# Cursor vs Claude Code > Cursor and Claude Code compared from each vendor's own documentation, read on 10 October 2026. If you want one editor where you can switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini and other vendors' models, choose Cursor. If your work happens in the terminal, in CI pipelines or across several IDEs, choose Claude Code. Canonical: https://fabric.pro/compare/cursor-vs-claude-code --- Written by TechFabric, which builds Fabric, an open-source AI agent platform that gives Cursor, Claude Code and other coding agents your team's documents, tickets and decisions over MCP, with sources. Fabric is not one of the options compared here. Vendor documentation read 10 October 2026 ยท by TechFabric ## Where they differ | | Cursor | Claude Code | | Where it runs | A desktop editor, the Cursor CLI in the terminal, and cloud agents started from the desktop app, cursor.com/agents, the iOS app, Slack, GitHub, Bitbucket, Linear or the API. cursor.com | A terminal CLI, extensions for VS Code (and Cursor) and JetBrains IDEs, a desktop app, and claude.ai/code in the browser and mobile app. It also takes tasks from Slack and runs in GitHub Actions and GitLab CI/CD. code.claude.com | | Pricing and plans (as published 10 Oct 2026) | Hobby is free. Pro is $20/mo, Pro Plus $60/mo and Ultra $200/mo. Teams is $40/user/mo for a Standard seat or $120/user/mo for Premium (5x the agent limits). Enterprise is priced by sales. Each plan includes a set amount of model usage; third-party models draw it down at API rates, then on-demand usage is billed. cursor.com | Included in Claude Pro ($20/mo, or $17/mo billed annually), Max (from $100/mo), Team (Standard seat $25/mo monthly or $20 annually; Premium seat $125 or $100) and Enterprise ($20/seat/mo billed annually plus usage at API rates). Not included in the Free plan. It can also be billed per token through an Anthropic Console account. claude.com | | Models available | Several vendors: Anthropic Claude, OpenAI GPT, Google Gemini, Z.ai GLM, Moonshot Kimi and Meta Muse Spark, plus Grok models jointly trained by Cursor and SpaceXAI and Cursor's own Composer 2.5. An Auto mode can pick the model. cursor.com | Claude models only. The opus, sonnet and haiku aliases resolve to Opus 5.5, Sonnet 5.5 and Haiku 5.5 on the Anthropic API; Fable 5.1 and Fable 5 are selected explicitly and, depending on plan, can bill to usage credits. code.claude.com | | Agent and background work | Agent and Plan modes run locally. Cloud agents run in isolated VMs with full development environments, in parallel, without your machine connected, and open pull requests. Self-hosted machines can run the cloud agents' tool execution on hardware you manage. cursor.com | Runs as a local agent with subagents and background agents. Cloud sessions on the web keep running with your computer off, routines run on a schedule or on GitHub events, and GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD cover pipeline automation. code.claude.com | | MCP support | Supported over stdio, SSE and Streamable HTTP, configured in mcp.json. Cloud agents can use MCP servers too. cursor.com | Supported on every surface from the same configuration. Administrators can allowlist or denylist servers, or provide servers to every user, through managed settings. code.claude.com | | Enterprise controls and data use | Teams adds SAML/OIDC SSO and team-wide Privacy Mode, under which code is not used for training by Cursor or model providers. Enterprise adds SCIM, audit logs, model and MCP access controls and pooled usage, with Privacy Mode on by default. Cloud agents are the one feature that stores code, temporarily. cursor.com | SSO on Team and Enterprise; SCIM, audit logs and custom data retention on Enterprise. Anthropic does not train on Team, Enterprise, API or cloud-provider traffic by default; Free, Pro and Max users choose whether their data is used. Zero data retention is available to qualified Enterprise accounts. It can also run through Amazon Bedrock, Google Cloud's Agent Platform or Microsoft Foundry. code.claude.com | | Using one inside the other | Cursor is the editor, and it offers Claude models alongside other vendors' models. cursor.com | Claude Code installs as an extension inside Cursor as well as VS Code, so it can run in the same editor. code.claude.com | ## Which to choose - 01 You want one editor where you can switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini and other vendors' models: Cursor. Claude Code runs Claude models only, while Cursor offers models from several vendors. - 02 Your work happens in the terminal, in CI pipelines or across several IDEs: Claude Code. It runs as a CLI, in VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app and GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD, rather than inside one editor. - 03 You need agents that keep running with the laptop closed: Either. Cursor has cloud agents in isolated VMs (with a self-hosted option); Claude Code has cloud sessions on the web and scheduled routines. - 04 Your team already uses Cursor and wants Claude Code as well: Both. Claude Code installs as an extension inside Cursor, so the two do not exclude each other. ## How the comparison was done Every cell in the table comes from Cursor 's or Claude Code 's own documentation, pricing or product pages, read on 10 October 2026, and links to the page it came from. Where a vendor's documentation does not say something, the cell says so instead of guessing. Nothing here comes from a benchmark we ran, and the verdicts only follow from the table. Plans, prices and model lists for coding agents change month to month. Check the vendor's page before you buy, and tell us if a cell has gone stale. ## Who wrote this, and their stake TechFabric wrote this page. We build Fabric, an open-source AI agent platform that is neither Cursor nor Claude Code. It runs as an MCP server, so either one can read your team's record and cite its sources from the session you already have open. We gain if you use Fabric with whichever you choose, and nothing from which one that is. ## Sources Each page below was read on 10 October 2026. - https://cursor.com/docs/cloud-agent - https://cursor.com/docs/cli/overview - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/overview - https://cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing - https://cursor.com/pricing - https://cursor.com/docs/account/teams/pricing - https://claude.com/pricing - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/model-config - https://cursor.com/docs/cloud-agent/self-hosted - https://cursor.com/docs/mcp - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/managed-mcp - https://cursor.com/docs/enterprise/privacy-and-data-governance - https://code.claude.com/docs/en/data-usage ## Questions ### Cursor or Claude Code: which if you want one editor where you can switch between Claude, GPT, Gemini and other vendors' models? Cursor. Claude Code runs Claude models only, while Cursor offers models from several vendors. ### Cursor or Claude Code: which if your work happens in the terminal, in CI pipelines or across several IDEs? Claude Code. It runs as a CLI, in VS Code, JetBrains, a desktop app and GitHub Actions or GitLab CI/CD, rather than inside one editor. ### Cursor or Claude Code: which if you need agents that keep running with the laptop closed? Either. Cursor has cloud agents in isolated VMs (with a self-hosted option); Claude Code has cloud sessions on the web and scheduled routines. ### Cursor or Claude Code: which if your team already uses Cursor and wants Claude Code as well? Both. Claude Code installs as an extension inside Cursor, so the two do not exclude each other. ### Where do the Cursor vs Claude Code facts come from? From Cursor's and Claude Code's own documentation and pricing pages, read on 10 October 2026 and linked under Sources on this page. Nothing here comes from a hands-on benchmark. Plans and models change often, so check the vendor's page before you buy. ### Does Fabric replace Cursor or Claude Code? No. Fabric runs as an MCP server, so either tool can use Fabric's shared record, cited answers and agents from the session you already have open. Fabric is built by TechFabric, which wrote this comparison.