Best offer on record: Free plan ($0/mo) — standing free tier, no trial. 3 verified findings, checked 2026-10-22.
Offers
Free plan ($0/mo) — standing free tier, no trial high confidence
Official pricing page lists a Free plan at $0/month with 'Limited AI usage': 'Limited agent requests' and 'Limited Chat requests' (no numeric caps published; the docs page marks free included-usage as simply 'Limited'). Free tier includes 'Post, reply, and follow'; Grok Chat/Imagine/Build are 'Limited'; third-party models, Grok API, cloud agents, code hosting, AI code reviews are not available ('—') on Free. Usage allowance refreshes weekly ('one heavy day never wipes out your whole month'); when exhausted, users 'can keep going with top-offs, or wait for your allowance to refresh'; remaining usage visible in settings. No free trial or starter credits are advertised anywhere on the current pricing page.
Eligibility
Anyone can sign up; no .edu email, no proof of affiliation, and no credit card required for the free tier (page states only that self-serve paid plans support major credit/debit cards). No region limits stated on the page. Prices exclude tax (VAT).
How to claim
Fetched https://cursor.com/pricing and https://cursor.com/docs/models-and-pricing today (2026-10-22): Free plan $0/mo, limited agent/chat requests, weekly refresh, top-ups optional, no trial or CC requirement stated; paid tiers Plus $8 / Premium $30 / Super $100 / Ultra $200 per month.
Expiry
Indefinite free tier; weekly usage refresh; no expiry date, no trial clock.
Gotchas
Exact request limits are not published on the page (only 'Limited') — plan accordingly. Third-party model usage is billed separately at API list price even on paid tiers; 'Plus ($8/mo) is Grok-models-only', so cheapest paid tier is deliberately restricted. There is no advertised free-trial of paid plans, so free users get less than historical promo/credit offers. Cancellation policy: cancel at least 24h before renewal to avoid charges.
Campus Leads program — free 6 months of Cursor Ultra for student community leaders high confidence
Cursor's 'Campus Leads' program (run twice yearly, fall and spring) accepts current university students who commit ~5 hours/week to building the campus community (workshops, hackathons, meetups, partnering with clubs, product feedback). Benefits: all-expenses-paid trip to Cursor's San Francisco office for kick-off, custom swag, travel reimbursement to one hackathon from a verified list, early access to new features, invitation to a private Slack with the Cursor team, funding/resources to host on-campus events, and 'Access to 6 months of Cursor Ultra' — the top tier, worth $200/mo per the pricing page (~$1,200 value, plus travel). Eligibility criteria: current university student, completed application, accepted Code of Conduct, 5h/week commitment.
Eligibility
Must be a current university student (no .edu stated as a check method, but student status required). Selective admission — application + Code of Conduct required. No funding-cap or startup-age criteria (this is a student/community program, not a startup program). No credit card mentioned for acceptance.
How to claim
1) Go to cursor.com/campus-leads. 2) Fill out the interest Typeform (hosted by Anysphere) to be notified when applications reopen. 3) Apply when the cycle opens; accept the Cursor Community Code of Conduct (linked Notion). 4) Direct questions to students@cursor.com. Note the page says 'Applications reopen in January' — i.e., the spring intake window.
Expiry
Program runs on two cycles per year (fall/spring); the Ultra access lasts 6 months per cycle. Applications reopen in January for the spring cycle; fall cycle via the interest form.
Gotchas
Only accepted Campus Leads get the free Ultra — it is not a blanket student license; general students still use the free 'Limited' tier. Perks are program-bound (renewal means staying an active lead / re-entering the next cycle). The 6-month Ultra benefit plus travel is the entirety of the free-value offer; no monetary refund or seat sharing is mentioned.
Student discounts/promotions (on-campus & online events, fall cycle) — amounts not fixed medium confidence
The dedicated students page (cursor.com/students) confirms 'Anyone can get started with Cursor for free' and, in its FAQ, says: 'To upgrade your access, look out for promotions at our on-campus and online events starting this fall.' A linked Typeform sign-up advertises 'early access to upcoming events, exclusive discounts, and beginner guides.' No dollar amount, percentage, tier, seat count, code or credit amount is published on the page; the concrete student benefit available today is the Campus Leads Ultra benefit above.
Eligibility
Open to anyone who signs up for the free tier (no .edu required for free start). Event-based student promotions target on-campus/online participants (students/educators at institutions); no explicit .edu verification stated. No credit-card requirement stated for the free start.
How to claim
1) Sign up for Cursor free (no card). 2) Subscribe to the Typeform newsletter on cursor.com/students for event early access and discount offers. 3) Attend on-campus/online events (fall cycle) to receive promotions. 4) Optionally apply to Campus Leads for the 6-month Ultra benefit.
Expiry
Tied to the fall/spring event calendar ('starting this fall'); promotions are event-specific with no published expiry or renewal terms; the newsletter early access persists.
Gotchas
No exact discount figures, dates or limits are published — do not treat 'exclusive discounts' as a known amount. The event-based promotion is not a standing license; it may differ from the Campus Leads benefit. Verify current event terms at each event, since pages say 'look out for' rather than commit to a price.
No startup program found: cursor.com/startups returned only a page title with no program, credits or eligibility content, and neither the pricing page nor the models-and-pricing docs reference any startup offer, funding cap or startup-age criterion. No trial-credit offer is advertised: the current official pages list no free trial of paid plans and no starter credits (historical new-user trial/promo-credit offers from 2024–2025 are absent from the pricing/docs pages as of today; I could not run web searches this session to confirm sunset dates, so this is 'not listed on official pages today' rather than a verified end date). Material 2025–2026 structural changes observable on the current pages: tier lineup and pricing are now Plus $8/mo, Premium $30/mo, Super $100/mo, Ultra $200/mo (Teams $30/$100/$200 per seat; Enterprise custom), with pools expressed as multiples of Plus and a weekly refresh; the Free plan's exact request counts are unpublished ('Limited'); third-party models are billed at API list price with spending caps, and Teams/Enterprise add a $0.25/million-token 'Cursor Token Rate' on eligible third-party usage. A model promo (e.g., GPT-5.6 'Promotional pricing through November 21, 2026') appears in the docs, but it is a pricing promo, not a student/startup offer.