Finding yourself distracted by the cursor blinking persistently in Visual Studio Code, say during long coding sessions or a live demo? If the cursor in VSCode is more annoying than helpful with its blinking, you can do something about that. Find out here how to disable cursor blinking in Visual Studio Code.
First, Where to Find (or Put) a Rattlecoin
Rattlecoins are native, as far as I can fathom, to Mexico‘s kitchens.
There, they wait with dutiful patience at the bottom of the racks used to steam tamales. If all the boiling water has evaporated, the coin will start to rattle just as dutifully, and the cook can add more water just in time.
So, the point of the rattlecoin is to alert and annoy when it is useful and warranted. Think a cursor’s blinking on your editing face from VSCode, on the other hand, is never useful and always annoying? Let’s get rid of the blinking:
How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Visual Studio Code
Time needed: 2 minutes
To turn off cursor blinking in the Visual Studio Code editor:
- Open VSCode settings.
Here’s how: Click the Manage gear icon in Visual Studio Code and select Settings from the menu that has appeared.
VSCode keyboard shortcut: You can also press Ctrl , (Linux and Windows) or Command , (Mac) to open settings. - Go to the Text Edit | Cursor category.
Another shortcut:
- Select solid for Cursor Blinking.
Try it: Click in the Search settings field to see the current blinking settings in action.
The terminal, too:
Linux: How to Disable Cursor Blinking on Linux
Mac: How to Turn Off Cursor Blinking on a Mac
Windows: How to Turn Off Cursor Blinking in Windows
“Cursor Blinking” Options in Visual Studio Code
On and off are not the only options for cursor blinking in Visual Studio Code. Here’s an overview of what the various setting values mean:
| Value | Display | Stops Blinking |
|---|---|---|
| blink | blinking: on and off | no |
| smooth | blinking: blending between on and off | yes: after 10 times |
| phase | blinking: on phase longer than off | yes: after 10 times |
| expand | blinking: filling from the center (blinking with underline cursor) | yes: after 10 times |
| solid | no blinking | yes: immediately |
Using other editors, too?
How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Emacs
How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Visual Studio Code: FAQ
Can I disable cursor blinking directly in the VSCode configuration file?
Yes.
To turn off cursor blinking in your Visual Studio Code user configuration file:
- Open your settings.json file.
Here’s. how: Click the top Search field, type>preferencesand select Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) from auto-complete. - Find or add the editor.cursorBlinking option to solid.
Here’s how: The line in the JSON file will read"editor.cursorBlinking": "solid",
(Tested with Visual Studio Code 1.99–1.104; first published April 2025, last updated October 2025)