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It's a split decision.
Choose Zed if you want an open-source IDE, multiplayer collaboration and the option to bring your own AI keys or disable AI. Choose Cursor if you want agents that plan, write and test code, with workflows across its desktop app, CLI, Slack and GitHub. Zed’s Personal plan is free; hosted AI starts at $10 per month. Cursor has a limited free plan and paid plans from $8 per month, with usage limits and separate charges for some models.
01Side by side
| Zed | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free Personal; Pro $10/month; Business $30/seat | Free; paid plans from $8/month |
| Free tier | Unlimited use with your API keys or external agents | Limited agent and Chat requests |
| Open source and licence | Open-source IDE; confirm applicable licence terms | Open-source status and licence need vendor confirmation |
| CLI and docs | IDE workflow; no CLI details listed | CLI agent installed with a curl command |
| Integrations | AI providers include Anthropic, OpenAI, Ollama and Bedrock | Slack, GitHub, terminal and multiple model providers |
| Platforms | Web | macOS, Web, CLI and Slack |
| Deployment model | IDE with optional AI and external model providers | Desktop app, CLI, Slack and cloud agents |
| Limits and scaling | $5 hosted credit on Pro, then usage billing | Plan-based usage; top-offs and separate model charges |
Zed Choose Zed if
- Choose Zed if you want an open-source IDE.
- Choose Zed if you want multiplayer collaboration across plans.
- Choose Zed if you prefer your own AI keys or no AI.
Cursor Choose Cursor if
- Choose Cursor if you want agents to plan, code and test.
- Choose Cursor if you want a terminal agent and Slack workflows.
- Choose Cursor if you need team billing, SSO or spend controls.
02Pricing at real usage
Zed’s Personal plan is free and includes unlimited use with your API keys or external agents. Pro costs $10 per month, includes $5 of tokens and unlimited edit predictions, then bills hosted usage at API list price plus 10%. Business is $30 per seat per month, with organization controls and no fixed AI credit allotment; hosted usage is billed at standard usage rates.
Cursor has a free plan with limited agent and Chat requests. Paid plans start with Plus at $8 per month; Premium is $30, Super $100 and Ultra $200. The pricing page lists usage as multiples of Plus, with usage top-offs available when an allowance runs out. Third-party models are billed separately at API list price. Teams starts at $30 per user per month; Enterprise pricing is custom. The listed prices are monthly, with no annual discount published.
03API, SDKs and integration
Zed is an IDE rather than a general-purpose application API. Its listed model integrations include Amazon Bedrock, Anthropic, GitHub Copilot, DeepSeek, Google AI, LM Studio, Mistral, Ollama, OpenAI, OpenRouter and Vercel. Personal supports your own API keys and external agents; Pro adds Zed-hosted models. The product details do not describe a public SDK or a separate CLI workflow.
Cursor connects its agent to the desktop app, CLI, Slack, GitHub and the terminal. The homepage lists model choices from OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, SpaceXAI and Cursor’s Composer. Its CLI is installed with a curl command. Cursor describes agents that plan, write, test and demo work, as well as cloud agents that can run in parallel. The published integration details do not describe a general application API or SDK for either product, so teams building custom integrations should confirm available interfaces with the vendors.
04Open source, self-hosting and lock-in
Zed identifies itself as open source and lets users disable AI. Its Personal plan also supports users’ own API keys or external agents, which gives teams a route to keep model choice outside Zed-hosted usage. The vendor does not identify the licence terms here, so confirm them before adopting or redistributing the editor. Cursor’s open-source status is not established in its product details.
Neither vendor publishes self-hosting options or a data-export workflow in the product details. Zed Business adds AI policies, data controls, spend visibility and role-based access; Cursor Teams lists centralized billing, SAML/OIDC SSO and team-wide privacy settings. Those are administrative controls, not a stated export path. Before committing, ask each vendor what can be exported—including project context, agent history and billing data—and what migration requires.
Questions people ask
Is Zed or Cursor better for developers who want to avoid AI?
Zed makes AI optional and says users can disable all AI features. Cursor is built around AI coding agents, so it is the clearer choice for developers who want agent workflows, not for those seeking an AI-free editor.
Which is cheaper for using your own AI models?
Zed Personal is free and includes unlimited use with your API keys or external agents. Cursor’s paid plans list third-party models as separately billed at API list price, and its free plan has limited agent and Chat requests.
Does Zed or Cursor support team controls?
Both list team-oriented controls. Zed Business costs $30 per seat per month and includes AI policies, data controls, spend visibility and role-based access. Cursor Teams starts at $30 per user per month and lists centralized billing, SAML/OIDC SSO and team-wide privacy settings.
Can teams self-host Zed or Cursor?
Neither vendor’s product details describe self-hosting options. Zed is open source, but that does not by itself establish a supported self-hosted service. Ask each vendor about deployment, data handling and export requirements before choosing either for a controlled environment.