How Cursor Pricing Works: Free, Pro Overage, BYOK Savings

Query date: 2026-09-07 (Taipei time). Cursor's plans and billing change very often (in 2025 it moved from a request-count model to a usage-based model). Every figure in this article is sourced. Before you buy, check the current display on cursor.com/pricing.

Cursor's cost comes down to three questions: Do you pay a monthly fee, how much usage does it include, and how is overage billed? Taiwan users also face a fourth: will your credit card go through, and can your company expense it? This article covers all of them, and ends with a cost-saving switch many people do not know about: using your own key.

Cursor Plans at a Glance (query date 2026-09-07)

The key sentence on the official pricing page: "Each plan includes a certain amount of model usage. After that, you can keep using it, billed on-demand." In other words, Pro's US$20 is not "unlimited." It is "includes a set amount of usage," and anything beyond that is billed separately. This is where most people get surprised by their bill.

How much usage each plan actually includes, and the overage unit price, are adjusted over time on the official page. This article does not copy those numbers; check the pricing page directly.

How to Estimate Your Cost: Three Types of Users

① Writes code occasionally and mainly uses Tab completion → The free Hobby plan is usually enough. Upgrade only when you hit the Agent limit.

② Uses Agent to build features every day → Pro. The simplest way to tell whether you are over the allowance: check the usage page in settings. If you stay within the included amount for two months in a row, you do not need to upgrade to Pro+.

③ Runs long Agent tasks all day with multiple windows open → This group is the most likely to go over. Instead of upgrading to Ultra, read the next section first: Agent's model fees can be billed to your own account, not Cursor's.

Cost-Saving Switch: Use Your Own Key (BYOK)

Cursor lets you enter your own model key under Settings → Models. Once you do, model fees for Agent and chat are paid with your key and no longer count against your Cursor plan's usage. This matters most for people who often go over, because model usage is pay-as-you-go with no monthly cap issue.

Setup steps (cross-checked between the official docs and third-party tutorials, query date 2026-09-07):

1. Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + J to open settings → Models
2. Find the OpenAI section and turn on the toggle
3. Enter https://bazaarlink.ai/api/v1 as the OpenAI Base URL (this is required; if you leave it blank, requests go to the official OpenAI endpoint and your key will not match)
4. Paste your BazaarLink key in OpenAI API Key (starts with sk-bl-, create one here)
5. Click Verify. If the model you want is not in the list, type the model ID directly in the model picker, for example anthropic/claude-sonnet-5, google/gemini-3.1-pro-preview, or deepseek/deepseek-v4-pro

Three limitations to know up front (official docs quotes or official forum replies):

• Tab completion does not use custom keys: "Custom API keys only work with chat models. Tab completion continues using Cursor's built-in models." So Tab usage is still billed to Cursor.
• Only one Base URL can be entered, and model parameters cannot be adjusted: The official forum reply describes current BYOK as "intentionally thin," and all model traffic still passes through Cursor's backend.
• The zero data retention policy does not apply: When you use your own key, data handling follows the privacy policy of the provider you chose.

The official docs do not explicitly say whether a paid plan is needed to use BYOK, though third-party tutorials say the free version can also be configured. We suggest trying it on the free Hobby plan first and deciding whether to upgrade once you know it works.

Two Taiwan-Specific Issues

Credit card declined: Cursor is a US company and bills in US dollars. Some Taiwan credit cards disable overseas online transactions by default, or are blocked by bank risk controls. The free Hobby plan has another advantage here: it requires no card. With the free plan plus your own key, you can avoid the card problem entirely.

Company expense reporting: Cursor provides English receipts, not Taiwan unified invoices. Searches like "Cursor invoice / tax ID" are almost unheard of in Taiwan, which suggests most people simply absorb the cost. If you do need to expense it, BYOK offers one route: model fees are purchased through a Taiwan platform, which can issue a unified invoice with a tax ID (BazaarLink is an AI API platform run by a Taiwan company, priced in TWD, with model unit prices identical to the original providers). Cursor's own monthly fee is handled separately.

Student Plan

The official student page (query date 2026-09-07) only says that "all students can start for free" and mentions that campus events may offer upgrade deals. It does not describe how Taiwan schools are verified. If you have a .edu.tw email, apply directly on the student page; this article does not guess the outcome.

Cursor vs Claude Code: Different Cost Logic

Many people compare the two. The fundamental cost difference: Claude Code is tied to a Claude subscription or API (billed per token); Cursor is tied to its own plan (included usage plus overage). If your usage is "letting the Agent run for long periods," both may go over, but Cursor lets you move model fees out through BYOK, while Claude Code on a subscription means waiting for the reset once you hit the limit. For details, see How Claude Code Fees Work.

Sources and Query Log

• Cursor pricing page (plans and "on-demand usage" explanation; query date 2026-09-07)
• Cursor official docs: Bring your own API key (supported providers, Tab not supported, data retention notes; query date 2026-09-07)
• Cursor official forum: When will Cursor fully support BYOK? (official reply "intentionally thin," single Base URL; 2026-06-30)
• Cursor student page (query date 2026-09-07)
• Third-party setup tutorial (field names "OpenAI Base URL," "OpenAI API Key," and "Verify" cross-checked): runapi.ai (2026-06-23)
• Further reading: How Claude Code Fees Work, How Much Codex Costs, How to Get an AI Subscription Refund in Taiwan

TWD billing · Taiwan invoices · leading AI models · OpenAI-compatible API