Cursor, built by Anysphere since 2022, forks VS Code and rebuilds the editing experience around AI from the ground up rather than adding it as a plugin, and it has become the specific editor most other AI-native coding tools in this category get measured against, in adoption, valuation, and feature parity alike.
Its Tab autocomplete predicts and applies multi-line edits across a change rather than only the next few tokens, and Composer, its agent mode, handles multi-file changes across a codebase from a single natural-language request, running tests and iterating on failures as part of the same session. Multiple underlying models are available rather than locking users to one.
The free Hobby plan covers limited agent requests, Pro costs $20 a month, and Pro+ ($60) and Ultra ($200) add more usage for heavy agent users. For a developer choosing an AI-native editor without a strong existing preference, Cursor's scale, adoption, and continuously updated feature set make it the default starting point most others in this category are compared against.
