Cursor vs VS Code: Is the AI Fork Still Worth Switching To?
September 30, 2026
Cursor vs VS Code used to be an easy call: if you wanted serious AI in your editor, you switched to Cursor. That's no longer true. VS Code now describes chat, agents, and inline suggestions as built-in AI features, and it lets you plug in your own model keys, MCP servers, and even Claude or Codex as the agent doing the work.
So the real question in September 2026 is narrower: what does Cursor still do that VS Code doesn't, and is that worth changing editors?
The short answer:
- Stay in VS Code if you depend on Microsoft-only extensions, want to bring your own model without any account, or want to pick between several agent providers in one editor.
- Switch to Cursor if the thing you care about most is the editing loop itself: Tab prediction, a single agent tuned per model, and cloud agents that run in full development environments.
- Trying Cursor is cheap. It imports your VS Code setup in one click, and the two run side by side on the same projects.
Quick comparison
| VS Code | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Microsoft's editor, with AI features built in | An AI-first editor built on VS Code |
| Owner | Microsoft | SpaceX (acquired August 2026) |
| Inline AI | Ghost text and next edit suggestions (Copilot) | Tab: multi-line, jump-in-file, cross-file edits |
| Agent | Agent in chat, plus Claude and Codex harnesses | Cursor Agent, plus Projects that split work across agents |
| Cloud work | Cloud target that returns a pull request | Cloud agents in isolated VMs with full dev environments |
| Your own model | BYOK and local models, no GitHub account needed for chat | BYOK for major providers, plus Cursor's own models |
| Extensions | Visual Studio Marketplace | Open VSX, through Cursor's own scanning proxy |
| AI off switch | One setting hides all AI features | AI is the product |
| Billing model | Editor free; AI through a Copilot plan or your own keys | Subscription with included usage pools, then pay-as-you-go |
What VS Code ships now
If your picture of VS Code is "an editor plus the Copilot extension," it's out of date. The VS Code AI overview now covers four layers:
| Layer | What you get in VS Code |
|---|---|
| Suggestions | Ghost text as you type, plus next edit suggestions that predict where your next change goes |
| Chat and agents | Ask questions, run an agent across files and tools, or use Plan to review an approach first |
| Agent harnesses | Copilot, Local, Anthropic Claude, and OpenAI Codex, plus a Cloud target |
| Customization | Project instructions, MCP servers, agent skills, hooks, plugins, custom agents |
Two changes matter most for this comparison.
First, the AI is open source now. Microsoft open-sourced the GitHub Copilot Chat extension under the MIT licence in June 2025, and said it would refactor the relevant parts into VS Code core. A second milestone that November added inline suggestions to the open-source code. The Copilot backend services and models stay closed, per the VS Code FAQ.
Second, you can pick who does the work. The agent harness docs let you run a session with Copilot, Claude, or Codex, and hand an ongoing session from one target to another. If you use a Claude API key or a ChatGPT subscription, that provider handles usage and billing instead of your Copilot plan. VS Code labels some of these no-GitHub-sign-in workflows as experimental.
Where VS Code is stronger
| Strength | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Official extension marketplace | Some Microsoft extensions only work in the Visual Studio family |
| Model freedom without an account | BYOK chat works with no GitHub sign-in and no Copilot plan |
| Several agent providers in one place | Switch between Copilot, Claude, and Codex per task |
| A real off switch | chat.disableAIFeatures hides chat and suggestions entirely |
The extension marketplace. This is the one people find out about too late. Per the VS Code FAQ, Microsoft doesn't license its own Marketplace extensions for use outside Visual Studio products, and forks of the open-source code aren't permitted to access the Visual Studio Marketplace at all. If your daily work runs through a Microsoft extension, check that it exists for Cursor before you move.
Bring your own model, fully. The language models docs say BYOK models work without a GitHub account and without a Copilot plan, including fully offline with local models. The catch: BYOK covers chat and utility tasks. Inline suggestions, semantic search, and embeddings still need the Copilot service.
Choice of agent. Cursor has one agent that it tunes for each model. VS Code lets you choose the harness itself. If you like how Claude Code handles permissions, or how Codex runs background work, you can use those inside VS Code. Our guide to running Claude Code in VS Code covers the extension route in detail.
You can turn it all off. Some teams want an editor with zero AI in certain repos. VS Code's setup guide documents a single setting that disables and hides chat and inline suggestions, per user or per workspace.
Where Cursor is stronger
| Strength | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Tab | Multi-line edits, jump to your next edit, and cross-file predictions |
| One agent, tuned per model | Instructions and tools are adjusted for every model Cursor supports |
| Projects | A coordinator agent plans big work and delegates it to other agents |
| Cloud agents | Full dev environments in isolated VMs, started from almost anywhere |
Tab is still the reason people switch. Per Cursor's docs, Tab suggests code from your recent edits, surrounding code, and linter errors. Accept one suggestion, press Tab again, and it jumps to the next place you'll need to edit, including in another file. VS Code's next edit suggestions aim at the same idea. The difference is emphasis: in Cursor, Tab is a headline feature with its own settings, not one option among many.
The agent is the centre of the editor. Cursor's own docs now open by calling it "a coding agent for building ambitious software". Agent runs terminal commands, edits files, controls a browser, and saves checkpoints you can roll back to. For larger work, a Project lets a coordinator agent plan and hand pieces to other agents. Team conventions live in rules, stored in .cursor/rules or a plain AGENTS.md.
Cloud agents do more than open a pull request. Cursor's cloud agents run in isolated VMs with your repos, dependencies, secrets, and startup commands, so they can build and test what they change. You can start them from the desktop app, the web, the iOS app, Slack, Linear, a GitHub comment, or the API. VS Code's Cloud target is simpler: a well-scoped task against a GitHub repo that comes back as a pull request.
Its own models. As of September 2026, Cursor offers frontier models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and SpaceXAI, plus its own Composer model. Cursor's in-house models and SpaceXAI's Grok models draw from a separate usage pool with more included usage.
That last point connects to ownership. Cursor announced on 14 August 2026 that SpaceX had completed its acquisition, which followed a partnership with SpaceXAI on model training. If vendor ownership affects your tool choices, factor it in.
Extensions and your existing setup
This is the practical question for anyone with years of VS Code configuration.
| VS Code | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Registry | Visual Studio Marketplace | Open VSX, via Cursor's proxy |
| Microsoft-only extensions | Available | Some replaced by audited Anysphere builds, some unavailable |
| Moving your settings | N/A | One-click import of extensions, themes, settings, keybindings |
Per Cursor's extensions page, most popular extensions are on Open VSX, but not all. The same extension name can point to a different publisher on Open VSX, so treat extension IDs like dependencies and install from publishers you trust.
Moving over is quick. Cursor's migration guide has an Import button that brings across extensions, themes, settings, and keybindings, and the default shortcuts match VS Code's. Both editors can stay installed and open the same folders.
How billing works on each
No figures here, because both change. Check the vendors' own pages before you commit.
| VS Code | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| The editor | Free for private or commercial use | Free plan with limited Agent requests |
| AI usage | Copilot plan's monthly AI credits, or a free Copilot plan with an allowance | Paid tiers include two monthly usage pools |
| Beyond the allowance | Depends on the Copilot plan | On-demand usage at API rates, billed in arrears |
| Your own keys | Provider bills you directly | Provider bills you directly; team plans add a per-token Cursor rate |
| Teams | Through GitHub Copilot business plans | Per-seat Teams plan, or Enterprise |
The shape differs more than the totals. In VS Code, the editor is separate from the AI, and you can pay for AI through GitHub, through Anthropic or OpenAI, or not at all. In Cursor, the subscription and the editor come together, and heavy agent use scales with the models you pick. Cursor's models and pricing page explains the pools, and GitHub's Copilot docs cover its plans.
Cursor vs VS Code: how to decide
- Do you rely on a Microsoft extension that isn't on Open VSX? → Stay in VS Code.
- Do you already pay for Claude or ChatGPT and want that agent in your editor? → VS Code's harnesses make this simple.
- Do you want to run local models, or no AI at all in some repos? → VS Code.
- Is inline editing where you spend most of your day? → Try Cursor's Tab for a week.
- Do you want to hand off tasks from Slack, Linear, or your phone and get tested changes back? → Cursor's cloud agents are further along.
- Still unsure? → Import your setup into Cursor and run both. It costs you an afternoon.
If you're weighing the extension route instead of either editor's built-in AI, Cursor vs GitHub Copilot covers that trade. For editors and terminal agents beyond these two, see the best AI IDE.
If the editor isn't where you're stuck
Both of these tools assume a working development setup: a repo, dependencies installed, a project that runs. For many people reading about AI coding, that's the step that never happened. You saw a working AI app or agent setup on X, pulled down the repo, and hit a wall of environment errors.
Taku is built for that step. It's an AI-native desktop workspace where you mirror an AI app, skill, or workflow someone already got working, run it, remix it, and keep it. It isn't an editor and doesn't compete with Cursor or VS Code. It's for borrowing a setup that works instead of rebuilding it. Taku is in Beta, and the Mac app is available now. The free app library shows what mirroring looks like.
FAQ
Is Cursor better than VS Code?
For the AI editing loop, Cursor is still the more focused product: Tab, the agent, and cloud agents are the core of it. For everything else, including extensions, model freedom, and choice of agent provider, VS Code now matches or beats it. "Better" depends on which of those you use every day.
Does VS Code have AI built in now?
Yes. VS Code's docs describe chat, agents, and inline suggestions as built-in AI features. Signing in with GitHub uses your Copilot plan, eligible accounts without one are enrolled in Copilot Free, or you can bring your own model key.
Can I use my VS Code extensions in Cursor?
Most of them. Cursor installs extensions from Open VSX rather than the Visual Studio Marketplace, and some Microsoft extensions aren't licensed for use outside Microsoft's products. Cursor ships its own builds for some of those.
Is Cursor just VS Code with Copilot?
No. Cursor is built on the VS Code codebase but runs its own AI stack: Tab, its own agent, rules, cloud agents, and in-house models. It doesn't depend on GitHub Copilot.
Who owns Cursor now?
SpaceX. Cursor announced on 14 August 2026 that SpaceX had completed the acquisition.
Can I run Cursor and VS Code at the same time?
Yes. Cursor's own help page says they run as separate applications and can open the same projects.