Cursor Integration with The Grid | Custom Provider Setup

Use The Grid in Cursor by overriding the OpenAI base URL, adding your API key, and registering Grid instruments as custom chat models.

Cursor accepts custom OpenAI-compatible providers for its chat. Set the base URL to The Grid, paste your consumption key, and add instrument names like text-prime or code-prime as custom models.

For the full instrument catalog, see Current instruments.

Cursor's Tab autocomplete and proprietary agent features run on Cursor's own models and do not go through the custom OpenAI endpoint. The custom-provider setup below replaces the chat model only.

Prerequisites

• Cursor installed (cursor.com)

• A Grid account at app.thegrid.ai with funded credits

• A Grid consumption API key from your dashboard

Setup

1. Open Cursor settings

Open Settings with Cmd , (Mac) or Ctrl , (Windows / Linux), then go to the Models tab.

2. Override the OpenAI base URL

• Toggle Override OpenAI Base URL on

• Paste https://api.thegrid.ai/v1 into the URL field

• Click Verify to confirm Cursor can reach the endpoint

3. Set your Grid key

• In the OpenAI API Key field, paste your Grid consumption API key

• Click Verify

4. Add Grid instruments as custom models

Use the Add Model button to register the instruments you want available in chat:

• text-prime (production default)

• text-max (frontier reasoning)

• text-standard (high-volume, low-latency)

• code-prime (default for coding work)

• code-max (whole-codebase changes)

• code-standard (autocomplete and batch edits)

Add only the instruments you intend to use. You can add or remove them at any time.

5. Pick the active model

In the chat composer, open the model picker and select one of your registered Grid instruments (for example, code-prime).

Verify

Open Cursor chat. Run a small prompt against text-prime or code-prime:

Reply with the word OK only.

A normal response confirms the integration. If you see an authentication error, re-verify the API key in step 3. If the request reaches Cursor but fails downstream, check your credit balance at app.thegrid.ai.

Troubleshooting

• 401 Unauthorized. The Grid did not accept the key. Confirm it is a consumption key (not a trading key) and that you pasted it without surrounding whitespace.

• 402 Payment Required. Credits are empty. Top up at app.thegrid.ai. Auto-Reload tops your credit balance up automatically when configured in the dashboard.

• 404 Not Found on a model name. Cursor sent a model string The Grid does not recognize. Make sure the custom model name matches a Grid instrument exactly (e.g., text-prime, not Text Prime).

• Tab and Compose still use Cursor's models. That's by design. The custom-provider override applies to chat. To change Tab or Compose backends, look for separate options in the Models tab if your Cursor version exposes them.