How to Install Cursor on macOS & Windows — 5-Minute Setup [2026]

⏱ TL;DR — What you’ll learn

• How long it takes: a few seconds to download on 1 Gbps, ~10 seconds to copy into Applications, and about 5 minutes total including first-launch setup
• Supported platforms: macOS (ARM64 / x64 / Universal), Windows (x64 and ARM64, each in System and User installers), Linux (.deb / .rpm / AppImage)
• Before you start: create a Cursor account first so sign-in is instant (the free Hobby plan still unlocks AI completions)
• VS Code users: the first-launch wizard imports extensions, keybindings, and themes in one click

📏 Memory footprint I’ve measured: on macOS Tahoe / M4 Max, a small project sits at 400–800 MB. Opening several large codebases at once — a WordPress theme with ~10,000 files, for example — pushes memory past 1 GB and occasionally close to 5 GB, especially during the first index. On an 8 GB machine I’d close unrelated apps before the first launch.

📝 Steps

1. Click Download for macOS
2. A .dmg (roughly 210–250 MB) starts downloading
3. On a 1 Gbps connection, this takes a few seconds in my experience

💡 Apple Silicon vs. Intel

The Download button auto-detects your OS and CPU, so Apple Silicon (M1/M2/M3/M4) and Intel each get the right build. To pick manually, open the download page and choose ARM64, x64, or Universal explicitly.

For CLI users: brew install --cask cursor works just as well. You can also keep updates in sync with brew upgrade --cask cursor — convenient if you already manage other apps with Homebrew.

📝 Steps

1. Click Download for Windows
2. An .exe file starts downloading

💡 User Installer vs. System Installer

For personal use, the User Installer (default) is fine — it installs under your user profile and needs no admin rights. Pick the System Installer only when you need a machine-wide install, for example on shared corporate hardware. On ARM64 Windows devices (Snapdragon X Elite and similar), the ARM64 build is noticeably faster than running x64 under emulation.

📝 Steps

1. Double-click the downloaded .dmg
2. Drag the Cursor icon into the Applications folder (the copy takes about 10 seconds)
3. Eject the .dmg from Finder
4. Launch Cursor from Applications

⚠️ If Gatekeeper says “cannot verify the developer”

The easiest fix is to right-click Cursor in Applications and choose “Open”, then click Open in the dialog. If it still refuses, open System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. You only have to do this once — subsequent launches skip the warning.

📝 Steps

1. Double-click the downloaded .exe
2. Accept the license agreement
3. When the installer finishes, Cursor launches automatically

⚠️ If SmartScreen blocks the installer

When “Windows protected your PC” appears, click More info and then Run anyway. On a corporate device where you don’t have admin rights, re-download the User Installer — it doesn’t need elevated permissions and sidesteps the prompt.

🧰 If the download stalls: (1) try a different browser (Chrome → Safari / Edge), (2) toggle your VPN off, (3) clear the browser cache and re-download, (4) ask IT to add cursor.com and downloads.cursor.com to the proxy allow-list. I haven’t hit any of these myself, but readers on locked-down corporate networks have asked about each of them.

✅ Imported cleanly on my machine

• Extensions: ESLint, Prettier, GitLens, Japanese Language Pack, Markdown All in One and the other common tools worked without changes
• Keybindings: VS Code shortcuts came through intact. Cursor’s AI-chat shortcuts take priority in a few places, so it’s worth glancing at the bindings once
• Themes and fonts: Dark+ and my custom editor font carried over with no adjustment
• settings.json: every key that exists in VS Code kept working. Cursor simply appends its own AI-related keys alongside them

💡 Tweaks I made after the import:

• Reviewed Cursor’s AI settings (context scope, default model) to match how I actually work
• Added a .cursorrules file at the project root so Cursor picks up our code style and naming conventions
• Left Settings Sync on in VS Code only and kept Cursor’s settings local, so the two editors don’t fight over the same account

🔑 Sign in to your Cursor account

AI features (completions, chat, agents) require a Cursor account. You can sign up with email or GitHub. Creating the account before you install avoids a detour on the sign-in screen. The free Hobby plan already unlocks the core AI features.

💰 My own budget (Pro at $20/month):

• On the free Hobby plan, a Tab-completion-focused workflow lasted me about 1–2 weeks before I hit limits — quotas shift with your account and the time of year, so treat that as a rough guide
• I upgraded the moment I started leaning on long Composer sessions and switching models frequently for cost/quality trade-offs
• To stretch the free plan: (1) keep the model on Auto, (2) keep chats short so you aren’t shipping unnecessary context, (3) reach for Composer only when you really need it

🍎 macOS

1. Drag Cursor from Applications to the Trash
2. For a full wipe, also remove:
   • ~/.cursor (user settings, .cursorrules, etc.)
   • ~/Library/Application Support/Cursor
   • ~/Library/Caches/Cursor
   • ~/Library/Logs/Cursor

🪟 Windows

1. Uninstall Cursor from Settings → Apps
2. For a full wipe, also delete:
   • %APPDATA%\Cursor
   • %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\Cursor
   • %USERPROFILE%\.cursor

My takeaway — Cursor installs in five minutes, and the VS Code switch is practically a single click

1. Grab the installer from the official site
2. Drag into Applications (10 seconds) on macOS, or run .exe on Windows
3. First-launch wizard → theme, VS Code import, and sign-in → you’re coding with AI in ~5 minutes

If you already use VS Code, the workhorse extensions (ESLint, GitLens, and the rest) keep working without changes. The free Hobby plan is enough for 1–2 weeks of light exploration; for daily use, Pro at $20/month is the sweet spot. Install it, try it on a real project, and only then compare it to other editors.
👉 What is Cursor? A complete feature overview
👉 AI editor comparison