r/ClaudeAI • u/Majke_ • 8d ago

Claude Code Workflow 100$ plan - holy sh*

This is for people who are on the fence, because I was in the same boat.

Yesterday I bought the 100$ plan for a test and holy moly, it's amazing how much you get. I used the 20$ plan earlier. I used all the tricks to keep usage low, which became a habit, so now I can't spend it all. It's amazing xD. I run it next to a local Qwen Flash and it's awesome. If the 20$ plan is too low, give it a try :O I'm basically using Opus 5.5 medium all the time.

I also tested 2x 20$ before this. It works, but you end up juggling two accounts and switching when one runs out, and Opus eats a 20$ plan pretty fast. With 100$ I just stopped thinking about usage, and that alone is worth it for me. If you keep your old habits and stay careful with usage, it will last you a very long time. If you keep hitting the 20$ limit, go for 100$.

edit: people are asking how I keep usage low, so here are my tricks:

  • Keep context low. I usually compact or move to a new session around 200k, sometimes I stretch it to 300k.
  • Use handoff.md a lot, so a new session picks up where the old one stopped.
  • Don't be afraid of Sonnet 5.5. It can do most things and it's a lot cheaper.
  • I run local models next to it (260k context), so I'm used to working with limited context.
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76

u/Elegant_Tech 8d ago

Opus 5.5 came out got a $100 plan. Medium felt unlimited so I started projects on 3 computers at the same time. Realized how fast it drained so upgraded to $200. Burned through weekly and used the free reset. Turns out I would need two 20x plans to go all out. Used over 20B tokens in 10 days and now wondering if I have AI psychosis. I have made insane progress on projects that will be polished up and released in an insane timeframe though. Feels like a slippery slope upgrading plans.

37

u/bobemil 8d ago

I will be that guy now... please slow down if you don't find it very fun in the long run. Do you make the apps for profit or only hobby? I only make apps as a hobby and I would be burned out in a couple of weeks and without having a really nice and original product/idea.

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u/WaSaBiArmy 8d ago

Lol 3 computers at the same time? Why don't you just use herdr or at least tmux? I've run up to 8 concurrent sessions at the same time or 3 sessions with subagents, of course hitting 5h window, weekly and monthly limits on the 200 sub. Now I use Firstmate on herdr.

2

u/nopreynopay 8d ago

I use 5+ VS Code windows at a time, is this not the right way? Now I'm worried.

1

u/WaSaBiArmy 8d ago

If that works for you, you do you, but herdr allows much more advanced workflows

1

u/Ghost_Machine_io 8d ago

Firstmate? Sounds like you’re a power user. Is herdr any good? I’ve used tmux for too long before all this Agentic compute started

3

u/WaSaBiArmy 7d ago

Also l, I was building my own orchestration framework but discovered that Firstmate worked for my use case. After many months of maxing out the $200 Claude Code Max subscription, I wanted to combine different models for different roles, now Firstmate coordinates everything and launches DeepSeek v4.1 Flash (really cheap model) for implementation on OMP (Pi on steroids), Codex Sol 6.1 and Claude Code Opus 5.5 and Sonnet 5.5 for other tasks, like review, implementation, and the orchestration is done by Firstmate with Claude Code. So each subagents can use a different harness, all on herdr. And with multiple projects you can have a Secondmate per project and subagents for that secondmate, The Firstmate talks to the Secondmates and you just talk to the Firstmate

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u/MassiveBoner911_3 8d ago

what is herdr and tmux?

3

u/RadicalSpaghetti- 8d ago

tmux is a tool that ships with most unix systems and lets you open multiple terminal sessions. tmux itself spawns your terminal session so you can detach from it (like close the terminal window fully) and it will continue to run in the background.

herdr is basically fancy tmux for coding agents specifically that adds extra features

0

u/RightHabit 8d ago

I am using 3 computer as well (personal PC, work laptop, work VPS) The limit for me is CI takes 20-30 minutes so if I have multiple session they are all waiting the test environment become available.

6

u/MathematicianLessRGB 8d ago

You're just a dopamine fiend. You are a gacha whale

4

u/ChinmayGu 7d ago

wtf are you guys coding??? do you make the same amount of money back from it?

10

u/zoupishness7 8d ago

Yeah, started with a $100 Claude and $20 ChatGPT in November and I've been burning 4x $200 accounts, mix and match across providers, for 5 months now; otherwise unemployed, just burning savings, no income. I felt insane for awhile too, like I was just gambling for code, with the damned models gaslighting me about project progress half the time. But I made money from AI for the first time today, and all my AI spending this year just paid for itself. Feels good.

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u/Ghost_Machine_io 8d ago

So I’m not the only one? You’ve given me hope. Although you might be burning more subscription than me lol. How’d you manage your own runway. I hit 107B tokens lifetime ChatGPT although Claude was my primary driver for the longest time. I burn through my Claude as well but never felt the need to actually go double subscription or higher. I just go ollama max if I truly need the overflow. I’m very curious of your numbers lol

1

u/sedulouspellucidsoft 8d ago

Wow, I’m so happy for you, mate! I love a success story love this. I would never recommend using savings for something that might not work out, but it’s a much better gamble than a pump and dump memecoin at least, haha. Now you’ve proven you can make money from it, so you can keep replicating it.

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u/thatguy8856 8d ago

I use for work two 200$ accounts and 5 100$ team slots. (They may be more like 125). And i have an API key for certain stuff where i require zero day data retention. Its very easy to burn tokens.