The cursor continues to use CPU even when it is not in interacting

Bug Reports
1

Hi

I’ve observed an issue with Cursor where it continuously consumes CPU resources even when it’s not being actively used.

Here’s what I observed: I opened a completely clean instance of Cursor (meaning I wasn’t using the chat AI, had no active editor tabs open, and had disabled all extensions, including the built-in ones). After setting this up, I minimized the Cursor window to the taskbar.

Even in this minimized and idle state, Cursor frequently consumes between 1% and 7% of the CPU. Furthermore, if I open and use other applications, such as a web browser, Cursor’s CPU usage becomes even more frequent. I don’t understand what kind of interaction is necessary between Cursor and other running software that would cause this increased activity while Cursor is idle.

For comparison, while VS Code also exhibits some background CPU usage, my observation is that it consistently stays within the 0.5% to 1% range under all circumstances. Importantly, VS Code’s CPU usage does not seem to increase in frequency or intensity when I am actively using other applications.

I would like to request the Cursor team to investigate and potentially optimize this behavior. Based on my testing and comparison with VS Code, I suspect this higher background CPU usage might be the reason why Cursor causes my laptop to heat up noticeably (even when I’m not interacting with Cursor itself), which is not something I experience with VS Code under the same conditions.


2

yes cursor also seems to take a ton of ram as well. why arent they updating the base to 1.99??

3

Hey, based on your screencasts, I didn’t notice excessive CPU usage by Cursor. Cursor showed a maximum of 8.4% and then started to decrease. I consider such CPU usage acceptable. Are you sure the problem is with Cursor?

4

Thank you for taking the time to review my feedback and the screencasts regarding Cursor’s CPU usage.

I appreciate you noting the peak usage reaching 8.4% and then decreasing. However, perhaps I wasn’t clear enough in my initial description. My primary concern isn’t necessarily brief peaks during activity, but rather the persistent CPU usage while Cursor is completely idle.

To reiterate the conditions under which I observed this:

  1. I launched a clean instance of Cursor.

  2. No files were open in the editor.

  3. The Chat AI was not active .

  4. All extensions, including built-in ones, were disabled.

  5. The Cursor window was then minimized to the taskbar and left untouched.

Even under these strictly idle conditions, I consistently observe Cursor processes consuming between 1% and 7% of CPU resources frequently . This background activity seems continuous, not just momentary spikes.

Furthermore, the comparison with VS Code under the exact same idle conditions is significant. In my tests, VS Code consistently remained between 0.5% and 1% CPU usage and, crucially, its background usage did not noticeably increase when I was actively using other applications like a browser. This difference is what leads me to believe there might be room for optimization within Cursor’s idle state processing.

You mentioned considering the CPU usage ‘acceptable’. However, the point I wanted to emphasize was the 1-7% usage during idle periods , which, as noted, correlates with a noticeable increase in my laptop’s temperature. Concerning memory accumulation, I haven’t specifically observed this, so I can’t conclude anything regarding that at this time.

Thank you again for your time and consideration.

cursor version
version: 0.49.6 (user setup)
認可: 1.96.2
date: 0781e811de386a0c5bcb07ceb259df8ff8246a50
Electron: 2025-04-25T04:49:20.797Z
ElectronBuildId: 34.3.4
Chromium: undefined
Node.js: 132.0.6834.210
V8: 20.18.3
OS: 13.2.152.41-electron.0