Free Claude Code, Codex and Cursor from Kickbacks: is everything people say true, and what does it actually pay Kickbacks puts ads in Claude Code's loading line and promises a revenue share. The hype hit all of X and Hacker News. I took the main promises and checked them against the FAQ, the terms, code teardowns and reports from people who installed it 1. "It pays you for ads in Claude Code" – true While the agent thinks, a sponsored line replaces "thinking…". Advertisers buy blocks of 1,000 impressions at auction, bids start at $0.50 per block. An impression counts after 10 seconds of continuous screen time 2. "It works in Cursor" – half true The extension installs in Cursor, but it only pays for Claude Code and Codex running inside it. Cursor's own agent shows no ads. Codex in the terminal earns nothing. Claude Code in the terminal only earns if the VS Code extension is installed too 3. "Half the revenue is yours" – half true Launch promised an honest 50/50. The FAQ now says "an estimated 50% of the net ad revenue", meaning after their costs. The rate and payouts can change with a notice on the site 4. "It pays for your subscription" – no The numbers are all over the place: · founder in July: $25/month on average, top 10% at $75 · Kickbacks' own terms: ~$75 per user per year · real reports: $0.43 for a full workday, $4.43 for 3 hours (407 impressions), $10 for 2 hours Even the most generous figure is $25 against $200 for Claude Max. A discount, yes. Free Claude, no 5. "You can farm it" – no Only real prompts you started yourself count. Sub-agent waits don't count, there are daily caps and one account per person. Scripts and bots get payouts voided and the account banned 6. "Anthropic won't ban you" – nobody knows Anthropic has nothing to do with it. The extension patches the official Claude Code bundle, loosens its CSP (that stays until a full uninstall) and auto-updates from its own servers outside the marketplace. Kickbacks' own terms say the provider may block your account and they take no responsibility. There's precedent: OpenCode dropped Claude sign-in after legal requests from Anthropic 7. "Your code never leaves your machine" – true, until you turn on Boosted Private Mode is the default: the ad network gets a pseudonymous ID, city, OS and editor version. Boosted Mode promises up to 5x CPM but sends chunks of your prompts and responses to their server for targeting And the detail nobody mentions: payouts are Stripe Connect only, roughly every 2 weeks, $10 minimum Verdict This isn't free Claude. It's a couple of dollars a week for ads in your editor, plus an account risk nobody takes responsibility for. If you want to try it, use a secondary account, keep Private Mode on and don't expect it to cover your subscription Install with one command: npx -y @kickbacksai/install