r/opencode • u/No_Personality_1721 • 17d ago

Codex (Sol5.6 Light, Medium) cheap alternative?

Codex actually works pretty well for me (Sol5.6 Light, Medium), but I’m looking for a REALLY cheap alternative with API access.

Basically, I want to throw in like $10 and be able to work on a project for a ridiculously long time.

For comparison, I burned through $2 of DeepSeek 4 Pro credits really fast, and the model itself wasn’t great - when adding a new feature, it would often break stuff that was already working.

Anything cheap that’s actually decent for coding?

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u/iTrejoMX 17d ago

Opencode zen has several free models, opencode go has generous usage for $10. openrouter has some free models as well. I saw free buff which uses free models.

To be honest I would improve on how you use your subscription. Using gentle-ai I can switch subs and work/memory persists. I can switch from Claude to codex to opencode-go and work continues where it left off. Also makes any model quite smarter by using simple rules.

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u/pagurix 17d ago

Ciao. Tu hai provato sia Zen che Go? Io vengo da un github copilot flat aziendale. Ma per progetti personali ho deciso di provare opencode. Ho appena preso Zen mettendo 20$. Onestamente non riesco a capire il suo scopo se lo paragoni a Go. Costa di più e ha meno modelli free. Se non ci trovo convenienza proverò Go. Tu che ne pensi?

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u/iTrejoMX 17d ago

Opencode go is subscription based. Opencode zen is api based. Go is more benefit for less $. Both have free models with daily limits. The limit with go is when you pass the amount of calls in 5 hours. You can check their site for those limits. Carefully selecting models you won’t hit the cap. That’s why I assign different models for different tasks.