---
title: Claude Code vs Cursor
slug: claude-code-vs-cursor
url: "https://toolweight.dev/vs/claude-code-vs-cursor"
category: coding-agents
last_verified: 2026-01-15
license: CC-BY-4.0
---

# Claude Code vs Cursor

> Compared on the Coding agents field registry — 26 fields, all sourced.

## Where they differ

| Field | Claude Code | Cursor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Surface | CLI, IDE extension, web, GitHub-native | standalone editor, CLI, web, cloud delegate |
| Default model | Latest Claude Opus/Sonnet, switchable with /model | Cursor's in-house Composer model, with frontier models selectable |
| Model breadth | one vendor + custom endpoint | multi-vendor |
| Repo indexing | agentic grep | embeddings index |
| Subagents | ● | ◐ |
| BYOK | ● | ◐ |
| Token markup | ○ | ◐ |
| Positioning | Anthropic's coding agent, in your terminal and wherever else you work. | The AI code editor, built to make you extraordinarily productive. |
| First release | 2025-02-24 | 2023-03-01 |

## Every field

| Field | Claude Code | Cursor |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Surface | CLI, IDE extension, web, GitHub-native | standalone editor, CLI, web, cloud delegate |
| Default model | Latest Claude Opus/Sonnet, switchable with /model | Cursor's in-house Composer model, with frontier models selectable |
| Model breadth | one vendor + custom endpoint | multi-vendor |
| Repo indexing | agentic grep | embeddings index |
| Plan mode | ● | ● |
| Checkpoint & undo | ● | ● |
| Headless / CI | ● | ● |
| Local models | ○ | ○ |
| Where it stops | 4 | 4 |
| MCP | ● | ● |
| Subagents | ● | ◐ |
| Hooks | ● | ● |
| Skills / commands | ● | ● |
| Background agents | ● | ● |
| Opens PRs | ● | ● |
| Permissions | allowlist + OS sandbox | allowlist + OS sandbox |
| BYOK | ● | ◐ |
| Licence | proprietary | proprietary |
| Pricing model | subscription + token overage | subscription + token overage |
| Entry price (/seat/mo) | $20 /seat/mo | $20 /seat/mo |
| Token markup | ○ | ◐ |
| GitHub stars | — | — |
| Terminal-Bench (%) | — | — |
| Bench model | — | — |
| Positioning | Anthropic's coding agent, in your terminal and wherever else you work. | The AI code editor, built to make you extraordinarily productive. |
| First release | 2025-02-24 | 2023-03-01 |

## Each option

### Claude Code — 80.0 / 100
Anthropic's terminal-first agent, with IDE, web and GitHub Action surfaces.

The most complete extensibility surface of any harness here — subagents, hooks, skills and MCP all first-class — at the cost of being locked to one model vendor. If Anthropic's pricing or availability is a business risk for you, that lock is the whole argument against it.
- Terminal-native teams who want subagents and hooks without building them
- Repos where an OS sandbox is a hard requirement for unattended runs
- Anyone already paying for Max who wants the subscription to cover agent use

### Cursor — 75.5 / 100
VS Code fork with a real codebase index, background cloud agents and a CLI.

A real persistent codebase index inside the editor you review in, which is exactly what a million-line monorepo needs and what grep-based harnesses cannot fake. It is not the only index here — Windsurf and Kilo Code embed too, and Copilot and Devin read an index alongside live search — but it is the best-integrated one. You pay for it in lock-in: the index, the gateway and the agent identity are all Cursor's, and BYOK is a second-class path.
- Large monorepos where agentic grep runs out of context before it finds anything
- Teams who want to review agentic diffs in an editor rather than a terminal
- Shops wanting background PR-opening agents without wiring up CI

## Sources

| Tool | Field | Confidence | Verified | Source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Claude Code | Surface | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/overview |
| Claude Code | Model breadth | Vendor-claimed | — | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/third-party-integrations |
| Claude Code | Headless / CI | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/sdk |
| Claude Code | MCP | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/mcp |
| Claude Code | Subagents | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/sub-agents |
| Claude Code | Hooks | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/hooks |
| Claude Code | Skills / commands | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/slash-commands |
| Claude Code | Background agents | Vendor-claimed | — | https://code.claude.com/docs/en/claude-code-on-the-web |
| Claude Code | Opens PRs | Vendor-claimed | — | https://code.claude.com/docs/en/github-actions |
| Claude Code | Permissions | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.claude.com/en/docs/claude-code/iam |
| Claude Code | Pricing model | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://www.anthropic.com/pricing |
| Claude Code | Entry price | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://www.anthropic.com/pricing |
| Claude Code | Positioning | Vendor-claimed | — | https://claude.com/product/claude-code |
| Cursor | Surface | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.cursor.com |
| Cursor | Repo indexing | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://docs.cursor.com/context/codebase-indexing |
| Cursor | Pricing model | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://cursor.com/pricing |
| Cursor | Entry price | Vendor-claimed | 2026-01-15 | https://cursor.com/pricing |
| Cursor | Positioning | Vendor-claimed | — | https://cursor.com |

See the full roster: [Coding agents](https://toolweight.dev/compare/coding-agents) — 17 tools.

## Licence and attribution

Data from toolweight (https://toolweight.dev), licensed CC-BY-4.0.

- Licence: [CC-BY-4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
- Canonical HTML: https://toolweight.dev/vs/claude-code-vs-cursor
- Machine-readable: https://toolweight.dev/vs/claude-code-vs-cursor.md · https://toolweight.dev/api/v1 · https://toolweight.dev/mcp
- toolweight takes no affiliate revenue and sells no placements. Corrections: https://toolweight.dev/suggest