Cursor’s Pricing Backlash Sparks Developer Exodus
A wave of frustration has engulfed Cursor, the AI coding assistant, following what users describe as a “rug pull” on its pricing and usage policy. Over the past few days, users have been cancelling their subscriptions en masse, voicing outrage over what they perceive as an abrupt and poorly communicated change to their plans—especially Cursor’s highly marketed “unlimited” Pro plan. On July 4, Cursor users began noticing that their usage quotas were being depleted far faster than expected. Stevan Ljuljdurovic, former COO of CrowdControl, summed up the confusion by saying, “No clue what Cursor did to their pricing model but I somehow burned through my subscription in 3 days when normally I make it like 20-25 days. After I opted out it shows I used … 8 requests.” Many users echoed the same concern—Cursor’s Pro plan, which once promised unlimited usage, had effectively been capped. “Cursor constantly changing their pricing without any proper announcement and documentation recently is a pretty bad and frustrating move for users,” said another user. WTF is this @cursor_ai, I just paid for the Pro plan on 1st.I have not used it this much, wtf is this. What happened to unlimited requests. WTFI AM FURIOUS pic.twitter.com/OJhukwBDbW— Ravi Sharma (@ravishar313) July 4, 2025 Several users also advocated for switching to competitors like Claude Code. “It’s clear that if you don’t fully own your software and AI stack you will be subject to companies disturbing your workflow,” a user explained. Cursor has issued a clarification that they “missed the mark” with the updated pricing and are fully refunding affected users. But that is not enough as Reddit threads are filled with several reasons beyond the pricing. In the clarification post, Cursor explained that their platform combines both proprietary and third-party models—including from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and xAI. Previously, Pro users were given 500 requests per month, with heavier models like Sonnet counting for two requests. Not Just the Pricing But because newer models vary significantly in token consumption, Cursor argued that metering by tokens rather than requests better reflects actual usage and cost. For power users pushing large-context prompts or complex tasks through those 500 requests, the old system may have been unsustainable. The revised $20 Pro plan now includes $20 worth of model usage—with overage charges kicking in once that’s crossed. In June, Cursor announced a $200/month ‘Ultra’ plan designed for power users, previously restricted by unpredictable usage caps. Alongside the Ultra rollout, Cursor has also overhauled its Pro plan. It now defaults to an “unlimited-with-rate-limits” model, replacing the legacy 500-request allowance. Cursor described the shift as a response to user demand. Two weeks later, the exodus started. Read: Cursor’s New $200 Ultra Plan: Is There a Catch? But the current backlash has not only been about the pricing shift, but about the perceived lack of transparency. This is the second time developers are actively cancelling Cursor subscriptions, which happened in April this year. Though the issues were fixed later, people are now taking this even more seriously. Graeme Rycyk from Gainsight wrote, “yeah looking at alternatives now, not because of the cost but the rug pull.” Developer Oscar Le shared a particularly stark experience: “We paid $7k yesterday for a yearly subscription. And then you immediately pull the rug on us. One of our dev just used all 500 requests in a single day. Is that even legal?” Excuse me wth is this @cursor_ai ? We paid $7k yesterday for a yearly subscription. And then you immediately pull the rug on us.One of our dev just used all 500 requests in a single day. Is that even legal? pic.twitter.com/YSCEoekXHs— Oscar Le (@oscarle_x) July 4, 2025 Others were furious to see their access throttled just days after subscribing: “I just paid for the Pro plan on 1st. I have not used it this much. What happened to unlimited requests? WTF. I AM FURIOUS,” said another user. Why Cursor, Why? The Reddit thread titled “The great unsubscription” quickly became a hub for venting. One top comment broke down the issue in detail, highlighting how Cursor allegedly changed usage limits mid-billing cycle and obfuscated changes with vague language. “Cursor just nuked the Pro plan,” the post claimed. “‘Unlimited’ was never unlimited, 500 requests became ~225… Now they’re gaslighting us with ‘that system never existed.’” A similar issue happened with Claude in May with its pricing and token limits issue. Read: Why Claude is Losing Users Cursor is a young startup which is actively gaining customers and has become one of the fastest growing startups in the age of AI. There’s still a minority defending Cursor, noting that offering cheap inference at scale was always unsustainable. One Redditor wrote, “They offered us inference at 1/5th of what it actually cost… they are not a corporate giant… This ‘boycott Cursor’ is childish nonsense.” While some believe the outrage is an inevitable side effect of an unsustainable pricing model meeting financial reality, others say the issue lies in trust.
Cursor has issued a clarification that they “missed the mark” with the updated pricing and are fully refunding affected users.
Cursor has issued a clarification that they “missed the mark” with the updated pricing and are fully refunding affected users.
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["Anthropic", "Go", "OpenAI", "AI", "R", "RAG", "Aim", "Rust", "GAN", "xAI"]
["AI", "OpenAI", "Anthropic", "xAI", "Aim", "RAG", "R", "Go", "Rust", "GAN"]
Mohit writes about AI in simple, explainable, and often funny words. He's especially passionate about chatting with those building AI for Bharat, with the occasional detour into AGI.