Cursor vs Poolside — Pricing, Plans, and Verified Costs (2026)
Cursor starts at $20/mo. Poolside uses custom pricing — request a quote to compare.
How pricing works
These two tools don't price the same way, so the headline numbers below aren't directly comparable until you plug in your own volume.
- Cursor (Hybrid) — Cursor is hybrid: a fixed subscription from $20/mo plus metered usage on top (Pro). Your real bill moves with volume, not seat count.
- Poolside (Per Usage) — Poolside bills purely on usage. There is no fixed per-seat fee, so the monthly cost depends entirely on how much you consume.
Per-minute, per-credit and per-token rates exclude any downstream model, speech or telephony costs unless the vendor states otherwise.
AI-first code editor built on VS Code, and the reference product in the AI-coding category. Every paid plan includes a credit pool equal to the subscription price, consumed by AI operations at underlying LLM token cost. Pricing: Hobby free, Pro $20/mo, Pro+ $60/mo, Ultra $200/mo, Teams $40/user/mo, Enterprise custom. Annual billing ~20% off. Powers Anysphere's growth to $500M+ ARR.
Autonomous AI coding startup building custom foundation models trained specifically for software engineering. Enterprise-only, all pricing custom-quoted. Reported deals target Fortune 500 engineering orgs at multi-million-dollar annual contracts. No self-serve or public tier. Raised $500M+ across seed and Series A, positioning as a direct competitor to Cognition (Devin) and GitHub Copilot Enterprise.
All plans compared
| Tier role | Plan | Cursor monthly | Cursor annual | Poolside monthly | Poolside annual |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free / starter | Hobby / — | Free | Free | — | — |
| Entry paid | Pro / — | $20 | $16 | — | — |
| Mid tier | Pro+ / — | $60 | $48 | — | — |
| Pro / power | Ultra / — | $200 | $160 | — | — |
| Teams | Teams / — | $40 | $32 | — | — |
| Enterprise | Enterprise | Custom | Custom | Custom | Custom |
Tier names differ across vendors. Rows are aligned by tier role, not name. Full tier structures on each tool's page.
What each is best for
Cursor is worth it if… developers who want an AI-native editor where autocomplete, chat, and agent-mode Composer feel like extensions of the IDE — not bolted on. The credit-pool model is the interesting pricing innovation: your $20 subscription IS your $20 of AI usage, so heavy Claude Opus users burn faster than lighter GPT-5 mini users.
Poolside is worth it if… Poolside is only worth engaging with if you're a Fortune 500 engineering org considering a strategic AI coding partnership — typical deal size is $1M+/year. The pitch is a foundation model trained end-to-end for code with your data pipeline embedded.
Bottom line: Choose based on how you want to pay — Cursor is hybrid, Poolside is per usage.
Choose Cursor over Poolside if…
Choose Cursor if…
- You want the most mature agentic editor with the deepest model line-up.
- You're a developer who lives in the editor and wants long-context, multi-file edits.
- You want predictable seat pricing with usage-based headroom when you need it.
Choose Poolside if…
- You want to pay only for actual usage (per usage, custom pricing).
- You match the profile Poolside is built for: only worth engaging with if you're a Fortune 500 engineering org considering a strategic AI coding partnership — typical deal size is $1M+/year.
- You need a general-purpose developer & infrastructure option rather than a vertical-specific one.
At a glance
| Cursor | Poolside | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Entry price | $20/mo | Custom |
| Enterprise available | Yes | Yes |
| Pricing model | Hybrid | Per Usage |
| Last verified | September 10, 2026 | — |
| Full pricing | View full pricing | View full pricing |
Pricing last verified September 10, 2026. Tracked daily.