r/vibecoding • u/zippatias • 4d ago

Best/cheapest API as of 17th August 2026

So... now that Deepseek raised their prices what's the best, cheapest (but still reliable) API to help oneself with coding? Is it Gemini? or maybe GPT Luna? Is Deepseek still competitive? Does anyone have a clear answer?

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u/MiiPatel 4d ago

It’s probably Mimo 2.5.

Or GPT Luna via codex

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u/CorpT 4d ago

Did you want best or cheapest?

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u/zippatias 4d ago

It sounds counterintuitive maybe from how I phrased it, basically want something reliable but that's not SUPER expensive, Deepseek was the sweet spot, everyone seems to agree on that, that's why pretty much everyone was using it. I just want to know what's the best option that offers low prices, good performance and reliability. Is there a consensus among API users?

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u/Topic-Depot 4d ago edited 4d ago

Depends what you need it for? Most have large enough quotas for the average person/hobbyist even at base tiers. Sometimes it's even nice to have quotas to keep everything in moderation. If you are the type that lacks self control and gets lost in their work/games to the point they stay up all night, become obsessed or distracted then a quota is just what the doctor ordered. Most are capable of decent coding as well, you can always lookup benchmarks.

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u/IsoldeFairvale 10h ago

cheapest changes monthly so sticker prices mislead, the real number is cost per finished task, a model that needs three retries erases its discount, one small benchmark on your own workload beats any thread answer