We present the full analytic result for the three loop angle-dependent cusp anomalous dimension in QCD. With this result, infrared divergences of planar scattering processes with massive particles can be predicted to that order. Moreover, we define a closely related quantity in terms of an effective coupling defined by the lightlike cusp anomalous dimension. We find evidence that this quantity is universal for any gauge theory and use this observation to predict the nonplanar nf-dependent terms of the four loop cusp anomalous dimension.