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It's a split decision.
Choose Amp if you want agents to keep working after you close your laptop, with self-hosted orb options and team thread sharing. Choose Cursor if you want a coding agent across a desktop app, CLI, Slack and GitHub, with cloud agents and model selection. Amp’s Individual plan is $20/month; Cursor’s listed Premium plan is $30/month and Teams starts at $30 per user monthly. Compare compute and model charges against your expected usage before committing.
01Side by side
| Amp | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $20/month Individual; hosted orb time also pay-as-you-go | $30/month Premium; Teams starts at $30/user |
| Free tier | Hobby: all features; hosted orbs pay-as-you-go | Free: limited agent and Chat requests |
| Self-hosting | Unlimited self-hosted orbs on Hobby and Individual | Self-hosted agents are not described |
| CLI and docs | Web product; homepage links to Docs | Cursor CLI; terminal agent installed with curl |
| Integrations | ChatGPT, Claude, BYOK; Slack via MCP | Slack, GitHub, terminal and multiple model providers |
| Deployment model | Persistent agents run in orbs | Desktop app plus cloud agents that run in parallel |
| Platforms | Web | macOS, web, CLI and Slack |
| Limits and scaling | Individual includes 45,000 hosted-orb minutes | Usage allowances; top-offs available when exhausted |
Amp Choose Amp if
- Choose Amp if agents must keep working after you close your laptop.
- Choose Amp if you want unlimited self-hosted orbs on Hobby or Individual.
- Choose Amp if shared threads, portals and pooled team credits fit your workflow.
Cursor Choose Cursor if
- Choose Cursor if you want a desktop coding app and terminal CLI.
- Choose Cursor if your agent workflow runs through Slack or GitHub.
- Choose Cursor if you want to select among several model providers.
02Pricing at real usage
Amp’s Hobby plan is $0/month and includes all product features, unlimited self-hosted orbs and pay-as-you-go Amp-hosted orb time. The hosted-orb rate is not published, so estimate your run time and ask Amp for the rate before scaling. Individual is $20/month and includes 45,000 minutes of hosted-orb time; additional hosted time is pay-as-you-go. Teams adds sharing, pooled credits and administration at no extra charge, while Enterprise has custom terms.
Cursor’s Free plan has limited agent and Chat requests. Its pricing page lists Premium at $30/month, with cloud agents and automations, and Teams from $30 per user monthly. Third-party models are billed separately at API list price, and usage top-offs are available when an allowance runs out. Cursor lists Enterprise as custom. Compare expected agent use and model charges, not just the seat price.
03API, SDKs and integration
Amp is a hosted development environment built around agents running in orbs. Its pricing page lists use of ChatGPT, Claude, other subscriptions and BYOK; the homepage also shows Slack access through MCP. Amp’s web product has a Docs entry point, but its product pages do not describe a public agent API or language-specific SDKs. The documented workflow is to send an agent work, then check its thread, portal preview or production rollout.
Cursor combines a desktop app, CLI and cloud agents. Its homepage describes agents that plan, write, test and demo work, plus Slack and GitHub workflows for opening or reviewing pull requests. The CLI is a terminal agent installed with a curl command. Cursor lists model providers including OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini and SpaceXAI. Its product pages do not describe a public agent API or language-specific SDKs. Check the vendor docs for current CLI setup and model billing before wiring either tool into automated workflows.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Amp lists unlimited self-hosted orbs on Hobby and Individual, but that describes where agents run, not a self-hosted Amp service. Cursor’s product pages describe cloud agents and do not describe a self-hosted option. Neither vendor states an open-source licence for the product on its product pages.
The pages also do not describe a data-export path for agent threads, prompts or configuration. Treat repositories as the durable part of your workflow: Amp lists public and private repository support, while Cursor describes GitHub pull-request workflows. Before adopting either for long-running work, ask how to export threads, prompts, agent configuration and usage records. The migration effort depends on how much team process lives in those product-specific features rather than in your repository.
Questions people ask
Can Amp agents keep working when my laptop is closed?
Yes. Amp says its agents run in orbs and can continue after you close your laptop. You can continue from your phone, and the homepage describes agents waking to check production. The hosted-orb rate is pay-as-you-go on Hobby, but Amp does not publish that rate.
Does Cursor have a CLI?
Yes. Cursor lists a CLI terminal agent that can be installed with a curl command. Its product workflow also spans the desktop app, Slack and GitHub. The product pages do not specify supported programming languages for the CLI, so check Cursor’s documentation before standardizing it across a mixed-language team.
Which product supports self-hosted agents?
Amp lists unlimited self-hosted orbs on Hobby and Individual. That is an option for running agents, not evidence that the Amp service itself can be self-hosted. Cursor’s product pages describe cloud agents but do not describe self-hosted agents.
Which one costs less for a small team?
Amp lists its Teams plan at no extra charge, with shared billing and pooled credits; its Individual plan is $20/month. Cursor lists Teams from $30 per user monthly and Premium at $30/month. Actual cost depends on hosted compute, model usage and any separately billed third-party models.