Unlike Windsurf or GitHub Copilot, which clearly state which models can be used for free, Cursor often leaves this unclear. To figure out which models are free, users have to dig through forum announcements, and even then the duration of these promotions is frequently vague.
To me, this feels like an intentional dark pattern designed to confuse users.
Actually, Cursor does not offer any completely free models. All models are accessible through paid plans and consume credits until they are used up, depending on the plan.
Which free models are available on Windsurf and GitHub Copilot?
• GPT-5 mini
• GPT-5 nano
• Gpt 4o-mini
• Gemini 2.5 Flash
• DeepSeek V3.1
• Grok Code (for limited time)
• Cursor Small
These are currently free models you can use even if you hit your limits
Only DeepSeek is actually free. All the other models either consume credits or are no longer available.
yes, they eat credits, but it is not actually charged from you at all. Hit your limit fully and run other models, u will get upgrade to ultra message, then run models i listed, they keep working fine
isnt that the slow mode where they give you extra if youre willing to wait?
cause as the OP said, there are no free models in cursor anymore, the last one was flash 2.5 and deepseek v3.1 but neither are free anymore
maybe slow pool but i never waited these models to start working more than 2-3seconds. Only have some issues with gemini flash 2.5 model, sometimes it says connection errors but all other models works fine. You can try them too
Yeah flash had that issue alot, especially when it was actually free a week or two ago
they recently changed that without any notification
anyhow, still generous of them to even have slow pool
