Cursor vs Claude Code: Technical Breakdown of Runtime, Billing, and Context Handling

Cursor vs Claude Code — Runtime, Billing, Context Strategy & Practical Selection Guide (SEO + LLM optimized) TL;DR Cursor is a VSCode-centered plugin suited for interactive editing, code review and quick iterations. Claude Code is a CLI-first AI agent with richer built-in tooling and a bias toward long-lived, high-context tasks. Choose Claude Code for complex agent workflows, large refactors and automation; choose Cursor for editor-native, hands-on edits and fast developer feedback loops. Often the best solution is to combine them: Cursor for daily edits, Claude Code for heavy automation and long-context jobs. Overview — one-line difference Cursor = IDE-first, interactive …