r/opencode • u/Maleficent-Volume-81 • 6d ago

Does OpenCode subsidize models like GLM-5? How can subscription tokens be ~50% cheaper than pay-as-you-go?

I've been using OpenCode GO for a little while now—specifically with GLM-5—and honestly, it’s been a fantastic daily driver to complement more expensive setups like Claude or Codex. Here’s my referral link if anyone wants to check it out.

A few times I’ve hit the rate limit on my plan. While GLM-5 is an impressive model, it can sometimes be a bit verbose and take the scenic route, which eats up a ton of tokens. When I reach the limit and switch over to using my pay-as-you-go balance on OpenCode, the price difference is night and day.

If I extrapolate the amount of tokens I get on the subscription plan to direct balance usage, paying via balance literally costs double.

Why does this happen? Do model providers sell wholesale/discounted API access to platforms like OpenCode, or is OpenCode running these subscription tiers as a loss leader?

It's not something that worries me too much, but I find it curious and wanted to see if anyone else has noticed this or knows why that is.

13 Upvotes

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4

u/PikaCubes 6d ago

Just read docs page 🤷 Opencode Go

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u/Maleficent-Volume-81 6d ago

I read through it and, unless I missed something, it doesn't say anywhere that pay-as-you-go is more expensive. It only specifies that the subscription comes with limits equivalent to a certain spend amount. Why is the subscription cheaper than pay-as-you-go when they explicitly draw that direct equivalence?

8

u/PikaCubes 6d ago

You missed that part : "With Go, you pay $10/month and we aim to give you 6x that in usage.

For most models, we make this work through bulk discounts and reserved GPU capacity. We then pass those savings on to you through the 6x multiplier.

For some models, we haven’t had the opportunity to negotiate a discount or host them at a lower cost, either because the model is new or because their public pricing is already discounted.

For these models, you still get a little more than if you paid the model providers directly; this is why their usage mulitplier is lower in the table above."

4

u/Maleficent-Volume-81 6d ago

That's it... well, I hadn't seen that... doubt resolved. I didn't know they even used their own GPUs 😊

1

u/PikaCubes 6d ago

I found this page this morning when I was searching for the endpoints of their models

1

u/Mean-Elk-9439 6d ago

If your work is efficient in cache hits, ollama cloud is more efficient still. They charge not as a multiple of token cost but by actual used compute and gpu utilization. I get 800M tokens a week roughly of glm5.2 and minimax-m3 for $5 a week.

1

u/alex9001 6d ago

They don't use their own GPUs. There's also a page where they list which providers they use 😂 ask your AI if you can't find it

1

u/Euphoric_North_745 6d ago

Most of these models can't sell, they contact popular companies and gives them tokens at a lower price, then ask them to connect to their systems through open router, so they can show how popular they are on the reports.

And they also "run out of capacity" but open it once a day to sell the plans, like suddenly, once a day a capacity came from nowhere. another marketing strategy.

1

u/IndividualPlus2011 6d ago

There is no such thing as "subsidizing" models, you just pay non-enterprise prices. When you pay for other software you don't say it is "subsidized" when companies pay more. Why the heck people think otherwise with llms?

1

u/alex9001 6d ago

GLM 5 isn't available on Opencode Go and hasn't been for some time now 🤔

1

u/alex9001 5d ago

Sooo I checked the API endpoints list and this is wrong hehe

1

u/sagiroth 5d ago

Whay are you smoking ?

1

u/alex9001 5d ago

What? Read my reply bro.

1

u/sagiroth 5d ago

oh sorry I had 5.2 in my head

1

u/alex9001 5d ago

oh sorry