Yes! Cursor offers a free tier with 2,000 completions per month and 50 slow premium requests. The IDE itself is free to use.

What happens when I hit Cursor free limits?

Completions stop working until the next month. You can upgrade to Pro or wait for your limit to reset.

Is Cursor worth it over VS Code?

If you use AI coding heavily, absolutely. Cursor's deep AI integration beats any VS Code extension. The free tier is enough to try it out.

Cursor free vs GitHub Copilot free?

Cursor free offers a full IDE experience with 2,000 completions. Copilot free (for students/OSS) offers unlimited completions but requires VS Code. Both are great options.

How many Cursor completions do I need?

Casual users need 500-1000/month. Active developers use 2000-5000/month. Power users need Pro for unlimited access.

Can I get Cursor Pro for free?

Yes! Idlen displays ads during AI thinking time, earning you €30-100/month. Since Cursor Pro costs $20/month, Idlen pays for your subscription with money to spare!

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Cursor Free: Complete Guide to Cursor's Free Tier (2026)

Is Cursor free? Yes! Learn what's included in Cursor's free tier, its limitations vs Pro, and how to earn money while coding.

Try Cursor Free Earn while using Cursor

TL;DR

Cursor offers a free tier with limitations. 2,000 completions per month. Want to make money while using Cursor? Install Idlen and earn passive income during AI wait times.

What you get with Cursor Free

Here's what's included in the free tier

Included Features

Cursor IDE (VS Code fork)
Tab completions
Cmd+K inline editing
Chat with codebase
Import VS Code settings
All languages supported

Limitations

2,000 completions per month
50 slow premium requests (GPT-4/Claude)
No fast premium requests
Limited Composer usage
Basic features only

Cursor Free vs Paid

Compare free and paid plans to see what's best for you

Plan	Price	Features
Free	$0	Cursor IDE (VS Code fork) Tab completions Cmd+K inline editing
Cursor Pro	$20/month	Unlimited completions 500 fast premium requests/month Unlimited slow requests
Cursor Business	$40/user/month	Everything in Pro Centralized billing Admin dashboard

Make Cursor Even More Free

Why just use Cursor for free when you can actually EARN money while using it? Install Idlen and get paid for the wait time during AI responses.

€30-100

/month average

extra work

100%

privacy

Install Idlen for Free Learn more

How to Maximize Cursor Free

2,000 completions sounds like a lot until you're deep in a coding session. Here's how to make them count.

Best Practices for Free Users

Disable completions for simple typing - Save them for actual code suggestions
Use Cmd+K strategically - Inline edits are powerful but use premium requests
Leverage the Chat - Ask questions about code without using completions
Configure trigger settings - Adjust when completions appear