What is Cursor and what do you get for $20 p/month

Cursor: Next-level AI-productivity For Developers

All the early adopters and tech enthusiasts in my X (formerly Twitter) feed and on LinkedIn were already talking about it: Cursor: The AI Code Editor. Some even call Cursor “Copilot on steroids.” All this buzz about this new developer tool intrigued me enough to jump on board as well.

In this article, you’ll read about the AI tools for developers that have become available in recent years and how Cursor fits into the picture. I will explain what Cursor is and whether it’s worth it — and that $20 per month.

⏮️ But first, let’s go back a bit.

Phase 1️⃣

Large language models, like those from OpenAI, were being developed since the end of 2022, but they became really popular in January 2023 with the introduction of the ChatGPT chat interface. This opened the door for (aspiring) developers to ask questions about how to code something, check if their code was correct, create tests, and so on.

Various AI solutions and models emerged, such as Google’s Gemini. Some models became better at solving coding problems with less incorrect information (not perfect, but usable).