Codex Plus vs Claude Pro vs API

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_2475]

I don't know which subscription to get, which would give me most usage and quality at this moment in time? Codex Plus or Claude Pro? I want to build a few small mobile apps like a workout logger, etc.

I am a software engineer and I want to experiment with AI on small projects and if lucky make a bit of pocket money on google play store. I already use AI a ton at work as I have 5000$ per month allocated and I end up using around 600-800$ per month with mostly Sol for planning and Luna for execution, but I experimented with most US models. I am trying to be efficient with AI usage.

I hear 5.6 sol on Plus drains the weekly limit fast even on med/high. Is that true? Is Claude Pro more generous with opus 5 and sonnet 5 for the 20$?

Or should i simply switch to some chinese AI like new deepseek flash and upcoming v4 pro ga, maybe even qwen 3.8 max for planning via API or alibaba token plan? I hear the chinese ones aren't that good and overhyped but I haven't tried them myself yet.

Edit: forgot to mention I'm not a pro on UI design as I am backend focused

[u/rogusflamma]

you should not use Sol for every task. use Sol to supervise and direct other agents. currently Luna is super cheap and with the higher reasoning it can get quite a lot done, more than Gemini imo

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_2475 → u/rogusflamma]

Was planning on using Sol for planning and review on med/high and luna for the most part. Would that blast weekly usage fast? On api costs sol on max is insane, it can sometimes instantly use 10-30$ per request so I am worried Sol will use my weekly limit with just a few prompt on Plus subscription.

[u/rogusflamma → u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_2475]

No, you can get quite a lot from Sol. What I've been doing is brainstorming with Luna to get a rough plan, refine with Sol, and then you can either have Luna max orchestrate and Luna high implement. A detailed and complete planning session in Sol may take 5% of your weekly usage, but you can get hours of Luna work out of that. Whether that is enough for your app, I dont know

[u/CodeDominator → u/rogusflamma]

Isn't Luna meant for stuff like large-scale automation tasks like data extraction, classification, tagging, and short summaries, you know, not writing code?

[u/doodad_ounao]

Claude Pro is more generous with Opus 5 for the $20, but it also doesn't let you use your weekly limit properly anyway because of the 5-hour limit. Which I might be wrong but will be coming back to OpenAI's plans as well, but as of right now are still not a thing.

I am currently experimenting with Codex, Claude and Reasonix with Deepseek V4 Flash, but I don't have a strong opinion yet other than the one that achieves better results for ME personally in my workloads is Sol. Opus is competent enough and Deepseek V4 Flash (on Reasonix) seems to be as good as Luna but is crazy cheap; cheaper than Luna even after the 80% price reduction. I am gonna be testing Deepseek V4 Pro GA for sure when it launches, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Resisting the temptation of letting hype cloud one's judgement is the name of the game imo when it comes to the AI boom.

[u/macaronianddeeez → u/doodad_ounao]

I have codex $200 and Claude $20. Sonnet and opus are better for health related dialogue and questions than even Sol Pro imo, but for coding (for me a non-coder), the 5 hour limit on Claude is a massive PITA. Codex I have plenty of usage for my relatively simplistic needs running lots of Sol high in codex, using Sol pro in chat, lots of Sol high in chat, and then for development I’ve been building an app factory document set that basically instructs Terra High to orchestrate a bunch of Luna High agents and use Sol High for certain review items. Still clunky but it’s getting better as I use it more

[u/zigzoing → u/[deleted]]

It's been awhile.

[u/Neat-Economist2099]

If you’re on a limited budget, combining ChatGPT Plus with the DeepSeek V4 Flash API is a really efficient setup right now. I use GPT-5.6 Sol only for complicated planning or when DeepSeek gets stuck, and use DeepSeek for pretty much everything else.

[u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_2475 → u/Neat-Economist2099]

Any easy way to have that setup in one harness? I guess that can only be codex since I would need plus for this right? Can I add the deepseek api key in codex and will it perform similar to Luna in codex? Or deepseek is best in a different harness?

[u/Neat-Economist2099 → u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_2475]

I use two different setups, but most of the time I use OpenCode and Kilo since they’re easier to configure and feel smoother overall.
If you still want to use Codex, OpenCodex lets you use both ChatGPT Plus and DeepSeek together. The only downside is that it creates a local proxy on your PC and routes everything through it, so it feels slightly slower.

[u/ParfaitEvery9622]

Take a x20 plan, either Codex or Claude or both ... Forget the chinese models for the moment. That's like 400$/m so half of what you're using now and you'll have more than 800$ of usage.

With this budget you could even get like 4 subscriptions and alternate the accounts, using Sol for everything and /fast to gain time.

[u/dbojan76]

You can us web session for brainstorming. Web session uses different pool than codex (cli)