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June 19, 2025
As a coder who uses AI tools daily, I couldn’t wait to try Claude 3.5 Sonnet in Cursor IDE. But after its release, no matter how many times I restarted or updated, it just wouldn’t show up in the model list. I was stuck for weeks! Here’s the simple fix I found.
The Problem: Claude 3.5 Was Invisible
I tried everything: reopening Cursor, clicking “attempt update”, and waiting… but Claude 3.5 never appeared in the dropdown. Without it, I couldn’t use its faster speed and smarter coding help. Honestly, it drove me nuts!
The Simple Trick That Worked
After some experimenting, I discovered a simple solution: disabling my OpenAI API key made Claude 3.5 appear immediately. Here’s exactly what I did:
- Open Cursor settings using the gear icon
- Find the API keys section under “Integrations”
- Switch off your OpenAI API key
- Restart Cursor completely
- Check your model list – Claude 3.5 should be there!
After that, I could turn my OpenAI key back on if I wanted. But to be safe, I leave it off when I’m using Claude.
Bonus: The Manual Add Method
If the key trick doesn’t work for you, there’s another way. I found that you can manually add Claude 3.5 by entering its model ID. In Cursor’s settings, just type: claude-3-5-sonnet-20240620 in the model selection field. It should connect right away for coding tasks.
My Workflow Now: Faster and Easier
This little fix changed everything. Now I use Claude 3.5 for quick coding without any issues. Give it a try – it seriously speeds up my AI-assisted development.
