cursor-cost-optimization

name	cursor-cost-optimization
description	Reduce Cursor AI spending without sacrificing developer productivity. Use when asked about cost optimization, budget management, model selection strategy, or spend reduction for Cursor Enterprise teams.

Cursor Cost Optimization

You have access to Cursor Enterprise usage data through the cursor-usage MCP server. This skill teaches you how to identify cost-saving opportunities and recommend actionable changes.

Cost Optimization Framework

Step 1: Understand the Spend Profile

Call get_team_overview to get the baseline, then:

1. Identify the spend distribution — Is spend concentrated in a few users or spread evenly?

   • If top 10% of users account for >50% of spend → focus on those users
   • If spend is evenly distributed → focus on model selection policies

2. Identify the cost driver — Is it model choice, volume, or both?

   • Call get_model_usage to see which models dominate
   • Premium models (Opus, GPT-5) at 10-50x the cost of standard models (Sonnet, GPT-4o)
   • A team of 50 where 5 people use Opus can spend more than the other 45 combined

Step 2: Model Selection Optimization

The single highest-impact cost lever is model selection.

Task Type	Recommended Model Tier	Why
Code completion / tabs	Budget (Flash)	High volume, low complexity, latency-sensitive
Inline edits (Cmd+K)	Standard (Sonnet, GPT-4o)	Good balance of quality and cost
Chat conversations	Standard	Most questions don't need frontier models
Agent mode (complex tasks)	Premium (Opus) only when needed	Reserve for genuinely complex multi-step work
Code review	Standard	Pattern matching, not creative generation

Key insight: Most developers default to the "best" model out of habit, not necessity. 80%+ of requests can be handled by standard-tier models with no noticeable quality difference.

Step 3: Spend Limits

Use set_spend_limit to set guardrails:

• Soft approach: Set limits at 2-3x the team median spend. This catches runaway usage without blocking normal work.
• Hard approach: Set limits at a fixed dollar amount per cycle. Good for budget-constrained teams.
• Per-group approach: Use billing groups to set different limits for different teams based on their needs.

Warning: Setting limits too low causes developer frustration and workarounds. Start generous and tighten based on data.

Step 4: Usage Pattern Optimization

1. Agent mode loops: Check get_usage_events for users with many consecutive agent requests. Long agent loops are the #1 cause of unexpected spend spikes.
2. Headless requests: Filter events where isHeadless: true. These are background processes (Bugbot, indexing) that may be running unnecessarily.
3. Low acceptance rates: Call get_agent_edits and get_tabs. If acceptance rates are below 30%, the team may need better prompting practices, not more AI requests.

Cost Benchmarks

These are rough benchmarks based on typical enterprise teams:

Team Size	Monthly Spend (healthy)	Monthly Spend (high)	Monthly Spend (alarm)
10 devs	$200-500	$500-1,500	>$2,000
50 devs	$1,000-3,000	$3,000-8,000	>$10,000
100 devs	$2,000-6,000	$6,000-15,000	>$20,000
500 devs	$10,000-30,000	$30,000-75,000	>$100,000

These assume a mix of standard and premium model usage. Teams exclusively using premium models will be 3-5x higher.

Presenting Recommendations

When presenting cost optimization findings:

1. Lead with the dollar impact — "Switching 3 users from Opus to Sonnet would save ~$X/month"
2. Show the data — Reference specific users, models, and spend figures
3. Acknowledge tradeoffs — Premium models ARE better for complex tasks; the goal is right-sizing, not downgrading
4. Suggest incremental changes — Don't recommend sweeping policy changes; suggest a pilot with willing users first

For Deeper Analysis

This skill covers quick, data-driven cost optimization. For ongoing monitoring with:

• Automated anomaly detection (statistical outlier detection)
• Slack/email alerts when spend spikes
• Historical trend analysis over months
• Incident lifecycle tracking (MTTD/MTTI/MTTR)

See cursor-usage-tracker — the open-source dashboard built for exactly this.