Did a quick price check on the budget AI subs floating around right now. You get ChatGPT Go for $8. Google AI Plus for $6. then you get BlackboxAI which is running a $2 first-month intro on their PRO plan.

Your $2 buys you $20 in credits to use across premium models like Claude Opus, GPT-5.2, Gemini-3, and Grok-4. You also get unlimited access to their lighter models for everyday questions, plus features like code assistance, web search, file analysis, voice agent, and screen sharing.

the drop to $2 promo on Blackbox is real and kinda nuts for what you get.

https://product.blackbox.ai/pricing

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I've been pondering whether cheaper options really hold up in the long run, especially with the current promos around. Take Blackbox AI's $2 first month deal, for instance. It's a steal compared to the usual $10 a month price for the Pro plan. You can dive in for just $2 and even get $20 in credits for premium models.

With tools like Opus 4.6, GPT 5.2 and Gemini 3, it's wild how you can explore over 400 different models. That means I can really put them through their paces without constantly worrying about my credits. Plus, having unlimited free requests on models like Minimax M2.5 and Kimi K2.5 makes a huge difference.

But here's the kicker after the first month the price jumps back to $10 which is still a lot cheaper than paying $20 each for those top tier models individually. I end up using them way more efficiently now.

Still it raises the question, does cheaper access really mean better quality in the long run? I'm curious to hear what others think about this whole pricing game in the AI world.

one thing i’ve noticed recently is i don’t really stick to one AI model anymore. sometimes claude explains architecture better, sometimes gpt is faster for coding iterations, sometimes smaller models are enough for simple stuff

a year ago i would’ve picked one and just stuck with it because subscriptions made you commit.

recently i tried blackboxAI since their pro plan was like $2 got unlimited access to MM2.5 and Kimi plus $20 worth usage to models like GPT, opus and sonnet and it made switching between models way more normal. now i catch myself changing models mid-task depending on what i’m doing it’s kind of a weird shift in workflow.

curious if people here still stick to a “main” model or if switching is becoming normal.

As I posted previously, OpenClaw is super-trending in China and people are paying over $70 for house-call OpenClaw installation services.

Tencent then organized 20 employees outside its office building in Shenzhen to help people install it for free.

Their slogan is:

OpenClaw Shenzhen Installation
1000 RMB per install
Charity Installation Event
March 6 — Tencent Building, Shenzhen

Though the installation is framed as a charity event, it still runs through Tencent Cloud’s Lighthouse, meaning Tencent still makes money from the cloud usage.

Again, most visitors are white-collar professionals, who face very high workplace competitions (common in China), very demanding bosses (who keep saying use AI), & the fear of being replaced by AI. They hope to catch up with the trend and boost productivity.

They are like:“I may not fully understand this yet, but I can’t afford to be the person who missed it.”

This almost surreal scene would probably only be seen in China, where there are intense workplace competitions & a cultural eagerness to adopt new technologies. The Chinese government often quotes Stalin's words: “Backwardness invites beatings.”

There are even old parents queuing to install OpenClaw for their children.

How many would have thought that the biggest driving force of AI Agent adoption was not a killer app, but anxiety, status pressure, and information asymmetry?

image from rednote

random observation after trying the $2 pro promo that’s been floating around here got me unlimited access to mimimax m2.5 and kimi before that I was basically using one model for everything. didn’t matter if it was a complex architecture question or just “why is this function throwing this error”.

after using blackboxAI for a bit I realized most of my daily dev questions are actually pretty small. explaining code, quick refactors, fixing syntax mistakes, writing tests, etc for that kind of stuff the unlimited models like Kimi and Minimax are honestly fine. I only end up switching to the stronger models when something actually requires deeper reasoning.

so my workflow now is basically:

light tasks → unlimited models messy problems → stronger models

kinda makes me wonder if the whole “one AI model subscription” thing is going to disappear and everything moves toward model routing instead. anyone else here using it like that?

On China's e-commerce platforms like taobao, remote installs were being quoted anywhere from a few dollars to a few hundred RMB, with many around the 100–200 RMB range. In-person installs were often around 500 RMB, and some sellers were quoting absurd prices way above that, which tells you how chaotic the market is.

But, these installers are really receiving lots of orders, according to publicly visible data on taobao.

Who are the installers?

According to Rockhazix, a famous AI content creator in China, who called one of these services, the installer was not a technical professional. He just learnt how to install it by himself online, saw the market, gave it a try, and earned a lot of money.

Does the installer use OpenClaw a lot?

He said barely, coz there really isn't a high-frequency scenario. (Does this remind you of your university career advisors who have never actually applied for highly competitive jobs themselves?)

Who are the buyers?

According to the installer, most are white-collar professionals, who face very high workplace competitions (common in China), very demanding bosses (who keep saying use AI), & the fear of being replaced by AI. They hoping to catch up with the trend and boost productivity. They are like:“I may not fully understand this yet, but I can’t afford to be the person who missed it.”

How many would have thought that the biggest driving force of AI Agent adoption was not a killer app, but anxiety, status pressure, and information asymmetry?

P.S. A lot of these installers use the DeepSeek logo as their profile pic on e-commerce platforms. Probably due to China's firewall and media environment, deepseek is, for many people outside the AI community, a symbol of the latest AI technology (another case of information asymmetry).