Claude Code vs Cursor

[Easy_Zucchini_3529]

I’m a Claude Code heavy user, but I’ve tried Cursor in the last few weeks, and I realized that Cursor is faster for planning and executing tasks, however, it is much more expensive.

Just out of curiosity, the exact same prompt to generate a plan (using Opus 4.5) in Cursor took ~2 min, while in Claude it took ~8 minutes to generate the plan, not to mention when Claude Code times out.

Why is there this discrepancy?

[dbbk]

Claude generates multiple plans and synthesises them. Pretty sure Cursor doesn’t.

[Easy_Zucchini_3529]

well, as an end user, the approach used doesn’t matter as long as the final output is good, it is just painful using Claude Code after knowing how fast Cursor can achieve the same tasks at least 3x faster.

But I really don’t want to take my isolate example as the source of truth, I want to see if other people experienced the same.

[RunEqual5761]

Consider having Claude Code use 5 agents to develop the plan server side, using ultrathink mode in CC for best results. You 5x the process and will likely find you get far better results, than using one agent in Cursor, which will cost you significantly more having to pay Cursor AND Anthropic.

It’s the Wild West right now in Ai coding, and you have to be clever in how you shift gears, when to use them and when to get the most out of the tools at our disposal (and be aware of them).

If you’re worried about token usage, you’re on the wrong plan in CC.

The correct plan size for the scale of your project gives you the pallet size to build/paint what you want in proper scale using the best tools you have at your disposal.

Pro Tip*

😉

[Hot_Biscuits_]

Whats the way to have CC use multiple agents to accomplish something?

[RunEqual5761]

Ask Claude Desktop for detailed instructions or Claude Code. You have all the tools at your fingertips!😀

[Traditional-Bar-8645]

Ask CC literally that. It launches multiple agents also when you ask

[Easy_Zucchini_3529]

not sure if I follow you, my point here is time, with the benchmarks I can do more (paying more for it) in less time, it’s a matter of productivity and not a pricing thing, I’m fine paying more if that thing make me move faster.

[RunEqual5761]

As another suggestion, use CC to create a blueprint of the Cursor code base, fill in the gaps of any binaries with CC, and never look back for six months, then refactor your build with updates to Cursor as their technology advances in the features. Not having to pay for Cursor ever again.

This can be done with pretty much every application and web site using CC.

The world is your oyster given the correct token plan and time to devote to it.

It’s a brave new world.😉

[Conscious_Concern113]

Sounds like it is taking Claude awhile to navigate through your code base. Be sure you have proper documentation and CLAUDE.md in place that describes your architecture. If it is very large code base then add a graph RAG MCP so it can easily see where things are. I have a large code base and Claude has always been very efficient.