Staxly

Cursor vs Claude Code

AI-native code editor — VS Code fork with deep AI integration
vs. Anthropic's terminal-native coding agent — built for deep codebase work

Cursor website ↗Claude Code ↗

Pricing tiers

Cursor

Hobby (Free)
Free. Limited Agent requests + Tab completions. No credit card.
Free
Pro
$20/month. Extended Agent limits, frontier models, MCPs + skills + hooks, cloud agents.
$20/mo
Teams
$40/user/month. Shared chats + commands + rules, centralized billing, RBAC, SAML/OIDC SSO.
$40/mo
Pro+ (Recommended)
$60/month. Everything in Pro + 3x usage on OpenAI, Claude, Gemini.
$60/mo
Ultra
$200/month. 20x usage multiplier + priority access to new features.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. Pooled usage, SCIM, AI code tracking API + audit logs, priority support.
Custom
Cursor website ↗

Claude Code

API (pay-per-token)
Pay-per-token via Anthropic API. Sonnet: $3/$15 per 1M in/out. Opus: $15/$75. Best for heavy/team use.
$0 base (usage-based)
Claude Pro
$20/mo. Includes limited Claude Code usage via subscription (Sonnet). Heaviest users will hit caps.
$20/mo
Claude Team
$30/user/mo. Shared workspace, admin controls, priority support.
$30/mo
Claude Max
$200/mo. Higher Claude Code quotas + priority access to Opus.
$200/mo
Enterprise
Custom. SSO, audit logs, SOC 2, dedicated support, HIPAA-eligible.
Custom
Claude Code ↗

Free-tier quotas head-to-head

Comparing hobby on Cursor vs api-pay-per-use on Claude Code.

MetricCursorClaude Code
No overlapping quota metrics for these tiers.

Features

Cursor · 15 features

  • Agent Mode — Autonomous multi-file editing + tool use. Runs terminal commands with confirmati…
  • Background Agents — Run agents in the cloud to tackle longer tasks async.
  • BugBot (PR reviews) — AI reviewer on GitHub PRs.
  • Chat (⌘L) — Conversational chat with codebase context.
  • Cmd-K Inline Edit — Highlight code + ⌘K → natural language edit instruction.
  • Codebase Indexing — Embedding-based semantic search over your codebase.
  • Composer — Multi-file edit sessions with full context.
  • .cursorrules / Project Rules — Custom system prompts per project to steer the AI.
  • MCP Support — Add Model Context Protocol servers to extend agent capabilities.
  • Privacy Mode — Data never used for training; zero-retention routing.
  • Skills & Hooks — User-defined skills library + lifecycle hooks.
  • Tab (multi-line completion) — Predictive completions including next-edit suggestions.
  • Team Shared Context — Share chats, commands, rules across team.
  • VS Code Extension Compat — Most VS Code extensions work via the marketplace.
  • YOLO Mode — Auto-approve all agent actions (for trusted workflows).

Claude Code · 16 features

  • Background Tasks — Long-running processes.
  • Claude Agent SDK — Build custom agents on same primitives.
  • claude CLI — Terminal command.
  • Git Worktrees — Isolated worktree per session.
  • Hooks — Lifecycle shell commands.
  • IDE Extensions — VS Code + JetBrains + Zed.
  • MCP Client — Connect any MCP server.
  • Memory (CLAUDE.md) — Persistent per-project instructions.
  • Native Tools — Bash, Read, Write, Edit, Grep, Glob, WebFetch.
  • Plan Mode — Dry-run — Claude shows plan without executing.
  • Prompt Caching — 90% discount on repeated context.
  • Sandbox Modes — Safe execution of risky commands.
  • Slash Commands — User-defined workflows.
  • Task Tool (subagents) — Spawn parallel Claude subagents.
  • TodoWrite Tool — Internal task tracking.
  • WebSearch + WebFetch — Live internet access.

Developer interfaces

KindCursorClaude Code
CLICursor CLIclaude CLI
SDK—Claude Agent SDK
MCPCursor MCP supportMCP Client (built-in)
OTHERCursor Desktop App, Cursor Rules (.cursorrules), Privacy ModeClaude Code Web, GitHub/PR Bridge, Hooks System, JetBrains Plugin, Slash Commands, VS Code Extension
Staxly is an independent catalog of developer platforms. Some links to Cursor and Claude Code may be affiliate links — Staxly may earn a commission if you sign up through them, at no extra cost to you. Pricing is verified against vendor pages at publication time — reconfirm before buying.

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