Cheaper Cursor models may cut cost but hurt coding quality
Heavy Cursor use for work can become expensive fast. Costs reached about $4,000 over the past two months, which led to trying Cursor’s instead of using Opus by default.
does not clearly show which it uses or how it chooses them. The results were usually not good enough.
The main problem is finding a workable balance between cost and quality. and are already being used, but making Figma layouts first is being considered as a way to avoid spending too many credits on simple fixes.
Key points
- Cursor work usage reached about $4,000 over two months.
- Switching from Opus to reduced reliance on an expensive model, but quality suffered.
- does not clearly reveal which it picks or why.
- The core issue is balancing cost and quality in daily work.
- Creating Figma layouts first may reduce wasted credits on simple UI fixes.