The Last Unlimited AI Deal: How to Hack Cursor’s New Pricing
Cursor is ending its truly unlimited 'Auto' model usage on September 15, 2025. Here is how to lock in 365 days of infinite tokens before the window closes.
In the high-growth phase of a startup, you often see "irrational" pricing. Companies trade margins for market share, giving early adopters access to features that are mathematically unsustainable in the long run. Cursor has been the gold standard for this with its "Auto" model selection, providing truly unlimited usage for a flat monthly fee.
That era is officially ending.
Starting on the first billing cycle after September 15, 2025, Cursor will begin counting "Auto" model requests against your monthly fast completion credits. For most power users at FAANG or high-growth startups, this is a significant shift in how we approach our daily workflows.
The One-Year Loophole
There is a specific way to delay this change for an entire year. If you switch to an annual plan before the September 15 deadline, your next billing cycle won't trigger for 12 months.
This means you can effectively lock in today's unlimited usage rates for all of 2026. While the rest of the industry moves toward metered seats and token-based billing, you will have a full year of unconstrained development.
Why This Matters
Right now, no other AI company offers truly unlimited usage of frontier models. OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google all have "hard" quotas or aggressive throttling that kicks in once you hit a certain threshold. Even with a Pro subscription, you eventually hit a wall where the model stops responding or downgrades to a slower version.
Cursor's current model is a terrible deal for their bottom line. They are paying the inference costs for every single line of code you generate, regardless of how much you use it. For a Staff Engineer who might go through thousands of iterations a day, Cursor is likely losing money on that seat.
The Bottom Line
This is a gift for consumers and a necessary correction for the company. As the cost of compute stays high, these "unlimited" windows are closing across the board.
If you are a professional who spends eight hours a day in an IDE, the ROI on an annual plan is massive. Get in on this while you still can. Once the September 15 deadline passes, the era of "all you can eat" AI coding is over.