After sleeping on the Cursor + OpenAI news from last night, I think it points to a broader question of openness. I don’t actually use Cursor, so it doesn’t affect me, but I’m interested in the dynamics of the industry.
There were two ways to use GPT-5.6 inside Cursor:
- With a Cursor subscription. You pay Cursor and they in turn pay OpenAI. That arrangement is going away.
- By using an OpenAI API key. You enter your key and you are charged per token. That will still work.
What isn’t possible, but perhaps is needed, is a solution in the middle. A portable subscription that any IDE can use to integrate with a model provider’s flat-rate plan without having to negotiate a deal.
You can use a $20 OpenAI subscription with OpenClaw and Xcode. You probably should be able to use it with Cursor too, even if it doesn’t give you as much access as from within Codex.
Many people believe that current AI prices are heavily subsidized and as soon as we’re all addicted to using AI, the prices will increase. In fact, the opposite trend is already playing out. Prices are a fraction of what they were just a couple years ago. And as costs drop, Jevons paradox kicks in.
What seems untenable in the long run is token pricing. It is hard to wrap your head around or even estimate when building apps. Is this new feature going to be nearly free or expensive? How much is this refactor in Cursor going to cost?
Netflix is the same price whether you watch two shows a week or 20 shows. With enough subscribers, it balances out. AI has much higher marginal costs — Netflix bandwidth doesn’t burn through GPUs — but as those costs fall, maybe the frontier labs can figure this out too. What seems missing is a flat-rate subscription that follows you across whatever tools you choose to use.
