Cursor vs Claude Code: an editor and an agent

Cursor and Claude Code get compared as if they were the same kind of tool. They aren’t. Cursor is an editor, a full IDE, with agents and models built in and billed by Cursor. Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent, which you run in a terminal, in the Claude desktop app or on the web, on your Claude plan. Which one is “better” depends on whether you want to write code with help, or hand a task to an agent and review what comes back. They also combine: Claude Code runs inside Cursor.

I used Cursor for a few months, on its Pro plan, and I don’t use it anymore. I’ve built with Claude Code for about a year and a half. Cursor keeps changing, so the facts about it on this page come from its own pricing, docs and changelog, and every one links to its source.

The short answer

	Cursor	Claude Code
What it is	An IDE with agents	A coding agent: CLI, desktop, web, mobile
Models	Several, billed by Cursor	Claude only
Individual price	Free; Plus $8; Premium $30; Super $100; Ultra $200 (pricing)	Included in Claude Pro, $20 ($17 billed yearly), and Max, starting at $100 (pricing)
Team price	Teams from $30 per user	Team: standard seat $25 ($20 yearly), premium $125 ($100 yearly)
Your own API key	Works for chat models; Tab still uses Cursor’s models (API keys)	Runs on your Claude plan, or on API billing
Parallel agents	Many at once: local, in worktrees, in the cloud or over SSH (3.0)	Subagents, agent view, agent teams (experimental), dynamic workflows and Projects; --worktree for your own sessions (agents)
Several runs, one picked	Parallel runs with an automatic recommendation (2.2)	No built-in pick between runs
Code review	Bugbot on pull requests, usage-based	/code-review in a session on any plan; Ultrareview; Code Review on GitHub (Team and Enterprise) (compare)
Platforms	Mac, Windows, Linux, web, iOS (beta)	CLI on Mac, Windows, Linux; Desktop on Mac and Windows, Linux in beta; web, iOS, Android

Cursor: the editor that runs agents

Cursor is an IDE first. Since version 3.0 (April 2, 2026) it can “run many agents in parallel across repos and environments”: on your machine, in git worktrees, in the cloud or over SSH (changelog 3.0). Since 2.2 (December 10, 2025) it evaluates parallel runs of a task by itself and recommends the best one, with a comment explaining why (changelog 2.2).

It also has cloud agents, Projects with a coordinator agent that plans and delegates (in beta since September 10, 2026), an iOS app in public beta on paid plans since June 29, 2026, and Bugbot for pull request reviews (changelog, iOS).

On price, as of October 22, 2026: Free, Plus at $8 a month, Premium at $30, Super at $100 and Ultra at $200 for individuals, and Teams from $30 per user (pricing). The models are billed by Cursor. Your own API key works for chat models only; Tab keeps using Cursor’s (API keys). Bugbot is billed on usage, and Cursor says the average run costs between $1.00 and $1.50 (Bugbot billing).

Where Cursor is clearly ahead: it is an editor. Tab completion, editing by hand with the agent beside you, a diff view in the same window, and a choice of models from several vendors, under one bill.

That’s where I found it better too. You install it and it works, with nothing to set up first. And its editor and diff view are better than what Claude Code gives you.

Claude Code: the agent that lives in your terminal

Claude Code is Anthropic’s coding agent: a CLI, the Code tab of the Claude desktop app, cloud sessions on the web, the Claude app on iOS and Android, plus Slack and GitHub Actions (platforms). It’s included in every paid Claude plan: Pro at $20 a month ($17 billed yearly), Max starting at $100, and Team at $25 for a standard seat or $125 for a premium one ($20 and $100 billed yearly) (pricing).

It has caught up on parallel work. Anthropic lists five ways to run several tasks at once: subagents inside one session, agent view, agent teams (experimental and off by default), dynamic workflows that run many subagents and cross-check them, and Projects (run agents in parallel). The CLI has --worktree since version 2.1.49 (February 2026), and the desktop app has a Worktree switch per session (worktrees). There’s an agent view with “what’s running, what needs your input, and what’s done” (research preview), and Projects, in public beta on Pro and Max (agent view, Projects).

It has plan mode; in the desktop app, Auto-fix for failing checks and Merge when ready, which turns on GitHub’s auto-merge; cloud sessions; and scheduled tasks, formerly routines, in research preview (desktop, scheduled tasks). Its rules and know-how live in CLAUDE.md, skills, plugins and hooks.

What it won’t do is mix vendors. Anthropic’s docs are explicit: “In every approach the workers are Claude sessions. To involve a different tool, expose it to Claude as an MCP server.” (agents).

A review in your own session is free: /code-review runs on your branch “on any plan” (Code Review). Deeper reviews are paid on top. Ultrareview gives Pro and Max three free runs, then typically costs $5 to $25 in usage credits a run (Ultrareview). Code Review on GitHub is for Team and Enterprise and is billed on the tokens it uses, with no flat price per review (Code Review costs).

Where Claude Code is ahead, for me: the agent itself. I like how it plans, and its terminal output tells me what it’s doing and what it did. Its habits live in files I keep with the project. After a year and a half, the skills and memory I’ve built around it matter more to me than any single model’s quirks.

There was no single moment when I left Cursor. I moved over gradually, for the terminal, for the way Claude Code plans, and for costs and limits.

Cost: a subscription you have, or usage you buy

The billing model is the real difference for heavy use. Claude Code draws on the Claude plan you already pay for, within its usage limits. Cursor bills its own usage, with its own plans and usage-based extras such as Bugbot. Neither is cheap at full speed: Cursor’s top individual plan is $200 a month, and Claude Max starts at $100.

For a while I paid for both, Cursor and a Claude plan. Costs and limits were one of the reasons I ended up keeping only the Claude plan.

Using both

The two don’t exclude each other. Anthropic’s VS Code extension for Claude Code has an “Install for Cursor” link in its docs, and the claude CLI runs in Cursor’s integrated terminal like in any other (VS Code extension). You read and edit in the IDE while the agent does the long work, and Claude Code’s usage stays on your Claude plan.

That’s how I used them: Cursor as the editor, Claude Code in its integrated terminal. It worked well.

Which one I’d recommend

Claude Code. If a friend asked me where to start, I’d say Claude Code, and I’d say the same to a team. The reasons are the ones that moved me: the terminal, how it plans, and costs and limits.

Cursor is quicker to get going, and its editor and diff view are better. If those matter most to you, you don’t have to choose: use Cursor as the editor and run Claude Code in its terminal, the way I did.

Where Plyloft fits

Plyloft sits beside your editor, not instead of it. It runs Claude Code and Codex, the official CLIs on your own Claude and ChatGPT plans, on a board of cards: one AI builds in the card’s own worktree, and when you press Finish and check, your checks run and the other AI reviews read-only, with findings under the lines they name. Then you ship. It runs on Mac and on Windows 11, 64-bit (x64), and is free for one card building at a time.

If what you like in Cursor’s parallel runs is two answers to pick from, Plyloft’s Build with both has Claude and Codex build the same card side by side, on your own plans (Pro, €9 a month, and Team). For how the two agents compare, see Codex vs Claude Code; for what else the app does, the features.

Plyloft is independent and not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI or Cursor.

If you want Claude Code and Codex working together beside your editor, download Plyloft and try it free.