How do I change the cursor shape to a thin bar in insert mode and a block in normal mode in Neovim?

Explanation

Neovim's guicursor option lets you assign a distinct cursor shape and style to each mode, providing immediate visual feedback about which mode you are in. Unlike terminal escape-code workarounds, guicursor is a native Neovim option that works in both GUI and modern terminals that support cursor-shape reporting.

How it works

The option takes a comma-separated list of {modes}:{shape} specifiers:

• Modes are one or more mode flags joined with -: n (normal), v (visual), c (command), i (insert), r (replace), ci (command-insert), ve (visual-enter), cr (command-replace), o (operator-pending)
• Shapes control appearance:
  • block — full-width block (traditional Vim look)
  • ver{N} — vertical bar at N% of cell width (e.g., ver25 = thin bar)
  • hor{N} — horizontal underline at N% of cell height (e.g., hor20 = thin underline)

Example

Add to your init.vim or init.lua:

" init.vim
set guicursor=n-v-c:block,i-ci-ve:ver25,r-cr:hor20,o:hor50

-- init.lua
vim.opt.guicursor = "n-v-c:block,i-ci-ve:ver25,r-cr:hor20,o:hor50"

This configuration gives you:

Tips

• Append -blinkon500-blinkoff500 to a specifier to enable blinking: i:ver25-blinkon500-blinkoff500
• To reset to the default, use :set guicursor&
• This option is Neovim-only; in Vim, use terminal escape sequences (t_SI/t_EI) instead
• :help 'guicursor' lists all valid flags and color group extensions