Getting Started with Cursor

Cursor is a fork of VS Code with built-in AI models. It ships with GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet and Opus, Gemini 2.5, and a few proprietary Cursor-tuned models, all accessible from the same editor. This page covers install, first launch, the main AI surfaces, and the free vs paid tier limits as of April 2026.

What Cursor is

Cursor looks and feels like VS Code because under the hood it is VS Code. The team takes each VS Code release, applies a patch set, and ships a new build. Most VS Code extensions install and run without changes. The added value is the AI layer: Tab autocomplete that reads your whole file, Cmd+K inline edits, the Composer agent for multi-file work, and a sidebar Chat.

If you already know VS Code, the learning curve is small. If you come from JetBrains or Neovim, expect a week of friction before the keybindings feel natural.

Download and install

Go to cursor.com and click Download. Builds are available for macOS 11+, Windows 10+, and Linux (AppImage, deb, rpm). The installer is about 200 MB.

On macOS the app lives at /Applications/Cursor.app. On Windows it installs to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\cursor. On Linux the AppImage runs directly, or the deb and rpm packages install to /usr/bin/cursor.

First launch takes 10-15 seconds while Cursor sets up the embedded VS Code, pulls your telemetry preferences, and offers to import settings from an existing VS Code install.

Importing VS Code settings

On first launch Cursor shows an import dialog. It can copy across:

• All installed extensions
• Keyboard shortcuts
• User settings.json
• Color themes and icon themes
• Workspace trust state

Accept the import unless you want a clean slate. The import is a file copy, not a sync, so later changes in VS Code do not propagate to Cursor. If you use Settings Sync in VS Code, sign in to the same account from Cursor to keep both editors aligned.

Setting up your AI model

Open Settings (Cmd+, on macOS, Ctrl+, on Windows) and scroll to the Models section. You see three categories:

• Recommended: Cursor Small (fast, free), Claude Sonnet 4.5, GPT-4o
• All models: Claude Opus 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, o1, DeepSeek V3, and more
• Custom: your own OpenAI or Anthropic API keys

For the first session the defaults are fine. Cursor picks Sonnet 4.5 for Composer and its own small model for Tab completions. You can switch per-feature later.

Free vs Pro vs Business

The free tier includes:

• 2000 Cursor Tab completions per month
• 50 slow Premium requests (GPT-4o, Sonnet, Gemini) per month
• Unlimited Cursor Small requests
• 14-day Pro trial on signup

Pro is $20 per month and includes:

• Unlimited Cursor Tab
• 500 fast Premium requests per month
• Unlimited slow Premium requests after the fast quota runs out
• Access to every model in the catalog

Business is $40 per seat per month and adds org admin controls, SSO, privacy mode enforced across the team, and usage analytics.

Most individual developers hit the free tier wall within the first week of heavy use. A single Composer session that reads 15 files and makes edits can burn 20-30 premium requests, so 50 per month ends fast.

Your first Tab autocomplete

Open any file in a project. Start typing a function signature:

function calculateTax(amount: number, rate

Cursor suggests a completion in ghost text, often filling in the parameter type, the body, and the return type together. Press Tab to accept. Press Escape to reject.

The magic of Cursor Tab is that it sees nearby files too. If calculateTax was already defined in another file with a specific signature, Cursor will match that signature rather than invent a new one.

Your first Cmd+K edit

Select a block of code. Press Cmd+K on macOS or Ctrl+K on Windows. A small prompt box appears below the selection. Type what you want changed:

convert this to async/await
add JSDoc comments
extract the validation into a helper function

The model returns a diff inline. Accept with Cmd+Enter or reject with Escape. Cmd+K is the right tool for local edits that stay in one file.

Your first Composer session

Press Cmd+I on macOS or Ctrl+I on Windows. The Composer panel opens on the right side. This is the agent interface: it can read multiple files, edit them, and run terminal commands.

Type a task:

Add a dark mode toggle to the navbar. Use the existing theme context in src/contexts/theme.tsx.

Composer reads relevant files, shows a plan, then proposes edits as a diff for each file. Review the diffs, accept the ones you want, and reject the rest. For a small feature like this expect 2-4 file changes and a minute of wall time.

Keyboard shortcuts on day one

The seven shortcuts that matter most:

1. Tab - accept autocomplete
2. Cmd+K / Ctrl+K - inline edit
3. Cmd+I / Ctrl+I - open Composer
4. Cmd+L / Ctrl+L - open Chat
5. Cmd+Shift+P / Ctrl+Shift+P - command palette (VS Code inherited)
6. Cmd+P / Ctrl+P - quick file open
7. Cmd+J / Ctrl+J - toggle terminal

The full shortcut reference covers another 30 bindings. Those seven will get you through the first week.

When you need Pro

Signals that the free tier is holding you back:

• You see the "slow queue" warning on every other Composer run
• You hit the 50 premium request limit before the month is halfway done
• You want to use Claude Opus or GPT-4o consistently rather than fall back to Cursor Small
• You run Composer in agent mode, which consumes 3-5x more requests than Chat

For daily professional use Pro pays back the $20 within the first day of saved time.

First-week workflow

A realistic pattern for your first five working days with Cursor:

• Day 1: open an existing project, accept 20-30 Tab completions, try two Cmd+K edits.
• Day 2: use Chat (Cmd+L) to ask questions about the codebase without editing anything.
• Day 3: run your first Composer task on a small feature or bug fix. Review every diff carefully.
• Day 4: write a .cursorrules file at the repo root with 5-10 project conventions.
• Day 5: add a custom model via Settings > Models if you want to use your own API key.

By the end of week one you will have a feel for which task goes to which surface. Rule of thumb: Tab for keystrokes, Cmd+K for sentences of change, Composer for paragraphs of change.

Common first-day mistakes

• Running Composer on the free tier for a big refactor. Burns the premium quota in one session.
• Skipping the VS Code settings import, then spending an hour reinstalling extensions.
• Using Chat when Composer is the right tool, because Chat cannot actually edit files.
• Ignoring the cursor rules file and letting the AI invent conventions that do not match the codebase.
• Staying on Cursor Small for complex tasks because it is free, then getting frustrated with the output quality.

Where to go next

Once the install feels settled, pick one upgrade at a time. Write a .cursorrules file so the AI stops reinventing your conventions. Read the Composer guide for the agent mode flow. Set up a custom model endpoint if your employer requires it. The rest of the Cursor docs on this site cover each of those in depth.