How to Use Cursor: Download, Pricing, and Building Apps (2026)

Cursor is an AI code editor: you open a project folder, describe what you want, and its agent reads your code, edits the files, and runs commands, on your computer or on Cursor’s cloud machines. To start, download it for Mac, Windows, or Linux from cursor.com/download, sign in, and open a folder. The Free plan includes limited use of Cursor’s own models, and paid plans start at $8/month. To build a native iPhone app without a Mac, connect Vibecode: Cursor’s agent tells Vibecode’s agent what to build, and Vibecode builds the app on cloud Macs.

Cursor at a Glance


What it is	A code editor built on VS Code, with an agent that plans, edits files, and runs commands
Made by	Anysphere. Cursor became part of SpaceX in August 2026.
Where it runs	The desktop app, your terminal (Cursor CLI), the web at cursor.com/agents, and the Cursor iPhone and iPad app
Works on	macOS 12 or later, Windows 10 or later, and Linux. Version 3.27 as of October 2026.
Is it free?	Yes, with limits. Paid plans start at $8/month.
With Vibecode	Add Vibecode’s MCP server, and Cursor can have Vibecode build iPhone and web apps. No Mac needed.

Is Cursor Free?

Yes. The Free plan includes Agent, Chat, and Tab completions with limited use of Cursor’s own models (Grok and Composer), but not Claude, GPT, Gemini, or cloud agents. Cursor is sold as part of The X Subscription, one subscription for Cursor, Grok, and X. Each paid plan includes a weekly usage pool for Cursor’s own models, shared with the Grok apps.

Plan	Price	What you get in Cursor
Free	$0	Limited use of Cursor’s own models
Plus	$8/month ($80/year)	A weekly pool for Cursor’s own models. No Auto, cloud agents, or third-party models.
Premium	$30/month ($300/year)	4x the Plus usage. Adds cloud agents, Bugbot, and Claude, GPT, and Gemini at API prices.
Super	$100/month ($1,000/year)	15x the Plus usage, and priority access at peak times
Ultra	$200/month ($2,000/year)	50x the Plus usage, and the earliest access to new models
Teams	$30, $100, or $200 per seat/month	Premium, Super, or Ultra seats, plus central billing and SSO
Enterprise	Custom	Pooled usage, SCIM, audit logs, and invoices

Claude, GPT, and Gemini aren’t in any plan’s pool. On Premium and above you pay their API list price from prepaid credit that you top up. The pool resets weekly, and unused usage doesn’t roll over. If you subscribed before The X Subscription, you may be on a legacy plan: Hobby (free), Pro ($20/month), Pro+ ($60/month), or Ultra ($200/month). Those plans keep working, but new customers can't buy them. That's why older articles list Cursor Pro at $20. Prices are from cursor.com/pricing and Cursor’s Models & Pricing docs as of October 2026, and exclude tax. Cursor changes its plans from time to time, so check there before you buy.

How to Download and Install Cursor

Go to cursor.com/download and pick your system: macOS 12 or later (Apple silicon or Intel), Windows 10 or later (x64 or ARM64), or Linux (.deb, RPM, or AppImage, for x64 or ARM64)
Mac: open the .dmg and drag Cursor into Applications. Windows: run the installer. Linux: install the package below, or run the AppImage.
Open Cursor and sign in, or create a free account
Open your project with File > Open Folder

On Linux, Cursor recommends its package repositories over the AppImage, because they add a desktop icon, automatic updates, and the command-line tools:

sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://downloads.cursor.com/keys/anysphere.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /etc/apt/keyrings/cursor.gpg > /dev/null
echo "deb [arch=amd64,arm64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/cursor.gpg] https://downloads.cursor.com/aptrepo stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/cursor.list > /dev/null
sudo apt update
sudo apt install cursor

sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/cursor.repo << 'EOF'
[cursor]
name=Cursor
baseurl=https://downloads.cursor.com/yumrepo
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1
gpgkey=https://downloads.cursor.com/keys/anysphere.asc
EOF
sudo dnf install cursor

chmod +x Cursor-*.AppImage
./Cursor-*.AppImage

Import Your VS Code Settings

Cursor is built on VS Code. To bring over your extensions, themes, settings, and keybindings, open Cursor Settings (Cmd+Shift+J on Mac, Ctrl+Shift+J on Windows/Linux), go to General > Account, and click Import under VS Code Import. Cursor installs extensions from the Open VSX registry, not the VS Code Marketplace, so a few may be missing. The default shortcuts are the same as VS Code’s.

Install the Cursor CLI

Cursor’s agent also runs in a terminal. Install the CLI, then run agent in your project folder:

curl https://cursor.com/install -fsS | bash

irm 'https://cursor.com/install?win32=true' | iex

If your shell can’t find agent, add ~/.local/bin to your PATH.

How to Use Cursor

Open Agent: press Cmd+I (Mac) or Ctrl+I (Windows/Linux)
Get oriented: ask “Explain this codebase. Point me to the main entry points and anything I should read before making changes.”
Ask for a change: for example, “Add a dark mode toggle to the settings page.” Agent searches your code, edits files, and runs terminal commands.
Review the diff: reject what you don’t want, then ask Agent to run your tests
Undo a wrong turn: click a checkpoint in the chat to restore your files to that point

Press Shift+Tab in the chat input to switch modes:

Mode	What it does
Agent	The default. Searches your code, edits files, and runs commands.
Plan	Researches your code, asks clarifying questions, and writes a plan you can edit. It builds only after you approve.
Ask	Read-only. Answers questions without changing anything.

Tab Completion

Tab is Cursor’s autocomplete. It suggests your next edit in gray text, sometimes several lines at once. Press Tab to accept or Esc to reject, then Tab again to jump to the next spot Cursor expects you to edit.

Edit Selected Code

Select code and press Cmd+K or Cmd+L (Ctrl+K or Ctrl+L on Windows/Linux) to open a new Agent chat with the selection attached. Then say what to change, such as “Rename this to fetchOrders and update every caller.”

Rules

Rules are standing instructions Agent follows in every chat:

Project rules are .mdc files in .cursor/rules/, checked into git. Create one with New Cursor Rule in the Command Palette, and choose whether it always applies, applies to matching files, or applies when relevant.
User rules apply to all your projects. Add them in Customize > Rules.
AGENTS.md in your project root works too, and so does CLAUDE.md.

.cursor/rules/style.mdc

---
alwaysApply: true
---

- Use TypeScript for all new files
- Prefer functional components in React

Pick a Model

Choose a model in the picker in the chat panel, or press Cmd+/ (Ctrl+/ on Windows/Linux) to cycle through them. Auto picks one per request and bills it to your weekly pool (Plus doesn’t include Auto). Grok 4.7 is Cursor’s flagship model for the hardest tasks, and Composer is its fast, lower-cost model. Claude, GPT, and Gemini models, such as Claude Opus 5.5 and GPT-5.6 Sol, are available on Premium and above at API prices.

How to Add an MCP Server to Cursor

MCP (Model Context Protocol) lets Cursor’s agent use tools from other apps and services, such as GitHub, a database, or Vibecode. You can add a server in three ways:

From Cursor: open Customize > MCPs, find the server, click Add to Cursor, and follow its sign-in prompts.
From an install link: some services publish a link that opens Cursor and asks Install MCP server? Vibecode’s link is below.
By hand: edit ~/.cursor/mcp.json for servers you want in every project, or .cursor/mcp.json in a project folder to share them through git. If a server name is in both, the project file wins.

A remote server needs only its URL. A local server uses command and args instead, as in the Xcode example below. Save the file and restart Cursor.

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "vibecode": { "url": "https://api.vibecodeapp.com/mcp" }
  }
}

Agent uses a server’s tools when they’re relevant, and Cursor Settings > Agents > Approvals & Execution decides whether it asks you first. If a server doesn’t work, open the Output panel (Cmd+Shift+U or Ctrl+Shift+U) and choose MCP Logs.

How to Vibe Code an App with Cursor

“Vibe coding” means building by describing what you want and judging the result, instead of writing the code yourself (more in What is vibe coding? and Can I vibe code?). Cursor suits it if you’re comfortable with a project folder and a terminal:

Plan first: open an empty folder, switch to Plan mode, and describe the app, for example “Plan a web app for tracking my workouts, with a weekly summary. Ask me anything you need to know.”
Build: fix anything wrong in the plan, then tell Agent to build it
Check its work: ask Agent to start the dev server and test the app. It can control a browser to click through pages and take screenshots.
Grow it one feature at a time, and add a rule when you correct the same mistake twice

Cursor writes, runs, and tests the code. Hosting, a database, sign-in, and app store accounts are yours to set up.

How to Build an iPhone App with Cursor

On your own, you need a Mac with Xcode. With Vibecode connected, you don’t.

On Your Own: Cursor and Xcode on a Mac

Cursor can write Swift and SwiftUI, but an iPhone app is built and run with Xcode, which needs a Mac. Cursor’s Swift guide suggests editing in Cursor and switching to Xcode to build and run. With Xcode 26.3 or later and a paid Cursor plan, Cursor’s agent can drive Xcode through its built-in MCP server to build, run tests, and capture SwiftUI previews while Xcode is open. Turn on Xcode Tools in Xcode > Settings > Intelligence > Model Context Protocol, then add the server:

~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "xcode-tools": { "command": "xcrun", "args": ["mcpbridge"] }
  }
}

You still sign the app and submit it to the App Store with Xcode and App Store Connect. Details are in Cursor’s Xcode docs.

With Vibecode: No Mac Needed

Connect Vibecode’s MCP server, and Cursor’s agent directs Vibecode’s agent, which writes the app, builds it on cloud Macs, tests it, and saves it to your Vibecode account. Cursor runs on Mac, Windows, and Linux, so you can build a native iPhone app from any of them.

Add Vibecode to Cursor

Open Add Vibecode to Cursor. Cursor opens and asks Install MCP server? Leave the client ID and secret empty, and select Install. (Or add the mcp.json entry from the MCP section above.)

Vibecode shows Needs authentication. Select Authenticate, sign in to Vibecode (or create an account), and select Allow. Vibecode then shows its tools as enabled.

Ask for an app

Open Agent and describe the app you want.

Prompts that work:

“Using Vibecode, build me an iPhone app to track my workouts, with a weekly summary.”
“Build me a web app to plan my meals for the week.”
“Show me my Vibecode apps.”
“Make the buttons in my workout app blue and add a rest timer.”
“Why did the last build of my habit tracker fail?”

Cursor passes the request to Vibecode, and Vibecode’s agent writes and tests the app, building iPhone apps on cloud Macs. A build usually takes about 10 minutes. Cursor can wait for it, and because it shows no app card, it gives you links to open the app in Vibecode, see it on your phone in the Vibecode iPhone app, or publish it to the App Store. Cursor gets every Vibecode tool. It can also see what Vibecode’s agent did, read an app’s code and logs, restore an earlier version, and rename, copy, or delete apps. With run_command it runs a shell command in the app’s cloud workspace, for example to run tests or check a package version. A command stops after 45 seconds. Connecting is free, and builds and changes use your Vibecode credits. New accounts that sign up with Google or Apple get their first app build free. After that, plans start at $20/month with $20 in credits, and credits roll over (Vibecode pricing, as of October 2026).

	Cursor on your own	Cursor with Vibecode
Your computer	A Mac with Xcode	Mac, Windows, or Linux
Who writes the Swift	Cursor’s agent, in your folder	Vibecode’s agent, directed by Cursor
Building and testing	Xcode on your Mac	Vibecode, on cloud Macs
Trying it on your iPhone	Install it from Xcode	Open it in the Vibecode iPhone app
App Store	Sign and submit in Xcode and App Store Connect	A link to publish from Vibecode
Where the code lives	Your computer	Your Vibecode account. On Pro and Max, download it or open it over SSH.

Either way, publishing to the App Store needs an Apple Developer Program membership.

Open a Vibecode Project in Cursor over SSH

On Vibecode’s Pro and Max plans you can open a Vibecode project in Cursor over SSH and edit its code with Cursor’s own agent (Export and SSH). With the Vibecode CLI, Cursor’s agent writes the code and uses Vibecode’s sandboxes, databases, sign-in, and hosting to run and publish it. Vibecode builds iPhone, Android, and web apps. For a backend service, a library, a desktop app, or an existing codebase, use Cursor on its own. For a full side-by-side, see Vibecode vs Cursor.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cursor free?

Yes. The Free plan includes Agent, Chat, and Tab with limited use of Cursor’s own models (Grok and Composer), but not Claude, GPT, or Gemini. Paid plans start at $8/month as of October 2026.

How much does Cursor cost?

As of October 2026, Plus is $8/month, Premium $30/month, Super $100/month, and Ultra $200/month. Claude, GPT, and Gemini cost extra, at API list price. The older Pro plan ($20/month) still works for existing subscribers but isn’t sold to new customers.

Is Cursor based on VS Code?

Yes. Cursor is built on VS Code and uses the same default shortcuts. Import your extensions, themes, settings, and keybindings from Cursor Settings > General > Account > VS Code Import.

How do I add an MCP server to Cursor?

Click Add to Cursor on a server in Customize > MCPs, open the server’s install link, or add it to ~/.cursor/mcp.json. For Vibecode, open Add Vibecode to Cursor, select Install, then Authenticate.

Can Cursor build iPhone apps?

On your own, Cursor writes the Swift code and Xcode on a Mac builds and runs it. With Xcode 26.3 or later and a paid plan, Cursor’s agent can run Xcode’s builds, tests, and previews. With Vibecode connected, Vibecode builds the app on cloud Macs, so you don’t need a Mac. See Native iOS Apps.

Cursor vs Claude Code: which should I use?

Cursor is a code editor with its own agent and a choice of models: its plans cover Cursor’s own models, and Claude, GPT, and Gemini cost extra. Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent, built on Claude. It runs in your terminal and in editors such as VS Code and Cursor, and needs a paid Claude plan (Pro is $20/month). You can use both, since the Claude Code extension installs in Cursor. See How to Use Claude Code.

Can I use Claude or GPT in Cursor?

Yes, on Premium ($30/month) and above. You pay each model’s API list price from prepaid credit. Free and Plus include only Cursor’s own models.

Do I need to know how to code to use Cursor?

Not to start, but Cursor expects you to read its changes, run your project, and set up hosting yourself. For a finished iPhone app without that work, connect Vibecode, or build your first app in Vibecode.

Next Steps

Connect Vibecode to Your AI Tool

Set up Vibecode in Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, and more

How to Use Claude Code

Install, cost, and building apps with Anthropic’s agent

How to Use Codex

OpenAI’s coding agent, and building apps with it

How to Use Gemini CLI

Google’s coding agent in your terminal

Vibecode vs Cursor

An app builder and an AI code editor, side by side

Native iOS Apps

Swift apps for iPhone, built on cloud Macs

Welcome

Build Your First App

Building on Web

Vibecode in AI Assistants

Vibecode Tools

Prompt Templates

Example Projects

How to Use Cursor: Download, Pricing, and Building Apps (2026)

Cursor at a Glance

Is Cursor Free?

How to Download and Install Cursor

Import Your VS Code Settings

Install the Cursor CLI

How to Use Cursor

Tab Completion

Edit Selected Code

Rules

Pick a Model

How to Add an MCP Server to Cursor

How to Vibe Code an App with Cursor

How to Build an iPhone App with Cursor

On Your Own: Cursor and Xcode on a Mac

With Vibecode: No Mac Needed

Open a Vibecode Project in Cursor over SSH

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Steps

Connect Vibecode to Your AI Tool

How to Use Claude Code

How to Use Codex

How to Use Gemini CLI

Vibecode vs Cursor

Native iOS Apps

​Cursor at a Glance

​Is Cursor Free?

​How to Download and Install Cursor

​Import Your VS Code Settings

​Install the Cursor CLI

​How to Use Cursor

​Tab Completion

​Edit Selected Code

​Rules

​Pick a Model

​How to Add an MCP Server to Cursor

​How to Vibe Code an App with Cursor

​How to Build an iPhone App with Cursor

​On Your Own: Cursor and Xcode on a Mac

​With Vibecode: No Mac Needed

​Open a Vibecode Project in Cursor over SSH

​Frequently Asked Questions

​Next Steps

Connect Vibecode to Your AI Tool

How to Use Claude Code

How to Use Codex

How to Use Gemini CLI

Vibecode vs Cursor

Native iOS Apps

Cursor at a Glance

Is Cursor Free?

How to Download and Install Cursor

Import Your VS Code Settings

Install the Cursor CLI

How to Use Cursor

Tab Completion

Edit Selected Code

Rules

Pick a Model

How to Add an MCP Server to Cursor

How to Vibe Code an App with Cursor

How to Build an iPhone App with Cursor

On Your Own: Cursor and Xcode on a Mac

With Vibecode: No Mac Needed

Open a Vibecode Project in Cursor over SSH

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Steps