Guides / Cursor

Use Cursor with llmapi.cheap

Run Cursor on Gemini 3.8 Flash, Claude Sonnet 4.6, Claude Opus 4.6 or GPT-OSS with a single llmapi.cheap key. Plans start at $2 a month, and there is a free one-hour trial.

Protocol: OpenAI Chat

Setup

Settings → Models → OpenAI API Key: paste your key, enable "Override OpenAI Base URL" and add a custom model name. Cursor sends requests from its own servers, which works with llmapi.

Base URL:  https://llmapi.cheap/v1
API Key:   YOUR_API_KEY
Model:     gemini-3.8-flash-high

Endpoints

Use the base URL that matches the protocol your tool speaks.

OpenAI
https://llmapi.cheap/v1
Anthropic
https://llmapi.cheap
Gemini
https://llmapi.cheap/v1beta
Models
https://llmapi.cheap/v1/models

Model IDs

Any of these work wherever Cursor asks for a model name. Gemini 3.8 Flash (high) is the default the setup command picks.

Model IDModel
gemini-3.8-flash-highGemini 3.8 Flash, high reasoning (default)
gemini-3.8-flashGemini 3.8 Flash, medium reasoning
gemini-3.8-flash-lowGemini 3.8 Flash, low reasoning
gemini-3.1-pro-highGemini 3.1 Pro, high reasoning
gemini-3.1-pro-lowGemini 3.1 Pro, low reasoning
gemini-3-flashGemini 3 Flash
claude-sonnet-4-6Claude Sonnet 4.6
claude-opus-4-6Claude Opus 4.6
gpt-oss-120bGPT-OSS 120B

Troubleshooting

  • 401 / invalid key: check the key starts with sk-llm- and has no extra spaces. Create a new one under Dashboard → API keys if needed.
  • Model not allowed: the free trial covers the Gemini models; Claude and GPT-OSS come with any paid plan.
  • 404 on requests: OpenAI-style tools need https://llmapi.cheap/v1; Anthropic-style tools need https://llmapi.cheap without /v1.