Controversy: Cursor Eliminates Cost Data from Usage Page and CSVs

An intense discussion has erupted on the Cursor Community Forum regarding a recent update that stripped financial transparency from the usage dashboard. Users are reporting that the familiar dollar-based tracking has been replaced by token counts.

🚨 The User Grievances

Several users, including Bingojr, Kaleb_Maul, and Eli Smith, expressed immediate frustration upon discovering the change. The primary complaints center on the inability to monitor active daily spending.

"Today, the $$ amount is replaced by token amount which is completely useless." — Bingojr

Key Pain Points:

• Lack of Transparency: Users on on-demand billing can no longer see the per-request cost.
• Team Management: It is now nearly impossible for individual team members to track their personal contribution to a shared on-demand cap.
• Workflow Disruption: Many users relied on the spending graph dozens of times a day to manage budgets.

🛠️ Other Reported Bugs

Bingojr also noted that Cursor feels more "buggy," specifically mentioning that sub-agents are being auto-selected despite default settings.

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🛡️ The Official Response

Kevin Neilson (representing Cursor) clarified that this was a deliberate design choice for self-serve plans.

Why the change?

Cursor previously displayed dollar amounts for individual plans, but this caused confusion. Because individual plans include a generous amount of usage, the "calculated cost" often appeared higher than what the user actually paid for their subscription.

The new logic is as follows:

1. Included Usage: Displayed as token counts and labeled as "Included".
2. On-Demand Usage: Only usage exceeding the plan limit will show a dollar figure in the Cost column.

Visibility Matrix

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📉 Technical Impact & API Changes

The removal isn't just visual; it extends to the data exports and the API. The transition can be summarized as: Dollar Amounts ($$) $\rightarrow$ Token Amounts

API Regression

User JPPIX4D discovered that the endpoint https://cursor.com/api/dashboard/get-filtered-usage-events has been gutted. Specifically, the following fields are now zeroed out or missing:

• chargedCents
• usageBasedCosts
• tokenUsage.totalCents

Example of the current (broken) API response:

{
  "chargedCents": 0,
  "usageBasedCosts": "$0.00",
  "tokenUsage": {
    "totalCents": null 
  }
}

The Math of the Problem

Users are essentially being asked to calculate their own costs using a formula like: $\text{Total Cost} = \sum (\text{Tokens} \times \text{Model Rate})$ ...but without the per-request data, this is impossible to do accurately.

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🔄 Logic Flow of Usage Tracking

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📋 User Demands & Final Thoughts

The community is calling for a reversal of this decision, arguing that transparency is not optional for a metered product.

Requested Fixes:

• Implement a toggle/dropdown to switch between Tokens and Dollars.
• Restore per-request cost fields in the API.
• Bring back the per-model spending breakdown for Teams plans.

Final Note on Sub-agents: Regarding the "buggy" sub-agent behavior, Kevin explained that users are likely seeing the explore subagent model choice, which functions differently than the standard disabled settings.

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