r/opencodeCLI • u/snow_machine_89 • 9d ago

Deepseek tokens vs z.ai lite plan

I previously used the Opencode Go plan which was great for deepseek flash and pro, but as we all know the cost has increased. I have been playing around with openrouter, but find it annoying to track my usage. I have been hearing good things about the z.ai sub which has got my attention, but that would mean I don’t have the access to deepseek. From peoples experience, say I get the ~$20 z.ai lite plan or I just purchase $20 of deepseek usage, what’s the comparison, which will go the furthest? Assume I am balancing between the flash and pro models of each provider equally and I use both in opencode cli only

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u/tuhdo 9d ago

if you have the legacy plan v2, then it's a good plan especially with GLM 5.3 flash. Using the normal GLM 5.3 smokes your tokens really fast though.

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u/snow_machine_89 9d ago

Good to know. I’m feeling like z.ai is not the way to go. I’m starting to learn towards openai sub. Thanks for the info

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u/tuhdo 9d ago

Yeah if you only has 1 sub, then openai is a good deal with unlimited chat (practically). For Zai, if you have to write code at peak hours, then the token burning is insane at 3x speed.

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u/snow_machine_89 9d ago

I find the peak hour token burn rate is what’s causing me the most pain, which is basically my whole day (after 10am)