auto mode.

Have anyone try to use 2 accounts sequence, like A ā†’ B ā†’ A to reset account renew earlier?
Best

1 Like
8

The community answers above cover your questions well! To summarize:

  • Continue using premium models: Enable On-Demand usage, or use your own API key (BYOK)
  • On-Demand pricing: Same API rates as your plan usage (model pricing)

The token-saving tips from @Naufaldi_Rafif are solid - using lighter models for execution and starting new chats for new tasks can help credits last longer.

One thing Iā€™d add is using subagents to explore codebase, etc.

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