--- title: OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor | daily.dev description: OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor after Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, cutting off direct access to OpenAI models through Cursor on November 12,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor | daily.dev og:description: OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor after Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, cutting off direct access to OpenAI models through Cursor on November 12,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/gIsQX1qWp.png og:image:alt: OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor **[Theo - t3․gg](https://daily.dev/sources/t3dotgg)** · 27 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor after Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, cutting off direct access to OpenAI models through Cursor on November 12, 2026. The move is framed as concern over data distillation risk given Elon Musk's history of pulling data from partner models to improve Grok, especially ahead of OpenAI's upcoming Astra model. Cursor users will still be able to use OpenAI models via personal API keys or IDE extensions, but lose native subscription access. The piece also covers the public spat between Cursor's Michael Truell and OpenAI's Tibor Blaho over token-efficiency stats, and recommends alternative unified coding tools (T3 Code, Superset, Herder) plus direct subscriptions to Claude Code or Codex for frontier model access. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### When will OpenAI models stop working in Cursor after the SpaceX acquisition? OpenAI is ending direct model access for Cursor with a proposed shut-off date of November 12th, following Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX. Cursor users can still access OpenAI models afterward by using their own OpenAI API key or through OpenAI's official IDE extension for Cursor, which will keep working. _Developers juggling multiple AI coding subscriptions can track platform shakeups like this one on daily.dev._ ### Why is OpenAI cutting off Cursor's access to its models? OpenAI states it cannot be confident SpaceX will honor its terms of service, citing Elon Musk's past admission under oath that XAI distilled OpenAI data and violated similar terms. The real driver appears to be OpenAI's upcoming Astra model, since the custom contract with Cursor gives a limited window to cancel after a change of control, and OpenAI wants to prevent Astra's data being used to improve Cursor's own models like Composer or Grok. _Anyone weighing which AI coding tool to commit to can follow how these vendor disputes unfold on daily.dev._ ### How token-efficient is Claude Opus compared to GPT models on coding benchmarks in Cursor? On Cursor Bench Max, GPT-based models scored 70.5% using about 103,000 tokens per task, while a Claude-based model scored 67.2% using only 28,000 tokens per task, a roughly 3x efficiency gap. This token efficiency difference is why raw token-share metrics, like the claim that OpenAI models represent only 5% of Cursor's traffic, understate actual usage share. _Developers comparing model cost and efficiency before choosing a coding assistant can dig into benchmarks like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [SpaceXAI and Cursor's first joint AI model could ship today](https://daily.dev/posts/spacexai-and-cursor-s-first-joint-ai-model-could-ship-today-xsx6jz7yn) · The Next Web · 2 upvotes · 2 comments --- Tags: [#llm](https://daily.dev/tags/llm), [#openai](https://daily.dev/tags/openai), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp"},"datePublished":"2026-08-30T07:24:11.016Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T20:35:56.099Z","description":"OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor after Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, cutting off direct access to OpenAI models through Cursor on November 12,...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jKCjLzjmiaA/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jKCjLzjmiaA/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Theo - t3․gg","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Theo - t3․gg","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--UmX7IyU3--/f_auto/v1704628081/logos/t3dotgg.jpg","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/t3dotgg"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"llm,openai,ai-coding,anthropic","timeRequired":"PT27M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor","description":"OpenAI is ending its partnership with Cursor after Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX, cutting off direct access to OpenAI models through Cursor on November 12,...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/jKCjLzjmiaA/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-30T07:24:11.016Z","duration":"PT27M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/gIsQX1qWp","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/jKCjLzjmiaA"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Theo - t3․gg","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/t3dotgg"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"OpenAI Broke Up With Cursor"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/openai-broke-up-with-cursor-gisqx1qwp#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"When will OpenAI models stop working in Cursor after the SpaceX acquisition?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"OpenAI is ending direct model access for Cursor with a proposed shut-off date of November 12th, following Cursor's acquisition by SpaceX. 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