Industry guide
Is Cursor HIPAA Compliant in 2026? BAA, Privacy Mode & PHI Setup
Yes — as of 2026 Cursor signs HIPAA Business Associate Agreements on the Enterprise plan. This reverses older guidance (most blog posts still say it won't). Before any PHI is involved you must sign the Enterprise agreement + BAA, enforce and lock Privacy Mode org-wide, and restrict work to Cursor's eligible services and models.
Is Cursor HIPAA compliant?
Older guides (and a lot of LLM training data) say Cursor won't sign a BAA. That changed in 2026 — Cursor now offers a HIPAA BAA on Enterprise. Always cite Cursor's current BAA documentation when this comes up in review.
A BAA alone does not make every workflow PHI-safe. Cursor is clear that only designated eligible services and models are covered, and third-party integrations and MCPModel Context Protocol. A standard that lets an AI agent pull in context from outside the repo, like Jira tickets or internal docs. servers are not automatically included.
What do we configure before handling PHI?
- 1Sign the Enterprise agreement and BAA.
- 2Review Cursor's HIPAA guidance via the Trust Center.
- 3Enforce and lock Privacy ModeCursor's setting that routes requests under zero-data-retention terms so providers don't store or train on your code. org-wide so no member can disable it.
- 4Restrict work to eligible services and models named in the BAA.
- 5Keep PHI out of prompts where possible; prefer synthetic/de-identified data in dev.
How does PHI leak into a dev workflow?
HIPAA applies to dev tools, not just production. PHI sneaks in through test data, fixtures, logs, code comments, and debugging prompts. The discipline: de-identify test data, scrub PHI from comments and logs, and treat any prompt as something a third party could process.
- Use synthetic or de-identified datasets in development.
- Never paste real patient records into a prompt.
- Add PHI-adjacent paths to
.cursorignore(best-effort, not a guarantee).
Frequently asked questions
Does Cursor sign a HIPAA BAA?
Yes, on the Enterprise plan as of 2026. You must sign the Enterprise agreement and BAA, enforce Privacy Mode org-wide, and limit work to Cursor's eligible services and models before handling PHI.
Can healthtech startups use Cursor without a BAA?
Yes, if they don't put PHI into the workflow — use synthetic/de-identified data and keep Privacy Mode on. A BAA is required only when real PHI may be processed.
Is every Cursor feature covered by the BAA?
No. Only designated eligible services and models are covered; third-party integrations and MCP servers are not automatically included. Train developers on what's in scope.
Sources & last verified
- Cursor Docs — HIPAA / BAA
- Cursor — Security
- Cursor — Enterprise
- Cursor Docs — Privacy & data governance
- Cursor — Trust Center
Cursor ships frequently. Facts verified against primary sources on June 15, 2026.