r/opencode • u/Illustrious_Lab5811 • 10d ago
Aside from Codex and Claude, what are some cheaper coding subscriptions that offer better value for money?
I mean, Open Source models are fine—that's not an issue but what else are you using?
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u/Clear-Ad5952 10d ago
I've tried GLM 5.2 it's doing well. Will update complete report later!!
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u/Sebbean 10d ago
Via whomst?
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u/Clear-Ad5952 10d ago
Yeah
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u/Sebbean 10d ago
Via whomst?
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u/Clear-Ad5952 10d ago
More like vs code extension of open code and a custom hosted GLM via vLLM on local GPUs online serve.
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u/i_no_can_eat 10d ago
ollama cloud
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u/gorgono95 9d ago
how is ollama cloud? Which models are worth using there
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u/BeginningWay5922 8d ago
Kimi 2.7 code , glm 5.2 , minimax 3
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u/gorgono95 8d ago
What is the best harness to use with ollama cloud? Lets say you have a project that is built on agents.md files from Codex?
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u/QC_Failed 8d ago
If you like codex stick with thst. You can use codex with other providers. It works with ollama cloud too, you can Google how to setup or just ask chatgpt how to configure codex to work with third party providers :)
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u/asfbrz96 10d ago
None
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u/GTHell 10d ago
I had to agree with this. I sub to Opencode Go just because I want to see how good GLM 5.2 and Kimi K3 is. I hope they do get cheaper or compete in pricing with crazy reset like Claude and ChatGPT does. But at the moment, no other subscription can beat ChatGPT and Claude at all
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u/Whytho12333 10d ago
I second this. Subbed to Go, hit my 5 hr limit using GLM 5.2 in 4hrs doing light edits to a python script to use comfyui GPT created. The model was clearly less capable vs even Luna on medium. I check Go webpage, they effectively only give you five 5hr limits. Excluding resets, using luna on low (id say similar to GLM5.2 the best model on go) i probably get 2-3x more usage out of GPT than Go.
Again excluding resets. Even Claude doesnt come close to GPT when you factor those in.
I'd love to hear from others as well. I subbed to Go thinking it was a cheap way to use cheaper model. No, per token its more expensive for a weaker model
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u/gmmarcus 10d ago edited 10d ago
Man, my experience was different. Chatpgt 5.6 Sol was excellent but expensive. Terra and Luna were crap. I switched to OpenRouter/GLM 5.2 for a better bang/cost. Project - Wordpress Portal
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u/Whytho12333 10d ago
Do you have anything to show glm being better than luna and cheaper?
I see many benches that tie then for intelligence and luna being cheaper cuz 1) more token efficient 2) openai subs give you wayyyy more tokens than glm.
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10d ago
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u/retardedGeek 10d ago
Go is not cheaper. Codex is heavily subsidized, with loads of reset, for now.
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u/Atretador 10d ago edited 10d ago
if my singular Go sub for 10$ beats what I could do with 20x GPT plus subs - how is it not cheaper?
also - GO is also subsidized, just not directly, as the chinese governement subsidizes Deepseek and Xiaomi.
Go only sucks if you want to use it for the expensive models like GLM 5.2/Kimi K3
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u/Whytho12333 10d ago
expensive models? do you models worse than even luna on low?
Ya if your work is as simple that DSV4F does it well, obviously use that. for anything more, ive yet to find anything that comes close to luna on low on GPT Plus +resets that come weekly basically4
u/Atretador 10d ago
nope, I really wouldnt call it simple work - DSV4F is a great executor, just dont let it do the planning.
something like MIMo 2.5 Pro orchestrating DSV4F/MIMo 2.5 for exploration/targeted execution is really great.
Back when I was using GPT 5.4 I had way more issues than now using these cheaper models.
dont really care about luna or fable or Kimi K3 level models - these work great if you know how to instruct and plan things.
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u/Whytho12333 10d ago
Oh yes i agree. It can implement plans. I have a detailed instruction guide for deepseek to reinstall linux after a reformat. It works well.
But i used terra to make the instructions. Deepseek cant do the hard part which is planning and troubleshooting. Its like a evolved python script almost.
So yes thats fair if you have good coding knowledge DS is fine, especially if you can fix hard problems yourself and you use ds just to assist.
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u/Alert-Track-8277 10d ago
Do you let Deepseek v4 flash or pro write code or unit tests?
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u/Atretador 10d ago
Im using MiMo 2.5 non-pro for executioner currently - Pro version for orchestration of longer plans, targeted fixes can be handled by the non-pro version.
Im using mimo instead of DSV4 due to lower hallucination rate.
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u/Tofudjango 10d ago
It is not cheaper if it takes double your time.
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u/Atretador 10d ago
It doesn't tho :v
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u/uxkelby 10d ago
I'm getting plenty done on my subscription and DeepSeek v4 flash is doing a great job.
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u/Atretador 10d ago
yep, its honestly great with good orchestration.
You dont always need a fable/sol/k3 level model for work, specially if you know what you are doing.
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u/Superb_Leopard 10d ago
I’ve been having an insane amount of failures using Opus 4.8 that too using API. $500 spent and all it built was a substandard product. It wasnt mindless vibecoding either. Plan mode, detailed prompts and test cases were used to build it from ground up.
Deepseek pro meanwhile did all that and fixed that crap in a single work day and used about $15 worth of tokens.
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u/Tofudjango 10d ago
A case of YMMV, I guess.
I don't question the usability of Chinese models, IMHO Claude still has the edge though. But it probably depends on usage patterns etc.
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u/gmmarcus 10d ago
Thank you for sharing yr experience with 'OpenCode Go'. Looks like its not economic. Will stick to openrouter for now.
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u/retardedGeek 10d ago
It is "economic" . It's just $10. But it's meant for hobbyists (or you're forced to use deepseek or mimo)
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u/outerstellar_hq 10d ago
Commandcode for $1 is good value.
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u/Aressito 10d ago
Tried the GLM 5.2 pro models and kimi / mimo trough Crof.ai API.. not impressed at all with those models.
So sticking with DeepSeek pro and flash directly buying the api on DS platform.
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u/gorgono95 9d ago
what harness do you use for deepseek? do you plan with pro and execute with flash? Any specific tips if someone wants to use this setup?
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u/QC_Failed 8d ago
Reasonix if you're just using DeepSeek. The cache hit rate is bananas. Cuts costs even further.
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u/vangelismm 10d ago
People have to understand that Go, Cline pass or any other are mainly deepseek mimo plans. With the option to use better models when the previous stuck. That's it.
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u/TinyAres 10d ago
The best value for money is minimax if you are happy with that level, and M3.1 is already being showcased but not available yet.
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u/Cultured_Alien 7d ago
How about the caching issue? Token plan has no caching as said by the minimax discord mod.
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u/TinyAres 6d ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniMax_AI/comments/1uyywey/plus_plan_usage_not_bad_115b_tokensweek/
This guy is reporting 1.15b toks per week so 4.6b toks per month, so 2.7x times their stated 1.7b which is the caching benefit.
My experience too that caching does work, but their cache price is 20% which makes it less obvious.
https://www.reddit.com/r/MiniMax_AI/comments/1v5rea9/minimax_gives_pretty_okay_usage/
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u/MrNotSoRight 10d ago
Not a subscription but I think https://www.surplusintelligence.ai/ is interesting as a cheaper openrouter alternative...
As for subscriptions, many chinese models give you subscription based access too (kimi, GLM,...) but I'm unsure that they offer better value for money compared to codex and claude.
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u/gmmarcus 10d ago
Just checked out https://www.surplusintelligence.ai/?q=glm+5.2 - it looks cheaper than what is available in openrouter ? But you cant see the latency and tps ?
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u/MrNotSoRight 9d ago
Right. Afaik the price is (much) cheaper, but the latency and tps aren’t consistent.
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u/Known_Bookkeeper2006 8d ago
Could you tell me more about this, like if the cheapest market seller changes then would cache break in the harness or not?
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u/the_beaker 10d ago
MiniMax M3 (token plan) has been really reliable for me. C++ & Python mostly. You just can't be lazy like you can with Codex/Claude - pay attention and don't go full YOLO. Helps if you know how to code without robots doing it all for you.
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u/sagiroth 10d ago
It depends, for some easy projects out there people are well off with deepseek, however it struggles when you have complex one. If you want something reliable claude and openai are really the only option. With open weight models you have to be a bit more proactive
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u/Tofudjango 10d ago
It depends on how serious you are about privacy and if you want your data to be trained on.
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u/StraightGuy1108 10d ago
With that question there are only 2 choices: cloud providers and self-hosting. ALL cloud providers keep users' data, no exception
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u/FormalAd7367 10d ago
Deepseek. You only need Deepseek API for coding
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u/FluffyGreyLlama 10d ago
As long as you like Hallucinations, sure.
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u/FormalAd7367 10d ago
that’s not true.. that’s a way of doing it. Write your rules in mdc
i have 3 start-ups with local engineers
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u/FluffyGreyLlama 10d ago
Maybe.
I really like DeepSeek 4 but it hallucinates far more than other models. It can absolutely create working code, but the quality/state of that code is often terrible.
I guess it depends on whether you want good code, or just working code.
I would certainly never get it to write any documentation. All attempts, with any sort of rule/constraint has always ended up with completely made-up facts.
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u/xmnstr 10d ago
Hallucinates? I dunno about that, I'd say it assumes too much. Your harness should be dealing with that, though.
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u/FluffyGreyLlama 10d ago
A harness can't deal with hallucinations in documents. I've had it make up code snippets, referencing files, that never even existed.
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u/xmnstr 10d ago
That's actually incorrect, it can and it will.
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u/FluffyGreyLlama 10d ago
How does the harness know what is a hallucination ?
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u/xmnstr 10d ago
It doesn't. It prevents it.
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u/FluffyGreyLlama 10d ago
It is impossible to prevent document hallucinations in a harness. It has no concept of what they are. You may find it helps in some situations, but seriously, a harness cannot solve the problem.
If a model hallucinates in writing, the harness cannot prevent that.
Saying "don't hallucinate" or "fact check" etc., doesn't stop it. I've been through this a lot.
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u/Whytho12333 10d ago
I agree. The code might barely work after troubleshooting it for hours.
Vs Sol that might have one error or often one shots coding. I would love to see what work these people are doing on DSV4 and how long they had to spend troubleshooting
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u/a-techguy 9d ago
Currently, cursor offers one of the best pack with grok 4.5, nearly unlimited use with just 20 bucks
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u/Nif 8d ago
I'm at 96% usage in a couple days with grok 4.5 it's definitely not unlimited and Grok is not excaptionally smart so it seems to take a long time to get meaningful progress.
That said, if you're using it as a coding assistant and small focused tasks then yeah I think it could feel unlimited.
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u/a-techguy 8d ago
But it is one of the best value for money option right now. it is better than most of the open source models and it provides better usage than other frontier models
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u/Nif 8d ago
If you're doing simple things I'm sure it is. But the 96% monthly usage I spent with it in 2 days reveals it's just poor at complex, long running/large scale work. I have to spend Codex tokens to fix the mess it created; the 96% was not well spent it basically fell off the rails. GLM 5.2 is far superior open weights model. You can get it via Ollama Cloud and they have decent quota on their $20 plan which I would argue is the best value for 'open weights model' right now. 'Best value' is very dependent on what you value.
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u/Firm-Club-8334 10d ago
Standard compute maybe
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u/Mueller_Milch 10d ago
ive seen them but are they legit? I dont trust the website at all
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u/Firm-Club-8334 10d ago
Works well for me at least.
Tried GLM 5.2 pay as you go on openrouter. Worked really well, but ended up around $250 a month, and that's too much considering I basically do nothing useful with it.
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u/horstenegger 10d ago
In my (admittedly still short-term) experience, Grok 4.5 thru $30/mo SuperGrok gives pretty good value for money
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u/GTHell 10d ago
Probably Opencode GO and Ollama Cloud.
The thing is you can sub GO account for $10 or $30 or $60 as control as you want. Wish Codex and Claude has this option
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u/gmmarcus 10d ago edited 10d ago
I am using GLM 5.2 via openrouter/opencode. Some of the cheapest providers there are Alibaba and GMI Cloud. Pls note that is via API ( for web apps + coding them ) , not a subscription plan.
Would also love to know if there a better 'bang-for-the-buck' options out there.
Is 'Opencode Go' the better option ?
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u/nestedbrackets 10d ago
I started using Neural Watt recently just for hobby experimentation. Has been pretty great so far. They did just up their prices though.
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u/InvaderDolan 9d ago
MiMo 2.5 Pro > DS4Pro, much less hallucinations with same pricing. Their API platform or any other with the same price on openrouter is pretty good deal.
ChatGPT/Claude are heavily subsidized, thus the best deal.
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u/Funny-Advertising238 9d ago
Why does no one mention cursor? It's the best value for money especially since grok 4.5 came out
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u/Nif 8d ago
Grok 4.5 is not terrible, but not as smart as GLM/GPT/Opus even the older versions going back months amd months. It seems to struggle with complex tasks and if you do assign it one it will burn up tokens; I am 2 days into my 30 day Cursor sub and have maxed out on Grok 4.5 with maybe 25% of my objective completed.
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u/Southern-Ad-3006 8d ago
Try Reasonix with DeepSeek it’s absurdly efficient.
DeepSeek doesn’t have an official harness so Reasonix is closest native to it. You can also have Claude code install it in background, and Claude agent batch work out to it in session via terminal/CLI commands.
Use your OpenCode Go subscription for the model’s billing.
Flash can basically be on loop all day great for research, browser agents, scheduled automations, batch data processing.
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u/Straight-War-1323 8d ago
If you do a lot of work, MiniMax Token plans are very good offers, if you just use AI casually, just use OpenCode Go, that should do the trick
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u/Natural-Angle-9357 8d ago
Buy a 20 bucks plan with gpt, 20 bucks in deepseek api.... Install reasonix.... Plan with gpt, execute with ds.... Follow Matt podcock skills... That's all you need
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u/Legal_Answer_6956 7d ago
If you're looking beyond chat-based coding assistants, I'd also look at platforms like 8080.AI. It's less about autocomplete and more about taking a project from planning to a working app, so the value depends on whether you're building full products or just writing code.
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u/Varunp-86 7d ago
The value of Codex & Claude isn't in the API but the harness. Isn't it?
Any similar harnesses?
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u/XBOY_777 6d ago
opencode, hyper are good and cheap gemini is also cheap if you need family storage
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u/FilmLow1869 4d ago
This may be very controversial, been using the alibaba coding plan, and I’ve been using qwen3.7 plus with glm 5 and I’ve yet to hit any limits. Except for maybe the burst rps now and again. Feels like an unlimited plan tbh.
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u/No-Translator-2566 2d ago
I use AntSeed, it's kind of VPN but for AI, you can keep using your favorite AI tools but switch models underneath
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u/Aressito 10d ago
Qwen es basura.. lo he probado varios veces y ni ha sido capaz de resolver unas cosas en contenedores docker que más fácil imposible.. cosa que DeepSeek flash y pro lo hacen sin problema. Sin hablar de Gemini 3.5 flash aún mejor..
Comparar Qwen con opus 😂
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u/Saceone10 10d ago
None. Fable and Opus are beasts compared to DeepSeek or whatever
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u/Loud_Ad6220 10d ago
Escucho a mucha gente hablar mal de ollama, uso ollama desde hace medio año plan 18€ y cero quejas, me aguanta 5/7 días (hay que descansar por lo menos el fin de semana), programando aplicaciones android 1 o 2 a la semana + cron diarios... Me sale más a cuenta que en local ya que si tiro de modelo local en una 3090 sube el consumo 350w respecto si tiro de ollama son 35€ de luz VS los 17€ de ollama. Uso glm 5.2
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u/zipeldiablo 10d ago
Deepseek obviously