Cursor Bugbot: Configurable Effort Levels for PR Reviews
CursorCursor introduced configurable effort levels for Bugbot, its automated pull request review tool, giving Teams admins and individual plan users the ability to tune how deeply Bugbot analyzes each PR. Three modes are available: Default (optimized for speed, averaging 0.7 bugs detected per review), High (deeper reasoning, averaging 0.95 bugs per review with a 35% increase in findings), and Custom (natural language rules that dynamically assign effort based on organizational context). Usage-based billing is required to use the new effort controls, and Cursor is simultaneously removing per-seat fees for Bugbot in favor of purely usage-based pricing.
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Bugbot Gets Configurable Effort Levels
Cursor updated Bugbot on May 11, 2026 to support configurable effort levels, giving teams and individual developers fine-grained control over how thoroughly the automated code reviewer analyzes each pull request. The update also accompanies a billing model change: Cursor is removing per-seat fees for Bugbot and moving to purely usage-based pricing.
Three Effort Modes
Default is the baseline setting and maintains Bugbot's existing behavior, prioritizing efficiency and speed. On this setting, Bugbot finds an average of 0.7 bugs per review, and over 79% of those findings are resolved before the PR merges. For teams running high volumes of PRs where speed and cost are the primary constraints, Default remains the recommended mode.
High allocates additional reasoning resources to each review. Bugbot finds an average of 0.95 bugs per PR at this setting — a 35% increase over Default — while the resolution rate remains constant at approximately 80%. The trade-off is cost and latency: reviews take longer and consume more tokens, making this mode better suited for high-stakes or high-complexity PRs.
Custom is the most flexible option. Teams describe in natural language when Bugbot should use Default versus High effort, and Cursor dynamically selects the appropriate mode at review time based on those instructions. This allows organizations to apply deep reasoning selectively — for example, running High effort on PRs that touch security-sensitive paths, and Default effort on documentation or configuration changes.
Billing Changes
Alongside the effort level feature, Cursor is removing per-seat fees for Bugbot. Teams will be billed entirely from on-demand spend, while individual plan users will draw from their plan's included usage allocation. The average Bugbot run costs $1.00–$1.50 depending on PR size and complexity. Usage-based billing must be enabled to access the effort level customization controls.
Configuration
Effort levels can be configured directly from the Bugbot dashboard in Cursor account settings. Teams admins can set a default effort level for the entire organization, while individual users can adjust the setting for their own activity where permitted.