Cursor review: AI coding agents on your desktop and in the cloud (2026)

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Cursor website: AI coding agents on your desktop and in the cloud

Cursor is an AI coding app where agents plan, write and test code, on your computer or in the cloud. It suits developers and small software teams. It is free to start, and new paid plans run from $8 to $200 a month (about £6 to £150) in a bundle with Grok and X. Cursor 2.0 was #1 Product of the Day and #1 of the week on Product Hunt in October 2025. My verdict: still the benchmark, but the new owner and pricing need watching. ★★★½☆ 3.5/5.

Last updated 18 October 2026. Written by Annie, a search and digital marketing specialist. Based on the product's demo, documentation, pricing and Product Hunt reviews; I have not used it myself. See the editorial policy.

Key facts

  • What it does: An AI coding app where agents plan, write, test and review code, on your own computer or on Cursor's cloud machines
  • Made by: Anysphere, Inc. (San Francisco, US), owned by SpaceX since August 2026
  • Launched on Product Hunt: 30 October 2025 (Cursor 2.0), #1 Product of the Day and #1 Product of the Week
  • Price: Free; Plus $8 a month (about £6); Premium $30 (about £23); Super $100 (about £75); Ultra $200 (about £150); Teams from $30 per user (about £23); all before VAT
  • Free plan or trial: Yes, a free plan with limited agent and chat requests
  • Works with: Desktop app for macOS, Windows and Linux, an iPhone app and a command-line tool; GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Slack, Microsoft Teams and Linear; models from SpaceXAI (Grok), Anthropic, Google and Cursor itself, with OpenAI models until 12 November 2026
  • Best for: Developers and small software teams who want agents to do real coding work
  • Our rating: ★★★½☆ 3.5/5

On this page

What is Cursor?

Cursor started as a code editor with AI built in, based on VS Code. With Cursor 3 in April 2026 it was rebuilt around agents. You describe a task, such as "add a dark mode toggle", and an agent reads your code, writes a plan, makes the changes and shows you what it did. You can still open the full editor when you want to work by hand.

Cursor interface, from its website
Cursor's interface, as shown on its website on 17 October 2026. Screenshot: aiagents.org.uk.

The agent features are the reason to look at it now. Local agents run on your computer, several at once. Cloud agents run on Cursor's own virtual machines, so they keep going when your laptop is shut. They work on a separate branch, test their own changes, send back screenshots, videos and logs, then open a pull request - a proposed change for a person to approve. You can start them from the desktop app, the web, the iPhone app, Slack, GitHub or Linear. Automations run agents on a schedule or when something happens, such as a new message in a bug-reports channel. Bugbot reviews pull requests, and Projects, a beta from September 2026, lets one agent coordinate others on long pieces of work.

That is the difference from a chatbot. A chatbot suggests code for you to paste. Cursor's agents take the task, use the tools, check their work and hand back something finished for you to approve. My list of 25 AI agent examples shows where coding agents sit among the rest.

Watch the demo

Cursor's own 90-second introduction to Cursor 3, the agent-first version of the app that brings local and cloud agents into one window.

Video: Cursor on YouTube.

How it did on Product Hunt

Cursor's best results in the last two years were three #1 Product of the Day finishes, with Cursor 2.0 also taking #1 Product of the Week.

LaunchDateDaily rankOther awardsUpvotes
Cursor 1.06 June 2025#2 Product of the Day#3 Product of the Week; #9 on the June 2025 monthly leaderboard786
Cursor Agents: Browsers & Mobile1 July 2025#1 Product of the Day#4 Product of the Week; #7 on the July 2025 monthly leaderboard721
Cursor 1.71 October 2025#4 Product of the DayNo badge shown388
Cursor 2.030 October 2025#1 Product of the Day#1 Product of the Week; #4 on the October 2025 monthly leaderboard958
Visual Editor12 December 2025#2 Product of the DayNo badge shown503
Composer 2 by Cursor20 March 2026#3 Product of the DayNo badge shown375
Composer 2.519 May 2026#3 Product of the DayNo badge shown419
Cursor for iOS30 June 2026#1 Product of the Day#5 Product of the Week592
Origin by Cursor19 August 2026#3 Product of the DayNo badge shown350

Upvotes as shown on Product Hunt's launches page on 17 October 2026.

Nine launches between June 2025 and August 2026, three of them #1 of the day, is a remarkable record. Cursor 2.0 had more upvotes than anything else that week, and the daily leaderboard shows 964 for it against 958 on the launches page. The original Cursor listing from August 2024 also won Product of the Year and AI Copilot at the 2024 Golden Kitty Awards, voted on in January 2025. All of this tells you developers pay close attention. It does not cover the SpaceX takeover or the new pricing, which both came later.

What Product Hunt users said

  • The score is 5.0 out of 5 from 965 reviews. Most were written before the October 2026 pricing change, so none mention it.
  • People like how familiar it feels. It is based on VS Code, so extensions and shortcuts carry over, and reviewers praise the code-aware autocomplete, edits across many files and plan mode.
  • Cost is the biggest complaint. Reviewers call the pricing unclear and the jumps between tiers steep, say credits run out fast on premium models, and one said Auto mode got stuck in loops that burned tokens.
  • Large projects can strain it. Reviewers mention high memory use, slow indexing and agents losing track of context in long sessions, sometimes undoing code that worked.
  • Frequent updates that need restarts, occasional crashes, and one report of it reading files outside the project folder round out the complaints.

How much does Cursor cost?

Since 12 October 2026, new customers buy Cursor as part of The X Subscription, which bundles it with Grok, Grok Bot and X Premium features.

Cursor pricing page, October 2026
Cursor's pricing page on 17 October 2026. Screenshot: aiagents.org.uk.
PlanPriceWhat you get
Free$0Limited agent and chat requests, plus basic X features
Plus$8 a month (about £6)A shared usage pool across Cursor and Grok. Only Grok models are available in Cursor on this plan.
Premium$30 a month (about £23)4x the Plus usage, cloud agents and automations, code hosting and Bugbot code reviews, and third-party models such as Claude at API list price, billed separately
Super$100 a month (about £75)15x the Plus usage and priority model access at busy times
Ultra$200 a month (about £150)50x the Plus usage and earliest access to new products and models
TeamsFrom $30 per user a month (about £23)Pooled usage, central billing, SSO, usage analytics and team-wide privacy settings
EnterpriseCustomInvoicing, audit logs, spend controls and priority support

Prices shown exclude taxes such as VAT. No yearly prices are shown, usage allowances refresh weekly, and you can buy top-ups. Existing Cursor subscribers can keep their current plan and price. My guide to what AI agents cost in the UK compares this with other tools.

What I like

  • Cloud agents keep working when your laptop is closed, and they return screenshots, videos and logs as proof of what they did, not just a list of code changes.
  • By default the agent asks before running terminal commands, and its network access is limited to GitHub, link retrieval and web search.
  • You can work wherever suits you: the desktop app on Mac, Windows or Linux, the iPhone app, the web, the command line, Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub or Linear.
  • The security credentials are serious: SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, ISO 42001 and AIUC-1. With Privacy Mode on, Cursor says its model providers agree not to store or train on your data.
  • It moves fast. Between 10 September and 16 October 2026 it shipped Projects, two new review bots, remote control of desktop agents from the phone and a marketplace for its code hosting service.
  • There is a free plan to try it, and existing subscribers do not have to switch to the new bundle.

What I'd want fixed

  • The new plans bundle coding with Grok chat, image tools and X features such as ad-free scrolling, a checkmark and X Money cashback. A UK business buying a coding tool should not have to pay for a social network subscription.
  • Claude and other third-party models are no longer part of the monthly allowance on the new plans. They cost extra at API list price, and the $8 Plus plan offers Grok models only.
  • OpenAI is withdrawing its models from Cursor on 12 November 2026, citing doubts that SpaceX will respect its terms.
  • The privacy policy, updated 11 October 2026, allows sharing with unnamed affiliates, does not name UK GDPR and does not say which transfer safeguards apply. The data use page does not say whether Privacy Mode is on by default.
  • Costs are hard to predict. Weekly pools, top-ups and cloud agents billed at API rates make a monthly budget tricky, which matches what reviewers already complained about.

Who should use it?

Cursor suits developers and small software teams who want agents doing real work, and who are happy with Grok as the main model or willing to pay extra for Claude. A founder who can read code will get a lot from the cloud agents. If you do not write software, skip it. If you want open-source tooling and to pay model providers directly with no markup, look at Kilo Code instead.

Is it safe to use? Privacy and permissions

  • Access: The agent reads your code and edits files in your project without asking, though configuration files need approval. It asks before terminal commands unless you change the run mode. Cloud agents need read-write access to your repositories on GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket or Azure DevOps, plus any secrets you add.
  • Where data goes: The privacy policy says data is processed on servers in various places, including the US. Cursor says it has no infrastructure in China. Since August 2026 the company is owned by SpaceX, and the policy lets it share data with affiliates without naming them.
  • Training: With Privacy Mode on, Cursor says your code is not used for training by it or its model providers, under zero data retention agreements. With it off, the data use page says Cursor may use code, prompts and editor actions to train its models, so switch it on.
  • UK GDPR: The policy mentions the UK and your right to complain to a data protection authority, but does not name UK GDPR or the safeguards for transfers. My guide to AI agents and UK GDPR covers what to ask before you connect client code.

Using it in the UK

  • Availability: The terms only bar US-embargoed countries, so the UK is covered. There are desktop apps for Mac, Windows and Linux and an iPhone app.
  • Currency and VAT: Priced in US dollars, and the prices shown exclude VAT. New subscriptions are sold by X Subscription Corp, and the terms are governed by Texas law unless your own country's law says otherwise.
  • Data location: The US and other countries. I found no UK or EU hosting option.

Other launches from the same team

  • Cursor, "The AI Code Editor": 4 August 2024, no daily rank badge shown, 214 upvotes. It went on to win Product of the Year and AI Copilot at the 2024 Golden Kitty Awards.
  • Every later launch is in the table above. Product Hunt counts 11 Cursor launches but lists only these 10.

Alternatives to Cursor

  • Kilo Code - pick it if you want an open-source coding agent for VS Code, JetBrains or the command line, using your own model keys with no markup.
  • Mastra Factory - pick it if your team wants an open-source system that takes issues all the way to pull requests on servers you control.
  • Devin - pick it if you want a hosted coding agent outside the SpaceX family. It has a free plan, and Pro costs $20 a month (about £15).

My verdict

AreaScore
Usefulness4/5
Getting started4/5
Value for money3/5
Trust and privacy3/5
UK fit3/5
Overall★★★½☆ 3.5/5

If I wrote code every day, I would still try Cursor for its cloud agents, starting on the free plan with Privacy Mode switched on. I would hold off on a long commitment until the OpenAI exit on 12 November and the new bundle settle down.

Frequently asked questions

Is Cursor free?

Yes, there is a free plan with limited agent and chat requests. Paid plans start at $8 a month (about £6) plus VAT, but that plan only offers Grok models in Cursor. Cloud agents and automations need Premium at $30 a month (about £23) or above.

Who owns Cursor now?

SpaceX. It completed its $60 billion all-stock purchase of Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, in August 2026, and SpaceX had merged with xAI earlier in the year. Since then Cursor has added Grok models, moved new customers onto The X Subscription bundle, and been told by OpenAI that its models will be withdrawn on 12 November 2026.

Cursor vs Kilo Code

Cursor is a polished, closed product with its own cloud machines, security certifications and a bundle price. Kilo Code is open source under the MIT licence, works in VS Code, JetBrains and the command line, and lets you bring your own model keys with no markup. Pick Cursor for the cloud agents and Kilo Code for control over models and costs.

Sources

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