Answers · AI output
Can I use code written with Cursor commercially?
Last updated
TL;DR: Yes. Cursor's Terms of Service (last updated September 3, 2026) say you keep your rights in your Inputs and Anysphere, the company behind Cursor, assigns to you whatever rights it has in Suggestions, the code and other output Cursor gives you. The terms have no separate commercial-use clause and don't split this by plan. But that assignment covers only Anysphere's rights, 'if any'. Cursor warns that Suggestions may be the same as or similar to ones other customers get, gives you no rights in theirs, provides Suggestions as-is with no warranty of non-infringement, and makes you responsible for evaluating them. So you can ship Cursor code in a commercial product, but checking it for copied open source code and its licenses is your job, and code generated from a prompt alone may not be protected by copyright. If your company has a Master Services Agreement with Anysphere, that agreement governs instead.
What should I check, step by step?
1. Find out which terms apply: the Cursor Terms of Service for individual accounts, or your company's Master Services Agreement with Anysphere if it has one (the terms say the MSA governs).
- Review Suggestions like a pull request from a stranger: the terms make you responsible for evaluating them and say you must not rely on any Suggestion as a source of truth.
- Check larger generated blocks for copied open source code with a code-scanning or snippet-matching tool, and handle any match by its license: MIT and BSD need the notice kept; GPL or AGPL code in a closed-source product is a problem.
- Scan the packages Cursor's agent adds, including their licenses and known vulnerabilities, before you ship.
- If you turn on a feature that runs code Suggestions automatically, read section 1.7: you take on the risks of auto-executed code, including data loss and security vulnerabilities.
- Check your training setting. Section 1.3 says Anysphere won't use your Content to train AI models, or let third parties do so, unless you've explicitly agreed; preferences are managed in the product.
- Don't use Suggestions to build or train a model that competes with Cursor; section 1.5 forbids it.
- Keep the human work visible (design, edits, tests, review) and keep a record of what you checked before release.
What Cursor's terms say (checked Oct 31, 2026)
Section 1.2 defines Inputs as what you provide and Suggestions as the code, outputs or other functions Cursor returns; together they are Content. You promise you have the rights needed for Anysphere to process your Inputs.
- Section 5.3: you retain all your rights in Inputs, and Anysphere assigns to you all of its right, title and interest, if any, in Suggestions.
- Section 1.4: Suggestions may be similar to or the same as Suggestions given to other customers, you get no rights in Suggestions made for others, and you bear the risks of using Suggestions.
- Section 14 provides the Service and Suggestions as-is and disclaims any warranty of non-infringement. Section 13 makes you indemnify Anysphere for misuse, breaches of the terms and claims about your Inputs. The terms contain no promise by Anysphere to defend you against claims about Suggestions.
Why 'you own it' isn't the whole answer
An assignment can only pass on rights the assignor has. If a Suggestion reproduces someone's licensed code, that code's license still applies to you.
- The U.S. Copyright Office's January 2025 report says material generated by AI from prompts alone isn't protected by copyright, while human selection, arrangement and modification can be. Heavily edited and reviewed code is easier to claim than code accepted as-is.
- This matches the other big coding tools: GitHub Copilot's terms also disclaim ownership of output and leave license checking to you.
What do the license checks say?
Yes means the license grants the use, on the duties listed. Duties such as source_disclosure, share_alike and network_source_offer are the ones that conflict with keeping a product closed-source.
| Use | Answer | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Keeping Cursor-generated code that matches MIT code in a closed-source app (MIT) | Yes | Every use you described is granted by MIT, and nothing you described is prohibited. Duties: attribution, license_notice. |
| Keeping Cursor-generated code that matches GPL-3.0 code in a closed-source app (GPL-3.0-only) | Yes | Every use you described is granted by GPL 3.0, and nothing you described is prohibited. Duties: attribution, license_notice, state_changes, share_alike, source_disclosure. |
How do I ask Rightshold about this (free, no key)?
Add the MCP server https://www.rightshold.com/mcp to Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT, Grok or VS Code, then ask: “A scan matched some code Cursor wrote for us to MIT and GPL-3.0 projects. Can we ship it in our closed-source product, and what do we owe?”
{
"tool": "check_rights_batch",
"arguments": {
"intended_use": {
"commercial_use": true,
"modification": true,
"redistribution": true
},
"items": [
{
"ref": "Cursor code matching an MIT repo",
"license": "MIT"
},
{
"ref": "Cursor code matching a GPL-3.0 repo",
"license": "GPL-3.0-only"
}
]
}
}- Free. check_rights_batch checks up to 100 snippets, packages and assets in one call and lists the duties for each.
- license_compatibility checks whether two licenses can be combined in one work.
- issue_rights_receipt (with an API key) binds a file's SHA-256 to the license and intended use you record, signs it and commits it to the ledger, so you can later show what you checked and when.
Rightshold checks the license you name against the use you describe. It doesn't detect Cursor-written or copied code, doesn't see your Cursor account or settings, and doesn't grant or confirm Anysphere's rights. Not legal advice.
What are the sources?
- Cursor Terms of Service (last updated September 3, 2026)
- U.S. Copyright Office: Copyright and Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Copyrightability (January 2025)
Related
- Can I use GitHub Copilot code commercially?
- Who owns code written by an AI coding agent?
- How to check if AI-generated code copied open source code
- Can I use Claude output commercially?
Not legal advice. JSON · Markdown · All answers
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curl -s -X POST https://www.rightshold.com/v1/accounts/signup -H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"accept_terms":true}'
export RIGHTSHOLD_API_KEY=rs_... # the api_key from the reply (shown once)
curl -s https://www.rightshold.com/v1/licenses/check -H "Authorization: Bearer $RIGHTSHOLD_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" -d '{"license":"MIT","intended_use":{"commercial_use":true}}'