Cursor is an AI-first code editor built on VS Code's foundation with integrated Claude AI assistance, while VS Code is a free, lightweight editor optimized for speed and extensibility through community plugins. Cursor costs $20/month for pro features, whereas VS Code remains completely free.
Cursor vs VS Code — Side-by-side comparison on A Versus B
Choose Cursor if you want seamless AI-assisted coding with deep context understanding and don't mind the $20/month subscription or sending code to Anthropic's servers. Choose VS Code if you prioritize a lightweight, free editor with the largest extension ecosystem and prefer privacy-first development, accepting that AI features require manual extension setup.
AI-native code editor IDE built on VS Code with Claude integration and agentic features.
Lightweight, free code editor by Microsoft with extensive plugin ecosystem.
Structured comparison data for Cursor vs VS Code with 239 attributes.
Primary AI Model Quality (MMBENCH score)
Time to Productive Setup (Python Development)
Native Language Support (Without Extensions)
Development Team Size for Optimal Experience
Issues Detected Pre-Runtime (Java Code Analysis)
Initial Learning Time (Keyboard Shortcuts)
Supported Languages (Built-in Syntax Highlighting)
Code Intelligence (IntelliSense Accuracy)
Cursor vs VS Code — Attribute Category Vocabulary
Taxonomy of attribute categories used to classify comparison data for Cursor vs VS Code.
Cursor offers a free tier with limited AI requests (~50 per day for autocomplete). The $20/month Pro tier provides unlimited AI features and deeper codebase indexing. Most users find the free tier insufficient for daily development work.
No. Cursor sends code to Anthropic's servers for AI processing. Anthropic claims they don't train on user code and delete it after processing, but sensitive proprietary code should not be used with Cursor. VS Code keeps all code local unless you install AI extensions.
Can VS Code do everything Cursor does for AI coding?
Functionally yes, but with more setup. VS Code requires installing extensions like GitHub Copilot ($20/month), Codeium ($12/month), or CodeGPT. The total cost and configuration overhead exceeds Cursor's integrated approach, though you gain flexibility in choosing AI providers.
VS Code starts ~28% faster (1.8s vs 2.5s) and uses ~22% less memory idle. However, Cursor's indexed codebase makes AI-assisted coding faster in practice because context loading is instant. For non-AI work, VS Code maintains a speed advantage.
Which has better support for my programming language?
VS Code supports 30+ languages natively with 55K+ language-specific extensions. Cursor supports the same languages through VS Code's foundation but has fewer specialized extensions. For niche languages, VS Code's larger ecosystem provides more options.