Cursor Apologizes for Pricing Changes - What Happened?

Anysphere Apologizes for Cursor Pro Plan Pricing Adjustments

The CEO of Anysphere, the firm developing the AI-powered coding platform Cursor, issued an apology on Friday regarding a poorly executed price modification to its $20 monthly Pro subscription. These alterations led to complaints from some users who encountered unexpected supplementary charges.

Communication Breakdown

“We acknowledge that our implementation of this pricing change was flawed and we extend our apologies,” stated Anysphere CEO Michael Truell in a published blog entry. “The clarity of our communication was insufficient, resulting in surprise for many of our subscribers.”

Details of the Plan Change

Truell referenced an update implemented on June 16th concerning Cursor’s Pro plan. Previously, Pro subscribers received 500 expedited responses utilizing advanced AI models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google, alongside unlimited, albeit slower, responses.

The revised plan now provides $20 of monthly usage, calculated based on API rates. Users can now leverage their preferred AI model within Cursor until reaching this $20 threshold, after which they must procure additional credits to continue operation.

User Complaints and Unexpected Charges

Following the announcement, numerous Pro users voiced their dissatisfaction on social media platforms.

Many reported rapidly exhausting their allotted requests under the new system, particularly when utilizing Anthropic’s Claude models, which are highly sought after for coding tasks. Others expressed concern over unanticipated charges, stemming from exceeding the $20 usage limit without having established a spending cap.

Currently, unlimited usage for Pro users is exclusively available through Cursor’s “auto mode,” which dynamically assigns requests to AI models based on availability.

Anysphere's Response and Future Plans

Anysphere has committed to refunding users who were inadvertently overcharged and intends to enhance the transparency of future pricing adjustments. The company declined to provide further commentary to TechCrunch beyond the published blog post.

Rising Costs of Advanced AI Models

Truell explained that Anysphere adjusted Cursor’s pricing structure due to the increased token consumption of newer AI models for complex tasks. These models require greater computational resources and time, resulting in higher operational costs which are now being passed on to users.

Cost Trends in the AI Landscape

While some AI models have become more affordable, the most advanced options continue to be expensive. Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4, for example, costs $15 per million input tokens and $75 per million output tokens. This exceeds the pricing of Google’s Gemini 2.5 Pro, its most expensive model to date.

Premium Access and Industry-Wide Increases

OpenAI and Anthropic have also begun charging enterprise clients a premium for “priority” access to their AI models, guaranteeing reliable and high-speed performance.

These escalating expenses appear to be impacting AI coding tools generally, with users of Replit also recently experiencing price increases for large-scale AI tasks.

Cursor's Position and Competition

Cursor has achieved significant success, generating over $500 million in annual recurring revenue (ARR) primarily through Pro plan subscriptions. However, it now faces competition from the AI providers it relies upon, while simultaneously navigating the challenge of providing access to increasingly expensive models.

Claude Code and Talent Acquisition

Anthropic’s Claude Code has gained traction among enterprises, reportedly contributing to a $4 billion ARR for Anthropic and potentially attracting users away from Cursor. Cursor responded by recruiting two key product development employees from Anthropic last week.

Maintaining Market Leadership

To maintain its leading position, Cursor must continue collaborating with cutting-edge model providers until its internally developed models become sufficiently competitive.

Cursor Ultra and Strategic Partnerships

Anysphere recently established multi-year agreements with OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI to offer a $200-per-month Cursor Ultra plan featuring significantly higher rate limits. Jared Kaplan, co-founder of Anthropic, indicated in June his intention for continued collaboration with Cursor.

Growing Tension

However, the dynamic between Cursor and AI model developers appears to be intensifying.