In September 2025, Cursor hit a milestone: 1M daily active users and $500M ARR. That translates to 1.3% of global developers and nearly 50% of the AI code editor market. (For more details of Cursor’s growth, checkout this post.)
Cursor’s growth now outpaces GitHub Copilot, which boasts 20M all-time users but lags in daily actives and ARR, even with broad enterprise integration. Cursor is also gaining ground in the enterprise: 53% of Fortune 1000 companies now hold seats, compared to Copilot’s 73% penetration in the Fortune 500.
Why Cursor Pulled Ahead
Cursor overtook GitHub by embedding AI directly into its architecture, unlocking workflows that plugins can’t match. Developers are noticing: satisfaction rates sit at 89% for Cursor versus 72% for Copilot.
Other key drivers:
Startup traction: 45% of YC companies use Cursor.
Hypergrowth: ARR scaled from $1M to $500M in under two years.
Credibility: Adopted by leading firms like OpenAI, Perplexity, Midjourney, and Shopify.
GitHub Copilot still holds enterprise strength, but Cursor’s faster innovation and workflow depth have shifted momentum. Looming in the background: Google’s upcoming Gemini-Bard-powered tools, a threat to both.
Why This Matters
This milestone is more than a business story—it’s a turning point for developer tooling. Cursor proves that when AI is designed as foundation, not plugin, it can reshape entire markets.
Key takeaways:
Developer loyalty shifts fast when superior AI-native experiences emerge.
Enterprise adoption follows quality, not just distribution power.
Architectural innovation beats incumbency—Cursor outcompeted GitHub Copilot despite Microsoft’s resources and reach.
AI-first design wins: tools built from the ground up with AI deliver meaningfully better outcomes.
The Bigger Lesson
Cursor’s rise underscores how AI-first design philosophy can disrupt even entrenched markets. For developers, this is validation that the best tools will come from those who rethink the architecture, not retrofit the old.
It’s a moment that will ripple far beyond code editors, shaping how AI is integrated across every category of software.
This post is based on multiple sources.