Cursor vs Tabnine: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Cursor starts free and paid plans now start at $8 a month. Tabnine starts at $39 per user a month and sells privacy. Here is how they compare.
By Galactic News Editorial · Published 2026-11-13T10:21:37+00:00 · Updated 2026-11-13T10:21:37+00:00
Cursor vs Tabnine: Features, Pricing and Verdict
Cursor and Tabnine are both coding assistants, but they solve different problems. Cursor is an editor rebuilt around its assistant. Tabnine is a plugin that brings assistance into the editor you already use, with privacy controls no other major tool matches. Cursor starts free, and its paid plans now start at $8 a month. Tabnine starts at $39 per user a month and has no free tier. This comparison covers features, pricing, privacy, and the verdict for each kind of buyer. Prices were read from Cursor's official pricing page and Tabnine's published pricing on 13 November 2026.
Cursor vs Tabnine at a glance
| Attribute | Cursor | Tabnine |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Standalone editor, a fork of VS Code with the assistant built in | Plugin for VS Code, JetBrains, and other major editors |
| Free tier | Yes, limited agent and chat requests | No, free Basic tier ended in 2025 |
| Paid plans from | $8 a month (Plus) | $39 per user a month, billed annually |
| Agent mode | Yes, multi-file agentic editing | Yes, on the Agentic Platform tier |
| Model choice | Grok models on Plus; third-party models at API list price on Premium and above | Choice of models, including self-hosted options |
| Deployment | Cloud only | SaaS, VPC, on-premises, and air-gapped |
| Privacy | Privacy mode stops code being used for training | Zero code retention, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 |
| Best for | Individual developers who want maximum capability per dollar | Regulated teams where code cannot leave the building |
What Cursor offers
Cursor is an editor first. It is a fork of VS Code where the assistant is the foundation, not a sidebar. Its agent mode plans and executes changes across multiple files from a single prompt. It also offers chat, codebase indexing, and code completion. That breadth is why most developers who try it stay with it.
Cursor's pricing changed recently, and older guides still list the retired Pro plan at $20 a month. The current pricing page, read on 13 November 2026, lists these tiers:
- Free, $0. Limited agent requests and limited chat requests.
- Plus, $8 a month. Shared usage pool. Grok models only, with Grok Chat, Voice, Imagine, Build, and API access included.
- Premium, $30 a month. The most popular tier. Four times the usage of Plus, plus cloud agents and automations, code hosting, code reviews, video generation, and third-party models at API list price.
- Super, $100 a month. Fifteen times the usage of Plus, with priority model access at peak times.
- Ultra, $200 a month. Fifty times the usage of Plus, with earliest access to all products and models.
- Teams, from $30 per user a month. Centralised billing, usage analytics, SSO, and team-wide privacy settings.
- Enterprise, custom. Pooled credits, SCIM, audit logs, and invoice billing.
Usage works as a shared pool across Cursor and Grok, and the allowance refreshes weekly. That means one heavy day never wipes out the whole month. If you reach your included usage, you can keep going with top-ups or wait for the refresh. Third-party models are not included in the monthly price on any tier. They are billed separately at API list price, and you can set spending caps.
What Tabnine offers
Tabnine is one of the longest-running coding assistants. It started in 2018 as a code completion tool and has since become an enterprise platform, now operating as part of Tricentis. It works as a plugin inside the editors developers already use, including VS Code and JetBrains. That is its core design choice: it adapts to your setup instead of asking you to switch editors.
Tabnine's published pricing is:
- Code Assistant, $39 per user a month, billed annually. Completions, IDE chat, IP protection, and flexible deployment across SaaS, VPC, and on-premises.
- Agentic Platform, $59 per user a month, billed annually. Everything above, plus a context engine, CLI agent, MCP integrations, and autonomous agents.
- Enterprise, custom. Everything above, plus air-gapped deployment, dedicated support, and custom integrations.
A 14-day free trial is available on paid plans, with no credit card. There is no permanent free tier. Tabnine ended its free Basic plan in 2025. Note that Tabnine's own pricing page now redirects to a Tricentis contact page, so the figures above come from pricing guides that read Tabnine's published pricing in October and November 2026. Confirm the current price with Tabnine before buying.
Cursor vs Tabnine: features head to head
Cursor wins on breadth. It gives you an agent that edits across files, cloud agents that work while you are away, code hosting, and code reviews through its Bugbot tool. It also bundles a whole second product: Grok chat, image and video generation, and API access. No other coding assistant ships that much in one subscription.
Tabnine wins on control. It is the only major assistant that can run entirely air-gapped, on your own infrastructure, with zero code retention. It offers self-hosted models, private deployment, and the governance controls that security teams demand. Its completions and chat are narrower than Cursor's agent, but that is the trade it makes on purpose.
For everyday coding, the practical gap is the editor. Cursor asks you to live in its editor. If you love your current setup, that is a real cost. Tabnine meets you where you are. If you already live in JetBrains or a heavily customised VS Code, Tabnine fits without friction.
Cursor vs Tabnine: privacy and deployment
This is where the two tools genuinely diverge. Cursor is cloud only. It offers a privacy mode that guarantees your code is not used for training by Cursor or its model providers. That is a solid promise for most teams. But your code still leaves your network.
Tabnine is built for the opposite case. It supports SaaS, VPC, on-premises, and fully air-gapped deployment. It holds SOC 2 and ISO 27001 certifications. For banks, defence contractors, health systems, and government teams, that is often a hard requirement, not a preference. If your compliance policy says code cannot leave the building, Tabnine is the only major option that complies.
Cursor vs Tabnine: pricing compared
For individuals, Cursor is far cheaper. Its Plus plan costs $8 a month, and its most popular Premium plan costs $30. Tabnine's entry tier costs $39 per user a month. A solo developer gets more capability from Cursor for less than a quarter of Tabnine's entry price.
For teams, the gap narrows but does not close. Cursor Teams starts at $30 per user a month. Tabnine Code Assistant costs $39 per user a month. The difference is $9 per seat. But the comparison is not like for like. Tabnine's price buys deployment options and governance that Cursor does not sell at any price. If you need those, the premium is the cost of compliance, not a markup on the same product.
Bottom line
Choose Cursor if you are an individual developer or a small team that wants the most capable coding assistant for the least money. Start free, then move to Plus at $8 a month or Premium at $30 a month when you need more usage. Choose Tabnine if you work in a regulated industry where code cannot leave your infrastructure. Its $39 per user a month buys air-gapped deployment, zero code retention, and the compliance controls that make the purchase possible at all. For everyone else, Cursor wins on price and capability. For regulated teams, Tabnine wins because it is the only tool that can be bought.