Cursor strips dollar costs from usage dashboard and CSV export
Cursor, the AI coding tool, shipped a change that removed dollar cost figures from the Usage page for individual and self-serve Teams plans, replacing them with token counts only. The Spend metric and Cost column disappeared from the dashboard, and the Usage CSV export no longer contains dollar costs. Enterprise plans are unaffected and still show dollar amounts.
Users on Cursor's own community forum objected within the same day. Several said they relied on the dollar breakdown multiple times a day to track daily and per-model spending; one said they knew countless Cursor users who used the Spending Graph feature dozens of times a day, another said the Usage tab was permanently open in their browser to compare cost and performance across models such as Grok 4.5 and Opus 5, citing example increases of about $0.32 and $2.56 per message. A Teams plan user reported a combined usage cost of 30K USD across multiple employees in the current billing cycle and said they could no longer track per-user, per-model spend the way they could before.
A forum respondent identifying as Kevin Neilson (username kevinn), who wrote in the first person about the company's decisions, said there is currently no setting to switch back to dollar amounts for individual plans, and called the change intentional rather than a temporary reporting issue. He said dollar amounts had briefly been shown for individual plans but caused confusion because the figures were often higher than the user's actual plan cost, due to generous included usage on individual plans. He pointed users to two remaining sources of dollar figures: the On-Demand Spending total under Dashboard > Spending, and the Cost column in a CSV export from Dashboard > Usage, where amounts covered by a plan are marked "Included" rather than priced. For Teams admins, he pointed to Dashboard > Members > On-Demand for per-user on-demand totals, while noting there is currently no per-model dollar breakdown for self-serve Teams and individual plans; the separate Admin API still returns spending data and cost fields for Teams admins.
Separately, a Teams plan user with usage-based pricing enabled reported that, starting 2026-07-31, the dashboard's get-filtered-usage-events API endpoint began returning zeroed-out per-request cost fields (chargedCents: 0, usageBasedCosts: "$0.00", totalCents omitted), including for historical events that had previously shown real dollar values. Neilson responded that because the token-based change is applied when records are read rather than when they were logged, historical results are affected too. The thread on the discussion aggregator drew 163 points and 65 comments.
Key facts
- Cursor removed dollar cost figures from the Usage page for individual and self-serve Teams plans, cutting the Spend metric, the Cost column, and dollar amounts from the Usage CSV export; Enterprise plans still show dollar figures.
- A forum respondent identifying as Kevin Neilson called the change intentional, saying dollar figures on individual plans had caused confusion because they often exceeded the user's actual plan cost.
- Remaining ways to see dollar amounts: the On-Demand Spending total under Dashboard > Spending, and the Cost column in a Usage CSV export, where plan-covered usage is marked "Included".
- A Teams plan user reported that from 2026-07-31 the dashboard API began returning zeroed per-request cost fields (chargedCents: 0), including for historical events that previously showed real dollar values.
- A Teams plan user reported a combined usage cost of 30K USD across multiple employees in the current billing cycle and said per-user, per-model spend tracking is no longer possible the way it was before.
Why it matters
For a tool billed on usage, the dollar figure is the number that actually matters to the person paying the bill; token counts do not translate directly into cost because pricing differs by model. Pulling that figure from self-serve plans, while keeping it for Enterprise, reads to affected users as removing the one metric that let them budget and compare models day to day. The strength of the reaction, a 163-point, 65-comment thread within a day of the change, shows cost transparency is a live flashpoint for AI coding tools priced by usage rather than a flat subscription.
Who it affects
Individual Cursor plan users and self-serve Teams plans, including Teams admins overseeing multiple employees' spend. Enterprise plans are explicitly unaffected and continue to show dollar amounts. Anyone who had built their own reporting or scripts around the dashboard API's per-request cost fields is affected by the retroactive zeroing described below.
How to use it
Dollar figures have not disappeared entirely. Dashboard > Spending still shows an On-Demand Spending total for the current billing cycle, matching what will be billed. Dashboard > Usage, with a CSV export, still carries dollar amounts in the Cost column for on-demand usage; usage covered by the plan shows as "Included" instead of a dollar figure. Teams admins can check Dashboard > Members > On-Demand for per-user on-demand totals, and the separate Admin API still returns spending data and cost fields for Teams admins, though there is currently no per-model dollar breakdown for self-serve Teams and individual plans.
How solid is it
The account comes from Cursor's own community forum, where a user identifying as Kevin Neilson (username kevinn) responded directly and in the first person about the company's design reasoning, confirming the change was deliberate rather than a bug. No Cursor blog post, changelog, or other official announcement is quoted or linked in the thread; his forum replies are the only company-side voice present. The report that the dashboard API now returns zeroed cost fields for historical events comes from a single user's account in the thread, not independently confirmed elsewhere in the source.
Risks and caveats
The thread gives no total count of affected accounts and no indication of whether or when dollar figures might return for self-serve plans. The claim that historical, previously accurate cost records now read as zero through the API is one user's report; Neilson's reply explains the mechanism (the token-based change is applied when records are read) but does not independently verify the specific zeroed values described.
“There isn't currently a setting to switch back to dollar amounts for individual plans. Enterprise Plans will still show dollar amounts here, but individual plans will not.”
— Kevin Neilson (kevinn), on Cursor's community forum