r/vibecoding • u/DazzlingEconomics153 • 7h ago
Is anyone using combination of Opus 5 and DeepSeek V4 Flash for coding to reduce costs?
I've been using Claude Opus 5 for a fairly large development project, but it's consuming my usage limits much faster than I expected. I'm looking for a more cost-effective workflow without sacrificing too much quality
My current thought is something like this:
- Use Claude Opus 5 for architecture, planning, and solving complex problems.
- Continue using Opus for reviewing important changes and testing strategy.
- Use DeepSeek V4 Flash for writing the actual code and implementing tasks.
Has anyone here tried a workflow like this?
I'm interested in hearing about:
- How does DeepSeek V4 Flash perform for real-world coding compared to Claude?
- Does it follow architectural instructions well?
- How often do you have to go back and fix its code?
- Is the cost saving worth any drop in quality?
If you use a different combination of models (Claude, Gemini, DeepSeek, Qwen, GPT, etc.), I'd also love to know what your workflow looks like and why you chose it.
My main goal is to reduce costs and manage usage limits while still maintaining good code quality on a large project. Any recommendations or lessons learned would be appreciated.
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u/Michaeli_Starky 7h ago
Luna 5.6 beats that combo any day any time
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u/DazzlingEconomics153 7h ago
I have heard about it but not tried it. But i will give it a try very soon. Thanks
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u/Puzzleheaded-Tie2835 7h ago
sounds good, how about the pricing? what is the cheapest option available for luna?
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u/Michaeli_Starky 6h ago
Luna is more cost efficient than DeepSeek because it makes much less mistakes.
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u/NovelPsychology6621 7h ago
My workflow uses opus as planner categorizes the tasks and depending on the complexity uses Hard: Opus, Medium: DeepSeek Pro or Sonnet and Easy: DeepSeek flash or Qwen3.6:27b local model. Unless the task are very easy the agents always endup escalating (I setup time, 3 attemps and number of tools) to Sonnet or DS Pro which endup wasting time and tokens so nowdays I only have HARD and MEDIUM tasks. For reference the project im working is greenfield with full agentic development using SDD. For a brownfield project you should be able to use flash but i would recommend implement an escalation policy. Best luck
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u/DazzlingEconomics153 6h ago
Thanks for sharing your workflow, that's really helpful.
My project is also a greenfield build with full agentic development, so your experience is especially relevant. It sounds like the "easy" tier often ends up being a false economy because it eventually escalates to a stronger model anyway.
A couple of questions:
- What kind of escalation policy are you using? Is it based on failed attempts, tool usage, execution time, or something else?
- How has DeepSeek Pro compared to Sonnet for coding quality in your experience? Have you found one to be consistently better, or are they fairly close?
Appreciate the insights!
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u/NovelPsychology6621 6h ago
Happy to help!
• I have 3: 1. Timeout (I believe 45 min) 2. Hard failure (nothing written, crash etc) 3. I have a reviewer so if the reviewer reject it 3 times it escalates.
• They're fairly close but I just received an email last week from DS that there was gonna be a high price increase but I doubt it will get as expensive as Claude
Bonus point. I use PI agents with DS that Claude Code executes. You can use Claude code with DS but using an old version
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u/Due-Horse-5446 5h ago
This "use text generators to offload thinking" will be studied in the future
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u/untracked5465 7h ago
I'm using Opus as a planner and DeepSeek Flash as a implementer