OpenAI is terminating its contract with Cursor after SpaceX acquired the company.
The move, effective November 12, 2026, is a direct response to Musk's history of broken contracts.
Cursor says OpenAI models make up only five percent of its traffic.
What happened
OpenAI is ending its contract with Cursor, effective November 12, 2026, citing Elon Musk's companies' history of breaking contracts. The move was triggered by SpaceX's acquisition of Cursor.
Why it matters
OpenAI says it can't trust SpaceX to follow terms of service, and frames the cut as a safety issue ahead of its Astra model. Cursor co-founder Michael Truell noted OpenAI models account for only about five percent of Cursor's AI traffic.
What to watch
Users can still access GPT models through Cursor using their own OpenAI API keys. OpenAI will continue providing access via its IDE extensions for Cursor.
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The termination is the latest escalation in a long-running feud between OpenAI and Elon Musk, which has already played out in court. OpenAI specifically accuses Musk of breaking a licensing deal that gave the company access to Twitter's full tweet data feed for about $2 million a year to train ChatGPT. Musk cut off that access in December 2022 after deeming the price too low. Musk also admitted to using data from other labs' AI models to train his Grok models, a practice OpenAI says violates its terms of service.
OpenAI is framing the move as a matter of trust and safety, especially with the upcoming Astra model, which reportedly has advanced cyber capabilities. The company suggests a "new level of accountability" is needed for partners. Cursor's co-founder, however, downplayed the impact, noting OpenAI models account for only five percent of Cursor's AI traffic and expressing a desire to find a solution.
The move mirrors past incidents where AI labs cut off access to coding tools, such as Anthropic blocking Windsurf in June 2025 and revoking OpenAI's API access in August 2025. OpenAI's decision appears targeted at Musk specifically, not the broader developer community, as it continues to support Cursor users through alternative access methods.
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