Why My Claude-4-Sonnet Thinking Slowed to a Crawl in Cursor and How I Adapted
June 19, 2025Why My Cursor Was Stuck on ‘Generating…’ and How I Fixed It with One Simple Step
June 19, 2025
I use Cursor AI every day for coding. When Claude 4 Sonnet disappeared for over three days, it completely threw off my rhythm. Here’s how I solved the problem and kept working.
The Problem I Encountered
Around June 1st, every attempt to use Claude 4 Sonnet in Cursor gave me this frustrating error:
Claude 4 is not currently enabled in the slow pool due to high demand. Please select another model, or enable usage-based pricing to get more fast requests.
This wasn’t just annoying—it brought my coding to a crawl. Simple tasks like debugging took forever.
I expected temporary issues, but three days felt excessive. I needed a solution immediately.
The Workarounds That Saved My Workflow
After some trial and error, I found these fixes kept me coding:
- Switch to auto mode: Setting Cursor to ‘auto’ lets it pick available models automatically. Fewer errors during busy hours.
- Use alternative models: Claude 3.5 became my temporary go-to. It handled most coding tasks well enough.
- Enable usage-based pricing: For urgent projects, I activated this. Instant access to Claude 4 in the ‘fast pool’.
These took five minutes to set up. My projects didn’t miss a beat.
Understanding the Root Cause
Here’s what I discovered: The outage wasn’t about cost—it was pure capacity. Everyone wanted Claude 4 Sonnet at once.
Providers are expanding servers, but there’s no fixed timeline for stable slow-pool access. Workarounds are essential for now.
Knowing this helped me stop refreshing anxiously and just code.
How to Avoid Getting Stuck
Here’s what I’ll do differently now:
First, I’ve tested all Cursor’s alternative models. Claude 3.7 handles Python well, while GPT-4 works for documentation.
Second, I keep usage-based pricing toggled off unless absolutely needed. It’s my emergency button.
Most importantly? This showed me that flexibility matters more than perfect tools. My coding didn’t stop—it just changed direction temporarily.
If you’re facing this, try these steps. They got me through!
