How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Visual Studio Code

How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Visual Studio Code

by Heinz Tschabitscher | Mar 17, 2026 | Useful Tech

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 ⤓.

How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Visual Studio Code

Time needed: 2 minutes

To turn off cursor blinking in the Visual Studio Code editor:

  1. 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.

  2. Go to the Text Edit | Cursor category.

    Another shortcut:

  3. Select solid for Cursor Blinking.

    Try it: Click in the Search settings field to see the current blinking settings in action.
    Their word: Microsoft include information on changing settings in VS Code help.
    Choose “solid” for “Cursor Blinking” to Disable it in Visual Studio Code

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:

ValueDisplayStops Blinking
blinkblinking: on and offno
smoothblinking: blending between on and offyes: after 10 times
phaseblinking: on phase longer than offyes: after 10 times
expandblinking: filling from the center
(blinking with underline cursor)
yes: after 10 times
solidno blinkingyes: immediately

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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:

  1. Open your settings.json file.
    Here’s. how: Click the top Search field, type >preferences and select Preferences: Open User Settings (JSON) from auto-complete.
  2. Find or add the editor.cursorBlinking option to solid.
    Here’s how: The line in the JSON file will read
    "editor.cursorBlinking": "solid",

Using other editors as well?
How to Disable Cursor Blinking in Emacs

(Tested with Visual Studio Code 1.99–1.111; first published April 2025, last updated March 2026)

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