One of these tools lets you change who bills you. The other does not. Every comparison on this query ranks the two on output and feel. That is the part that changes with each model release. The part that does not change — and the part that decides what your options are six months from now — is that Cursor bundles the model into a subscription it prices, while Claude Code takes its endpoint from two environment variables you set.
The structural difference, stated plainly
| Claude Code | Cursor | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A CLI, in your existing terminal | An editor — a VS Code fork |
| How it is sold | Subscription, or per-token on your own key | Subscription that bundles model usage |
| Custom endpoint | Documented: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL + ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN | No base-URL override in the docs index |
| When you hit the ceiling | Switch to a key — the ceiling disappears | Wait for the window, or move up a plan |
| A quiet month on a key | Charged nothing | Charged in full |
| Editor lock-in | None — works with any editor | The editor is the product |
That fourth row is the one worth sitting with. Both products have a usage limit; only one of them has an exit that is not “pay the vendor more”.
What the endpoint switch actually looks like
It is not a migration. Claude Code reads two variables at startup, so the same binary and the same workflow bill somewhere else:
# Claude Code, pointed somewhere else. Two variables, both documented.
export ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL=https://api.kunavo.com
export ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN=sk-kn-...
# Optional: make the cheap tier explicitly cheap. Background steps —
# file summaries, small edits — do not need the flagship model.
export ANTHROPIC_DEFAULT_HAIKU_MODEL=claude-haiku-4-5
claude # same binary, same workflow, different billNothing about how you use the tool changes. That is precisely why the capability is worth more than any benchmark result: it is the difference between a price you accept and a price you shop.
Choosing without a verdict
Pick Cursor if the editor is the workflow — you want completions, inline diffs and the AI in the same window as the code, and you would rather pay one predictable monthly number than think about tokens at all.
Pick Claude Code if you already have an editor you like, want an agent that runs long unattended stretches in a terminal, or want the bill to be something you control. The cost breakdown for Claude Code works through both payment shapes with real per-token arithmetic.
Or both. They are not exclusive, and on a key Claude Code costs nothing until it sends a request — so running it in a terminal pane next to an existing Cursor subscription is a free experiment rather than a switch.
Where this page stops
It does not tell you which writes better code. We have run no controlled comparison of the two on identical tasks, and an impression dressed up as a measurement is worse than an honest gap. It also does not quote Cursor's plan prices — those move, and a number we do not bill is not ours to publish as fact.
If you want the terminal-agent field instead of the editor question, Claude Code vs Codex and Cline vs Claude Code cover the two nearest options, and getting an API key for Claude Code is the five-minute version of the swap above.
FAQ
What is the real difference between Claude Code and Cursor?
Cursor is an editor — a VS Code fork with the AI built into the environment, sold as a subscription that bundles the model usage. Claude Code is a CLI that runs in whatever terminal and editor you already use, and it can be pointed at any Anthropic-compatible endpoint with two environment variables. The difference people notice first is the surface (an editor versus a terminal). The difference that matters later is that one of them lets you change who bills you and the other does not.
Can I use my own API key with Cursor?
Cursor has an API-keys setting, but its documentation index carries no page about overriding the base URL to a custom provider (checked 2026-09-16), so anything you read about doing it is third-party and undocumented. Claude Code documents the opposite case explicitly: ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL and ANTHROPIC_AUTH_TOKEN are supported configuration. If keeping the option to change providers matters to you, that asymmetry is the whole comparison.
Which one is cheaper?
They are priced in different units, so the honest answer is that it depends on your volume and neither number is a property of the tool. A subscription is a fixed monthly cost with a usage ceiling you cannot buy through; per-token billing has no ceiling and no floor, so a quiet week costs nothing and a heavy week costs what it costs. Below roughly a few hours of agent work a week, a subscription is usually cheaper; above it, the ceiling is what you run into first, and per-token is what you switch to.
Can I use Claude Code and Cursor together?
Yes, and many people do — Cursor for in-editor edits and tab completion, Claude Code in a terminal pane for longer unattended runs. They are not exclusive, and because Claude Code takes its endpoint from environment variables, adding it alongside an existing Cursor subscription costs nothing until you actually send a request.
Does this page benchmark which one writes better code?
No. We have not run a controlled comparison of the two on the same tasks, and publishing an impression as though it were a measurement would be worse than leaving the gap open. What is checkable — how each is paid for, what each documents about custom endpoints, and what happens when you hit a limit — is what this page covers.
What does Claude Code cost on a custom endpoint?
Whatever the endpoint charges per token, with no subscription underneath it. On Kunavo that is $1.20 input / $6.00 output per 1M tokens for Claude Sonnet 4.6, and $0.40 / $2.00 for Claude Haiku 4.5 — each shown next to the vendor's own list price on the pricing page, so the comparison is on the page rather than in a claim.