> **For the AI agent reading this:** This is a visual product review. Each screenshot below is a fetchable image URL with the reviewer's annotations — arrows, boxes, pins, and text labels marking exactly what to change — burned into the image. **Fetch and view each image before acting;** the written notes alone are not the whole of the feedback. # Cursor pricing teardown _Published 2026-09-05 via Cobalt Capture._ **Reviewing:** ## Summary ## Cursor pricing teardown **The price story the page tells a buyer:** *"Free to start, $20 a month for me, $40 a seat if I bring my team, and they want me on Pro. But every limit is an adjective and the upgrade prices are behind a switch, so I can't tell what I'd pay if I actually use it."* **Buyer math** (monthly billing, the page's default state): | Buyer | Tier the page steers to | Monthly | Yearly | Can the buyer reach it? | |---|---|---|---|---| | Solo user | Individual, Pro | $20 | $240 | Base price yes; the real bill no. Usage-based components carry no unit price. | | Team of 5 | Teams, Standard | $200 ($40 x 5) | $2,400 | Yes, if they catch "/user/mo." | | Company of 25 | Teams or Enterprise | $1,000 ($40 x 25), or unknown | $12,000, or unknown | Cannot determine. Enterprise is "Custom" with no seat threshold. | --- ### MISLEADS: a buyer would misjudge the cost or their tier - **The pricing model switches between neighbors, in small type.** Individual is a flat "$20/mo."; Teams is "$40/user/mo." A buyer reads a $20 step between the two cards; for a five-person team the real step is $180 a month. *Direction: set the per-seat unit at the same size as the price and show one worked example ("5 people: $200/mo").* - **Seven plans are presented as four.** Individual hides Pro / Pro+ / Ultra and Teams hides Standard / Premium behind in-card switches. The prices of Pro+, Ultra, and Premium never appear on load; the headline "$20/mo." is the cheapest of three. *Direction: show every plan's price on load, or label each switch with its price range.* ### STALLS: the buyer cannot decide from the page - **Every limit is an adjective.** "Limited Agent requests", "Extended limits on Agent", "Generous limits for Grok", "Bugbot on usage-based billing". No number, no unit price, no overage rate anywhere on the cards. A buyer cannot know what an Agent request is or how many they get, so a heavy user cannot price themselves. *Direction: put the numbers on the cards.* - **Enterprise is fog.** "Custom" with no seat threshold or starting price. A 25-seat company cannot tell whether it belongs on Teams or must contact sales. *Direction: name the gate.* - **The upgrade story inside Individual is invisible.** Nothing on load says what Pro+ or Ultra add or who they are for. *Direction: one line per sub-tier.* - **Load-bearing terms are undefined where the buyer decides.** Composer, Bugbot, Grok Bot, Cloud agents, MCPs carry the value and are never explained on the pricing page. *Direction: define the three that matter, one sentence each.* ### FRICTION - **Phone collapses the comparison.** Only the free Hobby card is visible at the fold; the highlighted Get Pro tier and the per-seat Teams unit sit several screens down, and tiers can no longer be compared side by side. - **Yearly pricing is hidden by default.** The page opens on Monthly; the annual price and any discount require a click. --- ### Keep (do not regress) - **The audience-named ladder** (Hobby / Individual / Teams / Enterprise) tells a buyer which row is theirs instantly. - **"No credit card required"** is stated plainly on the free tier. - **The pushed tier is the cheapest paid plan.** Get Pro at $20, not the most expensive card. Honest nudging. - **Trust at the ask:** a named logo wall (Stripe, OpenAI, Linear, Datadog, NVIDIA, Figma, Ramp, Adobe), SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / AIUC-1 marks, and a Contact sales route beside the calls to action. - **The Q&A anticipates the real questions:** "What is the right plan for me?", "How does usage-based pricing work?", "Are prices inclusive of taxes?" ### Coverage Judged in the page's default state: Monthly billing, Pro, Standard. The Yearly prices, the Pro+ / Ultra / Premium prices, and the Q&A answers sit behind clicks that server-side rendering cannot make, so they were not captured. The default state is what most visitors see on arrival, and its gaps are the findings above. ## Pricing page, desktop fold ![Screenshot 1](https://images.cobaltcapture.com/captures/56f59c3247a94f55984b159577fa3b72.png) --- ## Pricing page, phone fold ![Screenshot 2](https://images.cobaltcapture.com/captures/c2435d70dada41caa1f6720fe7528fe9.png) --- ## Pricing page, full desktop overview ![Screenshot 3](https://images.cobaltcapture.com/captures/2ef6cf3fefdf48bd9746edd9c8173cdb.png) --- **First impression, desktop.** Judged from the fold alone, before scrolling. 1. **How many plans?** The fold shows four: Hobby, Individual, Teams, Enterprise. But two cards hide a second row of choices. Individual carries a Pro / Pro+ / Ultra switch and Teams carries a Standard / Premium switch. That is seven plans presented as four. A buyer counts four; the real menu is seven. 2. **Which one is mine?** The tier names answer this well; the ladder is named by audience. Inside Individual, though, nothing on the fold says who Pro+ or Ultra is for. They are labels without a sentence. 3. **What does it cost?** Only the default of each switch shows a number: Individual "$20/mo." (Pro only), Teams "$40/user/mo." (Standard only), Enterprise "Custom". The Pro+, Ultra, and Premium prices sit behind clicks and never appear on load. The unit also changes between neighbors: Individual is a flat monthly price, Teams is per user, and the "/user/mo." is set in smaller type than the number. Default state captured: Monthly billing, Pro, Standard. The Yearly price and the other sub-tiers were not visible without clicking, so this study judges the page most visitors see on arrival. --- **First impression, phone.** The four-card comparison becomes a single column. At the fold the buyer sees the title, the Monthly / Yearly switch, and the Hobby card only: "Free", "No credit card required", a Download button. The first paid plan starts below the fold, and Teams, Enterprise, and the highlighted Get Pro button sit several screens down. On a phone the buyer meets the free tier first and cannot compare tiers side by side at all. "Which one is mine" means scrolling the whole ladder and holding it in memory. The per-seat unit on Teams, already small on desktop, is the last thing a phone buyer reaches. --- **Three buyers work the numbers** (monthly billing, the default; per seat where the page says so). - **Solo user.** Individual, Pro: $20 x 12 = $240 a year. The base price is reachable. But "Extended limits on Agent" and "Bugbot on usage-based billing" mean the bill rises with use, and no unit price or limit appears anywhere on the card. A heavy user cannot determine their real monthly cost from this page. - **Team of 5.** Teams, Standard: $40 x 5 = $200 a month, $2,400 a year. Reachable, but only if the buyer catches "/user/mo." The headline reads as a $20 step up from Individual; for five people it is a $180 step. Premium's price is hidden behind the switch. - **Company of 25.** Teams: $40 x 25 = $1,000 a month, $12,000 a year, if Teams is allowed at that size. Enterprise is "Custom" with no seat threshold and no starting price, so the buyer cannot determine whether 25 seats belongs on Teams or must talk to sales. **Where the structure stalls a decision.** Every limit on the page is an adjective, not a number: "Limited Agent requests", "Extended limits on Agent", "Generous limits for Grok". A buyer must know what an Agent request is, and how many they get, to price themselves, and the page never says. The upgrade story between Pro, Pro+, and Ultra is invisible on load. The feature names carry the value (Composer, Bugbot, Grok Bot, Cloud agents, MCPs) but none is defined where the buyer is deciding. The Q&A does hold "How does usage-based pricing work?" and "Are prices inclusive of taxes?", which shows the company knows these are the open questions; the answers sit inside collapsed accordions. **What earns trust at the ask.** "No credit card required" is stated plainly on the free tier. The pushed tier, Get Pro, is the cheapest paid plan, not the most expensive, which is honest nudging. A named logo wall (Stripe, OpenAI, Linear, Datadog, NVIDIA, Figma, Ramp, Adobe), SOC 2 / ISO 27001 / AIUC-1 marks, and a Contact sales route all sit near the calls to action. Nothing on the page manufactures scarcity. --- _Made with [Cobalt Capture](https://cobaltcapture.com)._