Two terminals, one question: how many times can I talk to the model before it tells me to take a coffee break?
Below is a side-by-side, numbers-only comparison of Claude Code (Anthropic) and Cursor (VS Code fork) based on the latest quota docs/screenshots (June 2025).
1 · Plans in a Nutshell
| Product | Plan | Price / mo | Models you can hit without extra fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Code | Pro | \$20 | Claude 4 Sonnet, Claude 3.5 Haiku |
| Max 5× | \$100 | Sonnet or Opus 4 (switch with /model) |
|
| Max 20× | \$200 | Sonnet or Opus 4 | |
| Cursor | Pro | \$20 | Claude 4 Sonnet, GPT-4o / 4.1, Gemini 2.5 |
| Pro+ | \$60 | same models, 3× higher monthly budget | |
| Ultra | \$200 | same models, 20× higher monthly budget |
2 · Raw Quotas
2.1 Claude Code 📜
Claude resets usage every five hours – think of it as four “sessions” per day.
| Plan | Messages (Sonnet) per 5h |
Invites* (CLI operations) per 5h |
≈ per day |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pro 20 $ | ~45 | 10 - 40 | 50 - 190 |
| Max 5× 100 $ | ~225 | 50 - 200 | 240 - 960 |
| Max 20× 200 $ | ~900 | 200 - 800 | 960 - 3 840 |
* “Invite” = a full claude fix, refactor, etc. that streams back a patch.
Opus eats quota ~5× faster than Sonnet, so divide the above CLI numbers by 5 if you force
/model opus.
2.2 Cursor 📜
Cursor gives you a dollar budget each month (API cost at face value).
The docs highlight median-user figures:
| Plan | Budget | ≈ Sonnet 4 requests / month |
|---|---|---|
| Pro 20 $ | ≥ \$20 | ~225 |
| Pro+ 60 $ | ≥ \$60 | ~675 |
| Ultra 200 $ | ≥ \$200 | ~4 500 |
The same pot can instead buy ~550 Gemini 2.5 calls or ~650 GPT-4.1 calls on Pro.
If you burn through the \$20, Cursor asks you to:
- upgrade, OR
- toggle Usage-Based Pricing (pay per token, +20 % margin), OR
- fall back to the Auto/Slow queue.
3 · Daily Reality Check
3.1 Claude Code Pro vs. Cursor Pro
| Metric | Claude Code Pro | Cursor Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Typical high-priority calls / day | 50 - 190 | ~225 / month = 7 - 8 / day |
| What happens when you hit the wall? | wait 5 h or pay API price | wait for next billing cycle or pay API +20 % |
| Autocomplete | ❌ none (terminal only) | ✅ Tab / inline |
| Multi-model ability | ❌ Claude only | ✅ Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini |
3.2 Do the Math for Opus Lovers
- Claude Code Max 5× → 50 - 200 Sonnet invites ➜ 10 - 40 Opus invites / 5 h
-
Cursor Pro + Usage-Pricing → 1 Opus request (2k in + 2k out) ≃ \$0.11
- \$20 budget ≈ 180 Opus requests / month ≈ 6 / day
4 · When to Pick What?
| You care about… | Winner |
|---|---|
| Sheer daily volume of patches / messages | Claude Code |
| Inline completion + agent UI | Cursor |
| Working offline / privacy (no code index on vendor-side) | Claude Code |
| Mix-and-match models (GPT-4o, Gemini) | Cursor |
| Large monorepo (120-200 k context) | Claude Code (Sonnet 4 = 120 k, Opus 4 = 200 k) |
| Staying under \$20 while using multiple LLMs | Cursor |
5 · Hybrid Strategy (What I Do)
- Cursor Pro for day-to-day typing, completions, quick fixes.
- Claude Code Pro as a “power-refactor drill” when I hit Cursor’s soft limits or need >75 k tokens of context.
- Wire
claudeinto CI for automatic test-driven fixes; keep Cursor UI clean.
Total cost: \$40 / month ⇒ still cheaper than a single Max 5× or Ultra plan.
6 · Key Takeaways
- Reset every 5 h makes Claude Code look infinite—but only if you’re living in the terminal.
- Cursor’s \$20 pool is flexible, multi-model, but it will pinch if you spam Opus or Sonnet.
- For most indie devs the Combo (Cursor Pro + Claude Code Pro) gives the best of both worlds.
- Power users automating thousands of patches a day? Claude Code Max 20× is the only sane choice.
Happy prompting 🚀
Top comments (5)
great comparison
this is extremely impressive, especially all the price-to-requests math you laid out
you think at some point single-tool solutions will ever feel worth it again or is mixing the norm now
Honestly, I've been asking myself the same question recently.
I don't really feel like I'm getting value for money from a single tool at the moment.
What I'm doing now is using claude code with cursor.
Knowing that you can do ~45 messages per 5h session + the old plan of 500 cursor requests per month, I'm finally getting the hang of it.
Legend, thank you for an amazing write up!
Really like the succinct but informative way you've compared the two. Planning on trialling Cursor, but then purchasing Claude Code Pro for a month after that to see how I go. Professionally i am using Claude Code with Zed, and it works wonders, Zed solves gaps left by Claude Code too
EXACTLY the info I was looking for. I didnt even consider buying both pro plans before reading your article and I think this is a very good idea that suits my needs. Great post