Cursor is making a bigger commitment to India with a new country-specific subscription that costs far less than its standard Pro plan. The launch comes weeks before Cursor’s expected acquisition by SpaceX closes, and it shows how central India has become to the AI coding startup’s growth plans.
A lower-cost plan for a major developer market
On Monday, Cursor introduced Cursor Start, a ₹649-a-month (about $7) plan built specifically for India. That is well below Cursor’s standard $20-a-month Pro subscription.
The company says India is already its third-largest market globally. It also says India has its highest concentration of power users, and that its user base in the country has more than tripled over the past year.
Simon Green, Cursor’s head of Asia-Pacific and Japan, told TechCrunch that India’s scale and engineering base made it the first market where Cursor chose to localize pricing. The company is trying to make its commercial model fit local demand while giving more developers a path beyond the free tier.
Green described the decision this way: "We felt that we had an opportunity there to right-size the commercial model and drive scale." He added: "The technical competency of the country and the engineering talent that already exists make it a very natural fit."
What Cursor Start includes
Cursor Start is aimed at developers who need more AI-assisted coding capacity than the free tier provides, but who do not need the full Pro subscription. The plan includes access to Cursor’s Composer 2.5 model and Grok 4.5, along with higher usage limits than the free tier.
It also includes cloud agents, Cursor’s iOS app, plugins, Model Context Protocol support, hooks, and skills. For individual developers, that means the plan is positioned as a more capable everyday subscription without moving all the way up to Pro.
The plan is billed in Indian rupees. It supports credit cards, debit cards, and India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which gives local users payment options that match the market.
What remains outside the India plan
Cursor Start is not designed to replace Cursor Pro. Green told TechCrunch that the lower-priced plan is meant to broaden access, while the flagship subscription keeps several major capabilities.
Unlike the $20-a-month Pro subscription, Start does not include access to frontier AI models from providers such as OpenAI and Anthropic. It also does not include advanced features including Bugbot, Auto Mode, Automations, and the Cursor SDK.
That split matters because it explains how Cursor can lower the price without offering the same product at a discount. Cursor Start is built around Cursor’s own AI models, which Green said carry lower operating costs than relying mainly on third-party frontier models.
Green also said the India-specific pricing was designed to be commercially sustainable rather than a loss leader. In other words, Cursor is presenting the plan as a long-term product strategy, not a temporary promotion.
Why India is the first test
India has become one of the world’s largest software developer hubs. Earlier this year, GitHub said the country has more than 27 million developers on its platform, second only to the U.S., with more than two million joining in 2026 alone.
That developer base gives AI coding companies a clear reason to compete more directly in India. Cursor is not the only company adjusting pricing for the market. 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.
For Cursor, the India plan is also a controlled test of localized pricing. Cursor Start is initially limited to India, but Green told TechCrunch that the company could expand the approach elsewhere if it works.
"We will continue to do everything we can to fuel the demand and serve those clients that are using us," Green said. "Now, if this model proves that we could take it to other markets, perhaps we will. But I think it’d be crazy to say we would never do it elsewhere."
OpenAI provides one precedent for that kind of expansion. It launched its sub-$5 ChatGPT Go in India before expanding the lower-priced subscription to other markets.
Local hiring and the SpaceX backdrop
Cursor’s India push is not limited to pricing. Green told TechCrunch that the startup recently hired its first salesperson in India and expects another leader to join in Delhi. The company is also building out its government affairs office, along with three technical customer support hires.
Cursor is expanding its presence in Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai. Its enterprise push in India is still early, Green said, with adoption so far driven largely by individual developers, startups, and universities.
The company sees significant opportunities in sectors including banking and large enterprises as it builds local sales efforts. That suggests Cursor is trying to move from strong individual usage toward broader organizational adoption.
The timing is notable because Cursor’s India 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, following SpaceX’s blockbuster initial public offering. The acquisition is expected to close in Q3.
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, and that the 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. For now, Cursor Start gives the company a lower-priced entry point in a market where developer demand is already large and growing.