Different kinds of product
JetBrains Air and Cursor both help you run coding agents, but they sit at different layers. JetBrains describes Air as a system for building software with AI agents, made of several parts: Air in IDEs, a plugin that brings coding agents into JetBrains IDEs; the Air app, a standalone desktop client; Air Teams, a shared cloud environment for tasks and automations; and Air Governance, the organization layer for access, cost and policy. Air does not ship its own agent. It runs Claude Agent, OpenAI Codex, Gemini CLI and Junie, plus any agent that speaks the Agent Client Protocol (ACP).
Cursor is an AI code editor built around its own Agent, with a CLI, Cloud Agents that run in isolated VMs, Automations, Bugbot code review and Origin code hosting. It is now sold as part of The X Subscription, one subscription for Grok, Cursor and X.
Maturity and availability
Several parts of Air are still early. JetBrains labels Air in IDEs an Early Access Program release under active development, and its plugin is listed as Air (alpha). The Air product page says cloud runs are available for some customers and will roll out to everyone else gradually over the coming months. The Air app installs on macOS from air.dev or JetBrains Toolbox, on Linux with an install script or Toolbox, and on Windows through Toolbox. Cursor's pricing page lists the Agent on every plan and Cloud Agents from Premium up, with no early-access label, and its CLI installs on macOS, Linux, WSL and Windows PowerShell.
Models and AI access
Air is built around bringing your own access. In the Air app, a local task can run on JetBrains AI or on your own provider account: OpenAI Codex accepts a ChatGPT Plus, Pro or Team account or an OpenAI Platform API account; Gemini CLI accepts a Google account or Google AI Studio API billing; Claude Agent uses an Anthropic Console account with API billing; and Junie uses your JetBrains account. Air applies your own account before JetBrains AI credits for local tasks. Cloud tasks and automations always use JetBrains AI and spend JetBrains AI credits, whichever agent you pick. Air in IDEs does not provide models of its own and does not require a JetBrains AI subscription.
Cursor gives every paid plan a weekly usage pool for Cursor's own models, shared across Grok and Cursor. Plus covers Grok 4.7, Grok 4.6, Grok 4.5 and Composer 2.5 only. Premium and higher plans add third-party models such as Claude, GPT and Gemini at the model's API list price, paid from prepaid credit.
Pricing
Cursor's individual plans are Free, Plus at $8 per month, Premium at $30 (4x Plus usage), Super at $100 (15x) and Ultra at $200 (50x). Annual billing is $80, $300, $1,000 and $2,000 a year. Cloud Agents, Automations, Bugbot, Origin and third-party models start at Premium. Teams seats cost $30, $100 or $200 per month, and Enterprise is custom.
Air has no separate per-developer price for individuals in its docs. You pay for the AI access behind the agents. Through JetBrains AI, that means AI credits worth $1 each: AI Pro costs $10 per month with 10 credits and AI Ultimate costs $30 with 35 credits for individuals. Or you use the provider subscriptions and API keys you already pay for. For organizations, Air Governance has a free Basic plan, a Business plan at $20 per seat per month and an Enterprise plan on request. Business adds AI policies, BYOK providers, model management, ACP agents and MCP server controls. JetBrains says SOC 2 Type II covers Air Governance.
Working style
Air's strength is running several agents side by side and reviewing what they produce. The Air app runs tasks in your workspace, a Git worktree, a Docker container or the cloud. It asks any agent to plan before writing code, even agents without a planning mode of their own. You can run a review pass with a different agent than the one that wrote the code, and local tasks leave changes uncommitted until you apply them. Air in IDEs keeps all of this inside IntelliJ-based IDEs, so you can use code insight, refactorings, the debugger and version control on agent output.
Cursor's strength is one tightly integrated agent across editor, terminal and cloud. Its CLI supports Agent, Plan and Ask modes, a print mode for scripts and CI, and handing a conversation to a Cloud Agent by prefixing a message with &. Cursor lists AIUC-1, ISO/IEC 27001:2022, ISO/IEC 42001:2023 and a SOC 2 Type II attestation, and Privacy Mode is available on every plan.
Who should pick which
- Pick JetBrains Air if your team lives in IntelliJ-based IDEs, already pays for Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini subscriptions or API keys, and wants to run and compare several vendors' agents under one review workflow and one governance layer.
- Pick Cursor if you want a single editor with a built-in agent, cloud agents, code review and code hosting from one vendor, and you are comfortable with Cursor's Grok and Composer models plus third-party models billed at API list price.
- If you are evaluating Air for cloud tasks, confirm your organization has cloud access first, because JetBrains is still rolling it out.
The Bottom Line
Cursor is the more complete product today: an editor, CLI and cloud agent platform sold on standard plans, with published plan prices and security certifications. JetBrains Air is the more open option, an agent-neutral workspace that lets you bring Claude, Codex, Gemini CLI and Junie into JetBrains tools on accounts you already pay for. Parts of it are still in early access, so treat it as a strong option for JetBrains-centric teams rather than a drop-in replacement for an AI editor.
