Bolt.new vs Cursor
Pricing
Bolt.new: Free tier (1M tokens/mo), Pro $25/mo
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1M tokens a month, 300K daily limit, Bolt branding on sites |
| Pro | $25/mo | 10M tokens a month with rollover, custom domain, no Bolt branding |
| Teams | $30/member/mo | Pro per member plus centralized billing and admin controls |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Cursor: Free tier, Plus $8/mo (Grok models only), Premium $30/mo, all excl. VAT
| Plan | Price | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Limited agent and chat requests |
| Plus | $8/mo excl. VAT | Introductory plan, Grok models only, shared usage pool with Grok |
| Premium | $30/mo excl. VAT | 4x Plus usage, cloud agents, AI code reviews, third-party models at API price |
| Super | $100/mo excl. VAT | 15x Plus usage, priority model access at peak times |
| Ultra | $200/mo excl. VAT | 50x Plus usage, earliest access to new products and models |
Prices checked on the vendor's page
Description
Bolt.new: Build full-stack web apps in your browser by describing what you want, no local setup needed
Cursor: AI code editor (VS Code fork) that lets you talk to your codebase, autocomplete across files, and refactor with a prompt
Best for
Bolt.new: Non-technical founders who want to build and host a web app or site from a prompt in the browser.
Cursor: Solo developers who want an AI code editor; paid plans also bundle Grok and X Premium features.
Pros
- Zero setup: open a browser tab and start building
- Live preview updates as the AI writes code
- Supports React, Next.js, Astro, and more out of the box
- Feels like VS Code: your extensions and shortcuts just work
- Tab completions predict multi-line changes, not just single words
- Can reference your entire codebase when answering questions
Cons
- Free tier token limits mean you hit walls mid-project
- Browser-based means no access to native tools, local databases, or heavy computation
- Generated code can be messy and hard to maintain long-term
- Free tier runs out fast: expect to hit the paywall within a week of real use
- Sometimes confidently suggests wrong code, especially for less popular libraries
- Plans are bundled with Grok and X Premium since 2026: the $8 Plus plan allows Grok models only, and third-party models are billed separately by usage
Details
Bolt.new runs a full Node.js environment inside your browser using WebContainers. You describe what you want to build, it writes the code, and you see a live preview instantly. No installing Node, no terminal, no VS Code, just a browser tab.
This is genuinely useful for prototyping. You can go from “I need a landing page with a waitlist form” to a working app in minutes. But the limitations show up when you try to build something complex: the free tier token limits are tight, and the generated code sometimes needs cleanup before it is production-ready. Think of it as a rapid prototyping tool, not a replacement for a real development setup.
If you already use VS Code, Cursor is the shortest path to having AI actually understand your project. It does more than autocomplete: you can highlight code and ask “why is this breaking?” or tell it “add error handling to all API routes” and watch it edit multiple files.
The tab completions are the killer feature. They predict what you are about to type based on what you just did, and they are eerily good at continuing patterns. The free tier gives you a taste, but its agent and chat requests are limited and run out quickly. Since 2026 the paid plans are shared with Grok and X Premium: Plus at $8 a month allows Grok models only, Premium at $30 is the first plan with cloud agents and third-party models (billed separately by usage), and Super and Ultra at $100 and $200 add more usage. Keep an eye on your usage if you are doing heavy agent work. Anysphere, the company that makes Cursor, became part of SpaceX when SpaceX completed its acquisition on 14 August 2026.
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