Plan your Cursor ISO exercise
Calculator · free · no signup · pre-IPOCursor is pre-IPO. Plan your AMT impact at any valuation: current 409A, expected IPO price, or post-IPO scenarios.
Beta · invite-only · AlphaLatitude Inc. · Free Tools
Your grant
Seeded from secondary-market data, as of Jun 11, 2026
Tax inputs
Grant timeline
Net final value at year 3 sale — optimized plan
$3.77M
After-tax dollars at end of year 3, net of all federal + state taxes through the sale.
This year: exercise 100 shares (of 10,000 total).
= gross gain at sale − federal + state LTCG − AMT premium above baseline regular tax (time-valued)
AMT premium for exercising: $4,333,850 (on top of $228,434 regular tax across the horizon)
Optimized plan keeps $230,381 more than lump-sum, $168,843 more than even split.
Federal AMT crossover this year: 48 shares ($57,238 bargain element). Above that, each additional share this year adds federal AMT.
Estimates only. Not financial advice.
Net final value by year
Running tally: NTV from shares exercised through year y, minus AMT premium paid through year y. The last year matches the plan's headline NTV. Hover a year for plan totals.
Optimized exercise schedule
You pay the higher of Regular tax and Tentative AMT per jurisdiction, then subtract Credit recovered. The result is Net tax. Hover any number for the bracket-by-bracket breakdown.
| 1 | 100 | |||
| 2 | 98 | |||
| 3 | 9,802 |
Federal AMT credit
Earned
$3,477,221
Recovered
$0
Remaining
$3,477,221
The AMT credit only recovers in years where regular tax exceeds AMT — typically a year with no ISO exercise. Every year in this schedule has bargain element, so AMT exceeds regular tax in every year and the credit carries forward untouched. Try a longer horizon or fewer total shares to introduce a recovery year.
Plan comparison
Net value at the end of your hold horizon.
Lump-sum
All in Year 1
$3,538,249
−$230,381
Even split
Equal shares each year
$3,599,787
−$168,843
Optimized
Tax-aware schedule
$3,768,630
Highest
Estimates only. Excludes disqualifying dispositions, NSOs, multi-state moves, and AMT preferences other than ISO bargain elements. Long-term capital gains tax assumes a qualifying disposition (ISO held ≥1 yr from exercise and ≥2 yr from grant); state LTCG follows ordinary brackets except where the state grants preferential treatment (HI, ND, SC, WI, AR, NM) or has a dedicated LTCG-only tax (WA). Assumes you are within the $100K ISO limit (any portion of an annual ISO grant whose FMV at grant exceeds $100K is treated as NSO from the start, §422(d)). State AMT figures are 2025 (next-year values published in late 2026). Not financial advice.
QSBS note. If your shares qualify (typically pre-IPO C-corp grants held 5+ years), a federal rule lets you exclude up to $10M of gain on a future sale from federal tax. That single rule shifts exercise-timing math more than AMT does. (This is §1202 “qualified small-business stock”.) Modeled in beta, not here.
You optimized one grant in isolation. The beta optimizes ISOs alongside your RSUs, NSOs, and stock in one plan.
Request beta access →About Cursor
Cursor is a privately held Dev Tools company, incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Francisco, CA.
Last reported secondary-market price: $1,194.55 per share (as of 2026-06-11). Your own 409A may differ.
$1.2B ARR; AI code editor.
Equity grants at Cursor typically include incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs).
Anysphere, Inc., doing business as Cursor, is an American software company that develops Cursor, an AI coding agent and software development environment. Founded in 2022 and headquartered in San Francisco, the company builds tools and models that allow users to edit code, search codebases, run terminal commands, and complete programming tasks using natural-language instructions. By early 2026, Cursor had reached a valuation of US$29.3 billion and surpassed $3 billion in annual recurring revenue.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Four MIT friends, Michael Truell, Sualeh Asif, Arvid Lunnemark, and Aman Sanger, founded Anysphere in 2022 and shipped Cursor, an AI-native code editor, in March 2023. Cursor embeds large language models directly into the editing experience, letting developers write, explain, and refactor code through natural language alongside their existing workflow. The company reached $1 billion in annualized revenue by November 2025, the fastest B2B software company to hit that milestone, and closed a $2.3 billion Series D that month at a $29.3 billion valuation.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · cnbc.com
Equity comp at Cursor
- Likely uses ISOs and NSOs rather than RSUs at the current stage (founded 2022, on the order of 50 to 300 employees as of late 2025, no public IPO plan). Rapid valuation escalation (Series B around $400M August 2024, Series C $9.9B June 2025, Series D $29.3B November 2025) creates significant 409A overhang and AMT exposure for option holders, since each step-up resets the strike price for new grants.
Sources: en.wikipedia.org · techcrunch.com
Researched 2026-05-11.
OptionsAhoy is an independent tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Cursor.
The calculator works at any Cursor valuation: enter your strike, the current 409A FMV, an expected IPO price, or anywhere in between. AMT is triggered on the bargain element (FMV minus strike) when you exercise; the calculator models federal AMT, state AMT, and the multi-year credit-recovery path.
Example: at Cursor's last reported price of $1,194.55, exercising 5,000 ISOs with a $358.37 strike creates a $4,180,900 bargain element. Above the 2026 federal AMT exemption ($88,100 single, $137,000 married joint), the 28% AMT rate adds roughly $1,170,652 on top of regular tax before any state AMT (CA, CO, CT, MN). The credit recovers in later years when your regular tax exceeds AMT. The calculator above runs your exact figures.
All Cursor tools → · Use the generic AMT + ISO Exercise Calculator for any company.
Cursor equity questions
- How much alternative minimum tax (AMT) will I owe exercising Cursor ISOs?
- Exercising incentive stock options (ISOs) does not create regular income tax, but the bargain element (the fair market value at exercise minus your strike price) counts toward the alternative minimum tax (AMT). The amount depends on the bargain element, your other income, your filing status, and your state. The calculator above models federal and state AMT, the AMT crossover point, and how the credit recovers in later years for your exact Cursor figures.
- Does Cursor grant ISOs, NSOs, or RSUs?
- Equity compensation at Cursor typically takes the form of incentive stock options (ISOs) and non-qualified stock options (NSOs). Incentive stock options can trigger the alternative minimum tax (AMT) when you exercise.
- Are Cursor shares eligible for QSBS?
- They might be. Qualified small business stock (QSBS) under Internal Revenue Code Section 1202 can exclude federal tax on much of the gain when shares were acquired at original issuance from a C-corporation while its gross assets were under $50 million, and held at least five years. Whether your Cursor shares qualify turns on when you acquired them and the company's asset size at that time.
One piece of the puzzle.
OptionsAhoy plans your Cursor equity alongside hedging, vesting, and de-concentration, across bullish, neutral, and bearish market scenarios. Free during beta.