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Guide: Getting Access to Agentic AI in Cursor & VS Code (June 2025)

This supplement provides up-to-date advice for individuals on how to access agentic AI features in Cursor and Microsoft VS Code, including free tiers, cost models, and tips for maximizing productivity. Enterprise and team options are summarized for reference.

Agentic AI Access Guide

This guide explains how to effectively use AI agents in your development workflow. We'll focus on best practices for interacting with AI assistants and maximizing their utility in your development process.

Key Concepts

When working with AI agents, it's important to understand:

  1. Clear Communication
  2. Be specific in your requests
  3. Provide necessary context

  4. Ask follow-up questions when needed

  5. Effective Collaboration

  6. Treat the AI as a pair programmer
  7. Review and validate suggestions
  8. Iterate on solutions together

Cursor IDE (for Individuals)

  • How to Get Started:
  • Download Cursor from cursor.com for Mac, Windows, or Linux.
  • Sign up for a free account to access the Hobby (free) tier.

  • Activate the 14-day Pro trial for full features.

  • Free Tier:

  • Basic AI autocomplete, error detection, and limited AI chat (up to 50 queries/month).
  • 200 code completions/month.

  • Great for learning, small projects, and exploring agentic AI features.

  • Paid Plans (Individual):

  • Pro: $20/month — Unlimited agent requests, completions, background agents, bug bot, and max context windows.
  • Ultra: $200/month — 20x usage on all models, PR indexing, priority features (for power users).

  • See Cursor Pricing for details.

  • Tips to Maximize Free Use:

  • Use the free tier for practice and personal projects.

  • Take advantage of the 14-day Pro trial.

  • Productivity Advice:

  • Use Cursor's agent mode for multi-file changes, codebase-wide refactoring, and automated bug fixing.

  • Pair with free cloud dev environments (e.g., GitHub Codespaces) for zero-cost, full-stack dev.

  • Teams/Enterprise:

  • Team and enterprise plans add privacy controls, admin dashboards, and SSO. See Cursor Pricing for more.

Microsoft VS Code + GitHub Copilot (for Individuals)

  • How to Get Started:
  • Install VS Code and the GitHub Copilot extension.

  • Sign in with your GitHub account.

  • Free Tier:

  • Copilot Free: 2,000 code completions/month and 50 chat messages/month.
  • Available to individual developers (not orgs/enterprises).

  • Great for students, hobbyists, and those exploring AI coding.

  • Paid Plans (Individual):

  • Copilot Pro: $10/month — Unlimited completions, premium models, 300 premium requests/month.
  • Copilot Pro+: $39/month — 1,500 premium requests/month, Copilot agent, all models.
  • Students, teachers, and open source maintainers may qualify for free Pro access.

  • Copilot Plans

  • Tips to Maximize Free Use:

  • Use the free tier for learning and small projects.

  • Try alternatives (see below) for more generous free plans.

  • Productivity Advice:

  • Use Copilot's agent mode and chat for code generation, refactoring, and PR automation.

  • Integrate with MCP servers for advanced agentic workflows.

  • Teams/Enterprise:

  • Business and enterprise plans add centralized management and advanced controls. See Copilot Plans for more.

Top Free & Low-Cost Alternatives (2025)

  • Bito: Free, deep codebase understanding, AI chat, code review agent, CLI integration.
  • Codeium: Free for individuals, 32k context, Jupyter support, privacy controls.
  • Tabnine: Free basic plan, self-hosting, privacy, multi-IDE support.
  • Amazon CodeWhisperer: Unlimited free tier for individuals, strong AWS integration.
  • Sourcegraph Cody: Free for open source, excels at large monorepos.
  • FauxPilot, Tabby, CodeGeeX, AskCodi, Blackbox AI: Open-source or free plans, each with unique strengths.
  • JetBrains AI Assistant: Deep integration for JetBrains IDEs, free and paid options.
  • Replit Ghostwriter, Mutable.ai, Zed AI, Galaxy AI DevSuite: Each offers unique features, some with free tiers.

General Advice for Individuals

  • Start with free tiers to evaluate fit and features.
  • Use student/educator or open source discounts where available.
  • Mix and match tools: e.g., Copilot for completions, Bito or Codeium for chat and review.
  • For privacy or compliance, consider self-hosted or on-prem options (Tabnine, Cody, FauxPilot).
  • Monitor usage caps to avoid surprise charges.
  • For advanced agentic workflows, look for MCP (Model Context Protocol) support in your tool of choice.

References & Further Reading: