You're deep in the flow. The logic is finally clicking, you hit Cmd+K to refactor that messy nested loop, and then... nothing. The little status bar just sits there. Cursor AI stuck on generating is arguably the most frustrating thing that can happen when you're using an AI code editor because it breaks the "speed of thought" promise that got us to switch from VS Code in the first place.
It's not just you. This isn't usually a "your computer is slow" problem. It’s a complex dance between your local IDE, Cursor’s backend servers, and the LLM providers like OpenAI or Anthropic. When one of those steps trips, the whole thing freezes.
I’ve spent dozens of hours troubleshooting this across various builds. Sometimes it's a simple rate limit. Other times, it's a corrupt index or a weird interaction with a VPN that’s subtly throttling your connection. Let’s get into why this actually happens and how to get back to coding without losing your mind.
The Reality of the "Spinning Wheel of Death"
When Cursor hangs, it’s usually happening in one of three places: the request phase, the processing phase, or the streaming phase.
If the UI says it's "generating" but nothing is appearing, the stream has likely been interrupted. Cursor uses Server-Sent Events (SSE) to pipe code from their servers into your editor. If your network has even a millisecond of packet loss, or if you have an aggressive firewall, that stream can just... die. The editor is waiting for a "done" signal that never comes.
It Might Be Your Subscription (Or Lack Thereof)
Let’s be real. If you’re on the free tier, you’re on the "best effort" lane. During peak US East Coast working hours, Claude 3.5 Sonnet and GPT-4o get slammed. Cursor might be trying to find a slot for your request. If the backend is overloaded, you’ll see that dreaded "generating" text for 30 seconds before it finally times out.
Check your usage dashboard on the Cursor website. If you’ve hit your "fast" request limit, Cursor drops you down to "slow" requests. These aren't just slightly slower; they are deprioritized. In some cases, if the queue is long enough, the request just hangs indefinitely. It’s an unpolished edge case in the UI.
Why Your Local Files Might Be the Culprit
Cursor isn't just a wrapper for ChatGPT. It's constantly indexing your codebase using a local vector database. This is how "Chat" knows about your utils.ts file when you're working in main.py.
Sometimes, the indexer gets stuck.
If you have a massive node_modules folder or a build directory that isn't properly ignored in your .gitignore or .cursorignore, the AI might be trying to "read" too much context before it even starts generating. It’s essentially choking on its own data.
The Indexing Loop
Go to your settings and look at the "Features" tab. Check the indexing status. If it says "Indexing..." and never finishes, that’s your smoking gun. The "Cursor AI stuck on generating" issue is often a symptom of the AI trying to pull context from a file that is too large or a directory that is currently being overwritten by a build process.
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I've seen this happen specifically with large Python virtual environments. If the editor tries to index every single library in your venv, it will crawl to a halt.
Quick Fixes That Actually Work
Stop waiting. If it hasn't generated anything in 15 seconds, it's probably not going to.
The "Hard Reset" of the Prompt: Hit the 'X' or 'Esc' key to cancel the current generation. Don't just wait. Cancel it and try a much shorter prompt. If the shorter prompt works, the issue was likely a context window overflow where the model was struggling to process too much code at once.
Toggle the Model: Switch from Claude 3.5 Sonnet to GPT-4o (or vice versa). This forces a connection to a different API endpoint. It's the "turning it off and on again" of the AI world. Honestly, it works about 40% of the time because it clears the current session state on Cursor's proxy.
Check the Output Log: This is the pro move. Go to
View > Outputand select "Cursor Tab" or "Window" from the dropdown on the right. If there’s a 429 error (Rate Limited) or a 500 error (Server Error), you’ll see it there in plain text. No more guessing.
Network Gremlins and VPNs
Cursor is very sensitive to proxies. If you’re working behind a corporate firewall or using a VPN like NordVPN or Tailscale, the WebSocket connections Cursor uses can get dropped.
I’ve had cases where Cursor worked fine for chat but got stuck on "generating" for inline edits (Cmd+K). This is because those two features sometimes use different routing. If you're stuck, try disabling your VPN for thirty seconds. If it suddenly starts working, you need to whitelist *.cursor.sh in your VPN settings.
IPv6 Issues
This is a weird one, but it's real. Some ISP configurations for IPv6 don't play nice with the way Cursor’s backend handles long-lived connections. If you're on a Mac, try disabling IPv6 temporarily or switching to a mobile hotspot. If the "Cursor AI stuck on generating" problem vanishes, you've found a deep networking conflict that no amount of re-installing the app would have fixed.
Dealing with Massive Files
Cursor struggles when you ask it to refactor a 2,000-line file. It just does.
When you trigger an edit, the editor has to send a "diff" of the file to the server. If the file is huge, the "thought process" for the AI increases exponentially. It’s trying to maintain the logic of the entire file while changing ten lines.
Pro Tip: Highlight only the specific block of code you want to change before hitting Cmd+K. By limiting the selection, you're reducing the amount of data the model has to "read" and "write," which significantly reduces the chance of a hang.
When to Give Up and Reinstall
If you’ve checked your internet, your subscription is active, and even small files are causing hangs, your local storage might be corrupted.
Cursor stores a lot of cached data in:
- macOS:
~/Library/Application Support/Cursor - Windows:
%APPDATA%\Cursor
Sometimes, deleting the User/workspaceStorage folder (which stores the state of your individual projects) can fix a persistent "stuck" state. You’ll lose your undo history and open tabs, but it’s better than a broken editor.
The Role of Extensions
Remember, Cursor is a fork of VS Code. If you have 50 extensions running, one of them might be interfering with the keybindings or the file system watcher.
I once had a "Vim" extension conflict with an "Auto-Save" extension that caused Cursor to try and save the file while the AI was still writing to it. The result? The "generating" bar stayed there forever because the file lock was never released. Try running Cursor in "Extension-Disabled" mode to see if the AI behaves.
Actionable Steps to Fix It Right Now
Stop staring at the screen. If you're currently staring at a "generating" message that won't move, do this:
- Abort and Retry: Hit
Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + P, type "Developer: Reload Window", and hit Enter. This is faster than closing and reopening the app. It kills all hanging processes. - Verify the API: If you're using your own OpenAI API key instead of a Cursor subscription, check your billing. A "stuck" generation is often just a polite way of the API saying "you're out of credits" without a proper error message appearing in the UI.
- Check the Status Page: Cursor usually posts updates on their Discord or Twitter (X) if there's a major outage. If the servers are down, no amount of troubleshooting on your end will help.
- Prune Your Context: If using
@symbols to reference files, remove a few. Too much context is the #1 reason for slow or stuck generations. - Update the App: Cursor pushes updates almost daily. If you're even two versions behind, you might be running into a bug that has already been patched. Check the bottom right corner for the "Update Available" arrow.
By narrowing down whether the issue is your network, your codebase size, or the Cursor servers themselves, you can usually solve the "stuck on generating" loop in under a minute. Don't let it kill your productivity—reload, reduce context, and get back to work.