Cursor is launching a new subscription tier for India priced at ₹649 a month, just weeks before SpaceX is expected to complete its acquisition of the AI coding startup.
The plan, called Cursor Start, sits well below the standard Pro rate of $20 a month. It targets developers who need more AI assistance than the free tier provides but do not require the full suite of features in the paid version.
The move
India is now the startup’s third-largest market globally. The number of users in the country has more than tripled over the past year. Simon Green, head of Asia-Pacific and Japan at Cursor, said the nation’s deep pool of engineering talent made it the first location to receive a localised price.
“We felt that we had an opportunity there to right-size the commercial model and drive scale,” Green said. “The technical competency of the country and the engineering talent that already exists make it a very natural fit.”
Earlier this year, GitHub reported that India hosts more than 27 million developers on its platform, second only to the United States. More than two million joined the site in 2026 alone.
Features and limits
Cursor Start includes access to the Composer 2.5 model and Grok 4.5. It offers higher usage limits than the free tier along with cloud agents, the iOS app, plugins, Model Context Protocol support, hooks, and skills.
Unlike the Pro subscription, this plan does not include frontier AI models from OpenAI or Anthropic. It also lacks advanced features such as Bugbot, Auto Mode, Automations, and the Cursor SDK.
Payments are billed in Indian rupees and accept credit and debit cards as well as the Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
Enforcement and competition
Cursor will use multiple checks to ensure the India-only subscription remains available only to individual users within the country. The company plans to use measures to deter access through virtual private networks (VPNs).
OpenAI and Anthropic have also rolled out India-specific plans over the past year as global AI companies compete for users in one of the world’s fastest-growing AI markets.
OpenAI provided a precedent for this strategy, having launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go in India before expanding the lower-priced subscription to other markets.
Green said Cursor could expand localised pricing to other markets if the model proves successful. He noted it would be crazy to say the company would never do it elsewhere.
Local hiring and expansion
Cursor is expanding its physical presence in India through new hires. The startup recently hired its first salesperson in India and expects another leader to join in Delhi. It is also building out a government affairs office alongside three technical customer support hires.
These efforts focus on expanding the company’s footprint in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
Enterprise adoption is still in its early stages, with current use driven largely by individual developers, startups, and universities. Green sees significant opportunities in sectors including banking and large enterprises as the company expands its local sales efforts.
Cost structure and sustainability
The India-specific pricing was designed to be commercially sustainable rather than a loss leader. Green said the lower-priced plan is viable because it is built around Cursor’s own AI models. These carry lower operating costs than relying primarily on third-party frontier models.
The SpaceX deal
Cursor’s expansion comes a little over a month after Elon Musk’s SpaceX agreed to acquire the AI coding startup in a $60 billion all-stock deal. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3 following SpaceX’s initial public offering.
SpaceX has been partnered with Cursor since April to develop a next-generation “coding and knowledge work AI.” Green said Cursor will continue to operate independently until the transaction closes. His team’s India expansion plans were already in motion before the deal.
Once the acquisition closes, Green said SpaceX’s existing presence in India through Starlink could help Cursor expand faster by lowering commercial and operational barriers.
What it means
Developers in India now have a cheaper entry point to advanced AI coding tools without needing a global Pro account. The pricing reflects local purchasing power while maintaining a sustainable business model based on the company’s own infrastructure. This approach could set a template for other tech firms entering the Indian market.
